| Christopher Reina. 8th April, 2008 - 1:26 pm
 The Padres are off to a fast start in 2008 and not surprisingly on the backs of tremendous starting pitching.
1. Adrian Gonzalez On The Road
For his career, Gonzalez has slugged .529 on the road and .446 at Petco Park. In his first road at bat in 2008, Gonzalez took Matt Cain to left-center for a two-run first inning home run. Cain tried to go back to the same place (low and away, but not low and away enough) he got Brian Giles out to lead off the game; Gonzalez just hit it about 25 feet further. This home run is a likely warning track out at Petco Park as the deep gaps make life difficult on the very good opposite-field hitter Gonzalez.
Gonzalez went 4-for-5 for the day, putting great wood on the ball in every at-bat and looks poised for a big season, especially away from San Diego.
2. Starters Are Unhittable, Relievers Aren't
Through their first eight starts, the Padres' pitching staff has been even more dominant than advertised.
Jake Peavy, 0.56 ERA
Greg Maddux, 2.77 ERA
Chris Young, 2.13 ERA
Justin Germano, 0.00 ERA
Randy Wolf, 1.50 ERA
Peavy has 12 K's in 16 innings, Young has 11 in 12.2, and Maddux has eight in 13.0.
Their bullpen, however, has been downright horrible and has Bud Black quickly aging in his second season as skipper of the Friars.
Trevor Hoffman, 12.27 ERA
Enrique Gonzalez, 15.43
Joe Thatcher, 22.50 ERA
Glendon Rusch, 10.80 ERA
Only Clay Meredith has been effective, throwing 3.2 innings of scoreless work.
In meaningless work on Monday, Gonzalez yielded three ninth inning runs to the Giants.
Last season, 28.9% of the batters Hoffman faced reach base, and seven of the 18 this season have reached base.
3. Edmonds And Iguchi Producing But For How Long
Tad Iguchi is hitting .333/.371/.424 and is knocking the ball hard up the middle. Jim Edmonds is hitting .308/.308/.308, with his four singles in 13 at bats.
Marcus Giles is currently out of baseball after backing out of his minor league deal with the Dodgers.
Mike Cameron is serving his 25-game suspension before joining a Milwaukee team that has had little problem scoring runs without him.
Edmonds finished 2007 strongly (.471 slugging in August, .458 in September), but it is difficult to expect consistency (especially home runs and extra base hits) from a 38-year-old throughout a long season.
He has a tough time turning around on inside pitches now and gets that pull lift now later through the zone and taking fly balls to left field. The Padres got him for virtually nothing (David Freese), so he's a low-risk stopgap while the organization waits for a Cedric Hunter or Will Venable to emerge.
- Christopher Reina is the executive editor of RealGM and the creator of the Reina Value. |
