the sub-.500, playoff-bound PADRES thread

I admit that Carpenter vs. Peavy would be interesting, but all of the 2-5 pitchers in the Cardinals' rotation have better stats than any one else in SD other than Peavy.

SD pitches in a severe pitchers' park and their team ERA is 4.24. The Padres recently signed Chan Ho Park off waivers for starting depth and he delighted them with a 6.41 ERA and 1.68 WHIP in 8 starts (5 of which were at home), a performance not equalled until Burroughs' 75mph gas last night.

If Peavy can stay healthy and pitch all 5 games for SD, you may be on to something. Otherwise it's gonna be golf in La Jolla come October week 2.

No, we traded Phil Nevin for him. I mean, signing him off waivers would at least just be taking a flier on a guy. We actually traded a reasonably good player (who has sucked this year) who can play 3b, 1b and c. Horrible trade, whether it makes fiscal sense or not.

OMG they have Manny Alexander! If the batboys get arrested for holding, the cops know where to go!

Or Peavy pitches and wins twice, and the Padres get lucky in a third game where the Cards starter melts down and the game ends 10-8 in one of those playoff clusterfucks where anyone can fluke out a win. This is why I don't like best of five series.

Please elaborate more on why their chances are so fine to take care of the Cardinals in the first round.

So, something like:

Peavy
Eaton
Woody
Astacio (or Lawrence)
Peavy

... and the Pads most definitely have a shot. Assuming someone can hit the damn ball (besides Giles & Roberts).

Well, that's my point -- they aren't, and can still win a 5-game series, as DR outlines. Their chances ain't "fine," but way above nil -- much like the '73 Mets against the Big Red Machine.

I'd love to see LaRussa overmanage his way outta this, since it looks like I'm rooting for the AL team in the Series unless it's the Yanks or Angels.

Poly, be happy your boys cut bait on Philbo when they did. Dude's injury-prone, one-dimensional (if he "plays" catcher, then I can "play" a harpsichord), overpaid, and entering the ass end of his career. Getting Chan Ho Pork for ANYBODY is a bad trade, tho.

I don't see any reason to be happy that we traded a bad player for a terrible player. Getting rid of him certainly didn't make our offense any worse, but letting Chan Ho Park pitch has definitely been a huge problem, way bigger than anything Nevin did. Park is taking starts away from the Stauffers and Sweeneys of the world, who aren't world beaters but certainly could pitch better than Chan Ho Park.

Anyway I always have hated him so I'm glad he's gone, but couldn't we have traded him for like a box of baseballs or some chaw or anything but Chan Ho Park?

Ponson hasn't played since August 7th. I wish I could say the same about Chan Ho.

Like Burroughs? (fnar)

I think the extra round of playoffs makes it a bit less likely that a team like the Padres would win it all, but they do get the five game opening series where anything could happen. It seems the wild card teams have benefitted from getting the extra playoff spot more than the weak division winners.

I like the extra playoff series. If I could have a baseball wish, I'd like to see how playoff series would have played out in the 70s & 80s with the expanded four team format.

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The San Diego Padres' timing couldn't have been worse.

Trying to whip up playoff fever, Padres officials unveiled a magic number countdown at Petco Park on Wednesday and announced details of the public sale of playoff tickets, should they hold on and win the NL West.

Trouble is, it came less than 24 hours after one of the worst losses in team history.

``There are a lot of people who would say, 'Gee, aren't you superstitious, why would you start a countdown after a loss of 20-1 in Colorado?' `` Padres CEO Sandy Alderson said. ``I think obviously you have to put that loss in perspective. We won some terrific, very exciting games over the last week. One can always pick out a game to reinforce a particular point of view.''

Unfortunately for the Padres, Tuesday night's loss reinforced what a struggle this season has been. It dropped them to 75-75 and cut their lead to five games over Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants.

It got so bad that manager Bruce Bochy had third baseman Sean Burroughs -- a former Little League World Series star -- pitch the eighth inning. He allowed four hits and three runs, including Matt Holliday's foul-pole homer.

It was Burroughs' first pitching appearance since his senior year in high school.

The Padres matched the most lopsided loss in franchise history.

San Diego's magic number for clinching the division remained at eight. The team has a countdown sign on the upper balcony of the Western Metal Supply Co. brick warehouse just beyond the left-field corner at Petco Park.

``The magic number of eight is not a magic number of zero,'' Alderson said. ``There's a long way to go between now and the end of the season.''

After finishing the four-game series at Colorado, the Padres play three weekend games at Arizona before finishing at home with four games against the Giants and three with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

``If we can get past the notion that we won't win 90 or 95 games, I think we're going to have a tremendously exciting time here in San Diego, if we do take advantage of this opportunity and win the division,'' Alderson said.

``I don't think anybody expected that the Padres would lose 20-1 last night, but I don't think anybody expected us to win 8-5 after being down 5-0 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, either,'' he said, referring to Saturday night's comeback against the Washington Nationals. ``But that's the beauty of the game.''

If the Padres do clinch the NL West, the first two games of their best-of-five division series will be on the road. Game 3 will be at Petco Park on Oct. 8, and Game 4, if necessary, would be the next day.

The Padres will put approximately 10,000 seats for each potential home playoff game on sale on Oct. 1.

20-1. By the Rockies, the worst team in the NL.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/gifs/nlwestwins.gif

But I bet right now the Cardinals organization is quivering in their boots, glued to the plasma watching the 2nd near-shutout that the Rockies (AT COORS!!!) have thrown against the Padres in 3 days*.

*and let's not forget that 1-0 shutout that the Rockies threw against SD a few months ago that set the record for lowest scoring game in Coors Field history.

The Padres remind me of last year's Twins... Johan Santana and then hope the amazing bullpen can win the rest of the games. But amazing bullpens don't tend to be quite so amazing in the playoffs... I remember what happened the last time Trevor Hoffman pitched in a World Series game. The ball is somewhere in the Bronx.

Another problem is that last year's Twins had a much better offense than the Pads, a much better defense, and have actually improved offensively since then. The Padres show little room for improvement. They need an influx of talent, or this cute little window of competitiveness is over.

The Beavers finished just under .500 and were 3rd to last in Runs Scored!!!

"All you have to be is one game over .500 in every round of the playoffs," he said.

I was wearing my Padres shirt yesterday and a woman stopped me on the sheet and said there was a recent jeopardy question about “the only baseball team that the name of the team and their city don’t have any English words”

Sand is a word ;)

think an argument can be made that neither philadelphia nor phillies are english words