By Mile High Mouth
BaseballBigMouth.com baseball news

Lately, I’ve had one team on my mind.  The San Diego Padres.  I’ve been working a lot so I haven’t had time to write about baseball (or do much else), but every time baseball crosses my mind the next thought to follow is “I wonder what the Padres are going to be like this year?” I’ve been looking them over, and I’m happy to say that I don’t think the Padres will disappoint this year.  However, I want to finish on an up note.  So I’ll talk about where I think they’re weak first. 

The batting department of the Padres, based on last year’s numbers seem a bit on the weak side.  Gonzales’s 100 RBIs aside, the Padres really need their bats to come alive in the NL West this season.  The good news?  Jim Edmonds has been training for this season like never before.  No, really.  He’s never trained like this before.  Apparently, Edmonds has spent his off-season going through a hardcore workout with a member of the L.A. County Sherriff Department’s SWAT team.  No, I am not making this up.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Apparently, this is such an intense workout that most guys give up after the third time, but Edmonds apparently enjoyed the rigor.  Will it pay off?  San Diego is hoping so. 

The strongest part of the Padres this season is undoubtedly their pitching. Specifically, their rotation is strong.  Of the five man rotation, four of them have a winning record from last season, and if they don’t have a strike out record that ranks in the high double digits it just means they’ve moved on to triple digits.  They do have something of a question mark with Mark Prior.  Although still a Cub, Prior spent the 2007 season (that is the portion where he wasn’t recovering from surgery) in Iowa instead of Chicago, and outraged the Chicago press while making the sarcastic comment that he was “just an employee” to the Cubbies.  Shortly after, Prior had surgery that had him sidelined for the rest of the season.  The Padres picked him up for 2008.  Hopefully, he’ll come back with a stronger arm, and maybe a more supportive club/fan base.  Loyal fans don’t always make good fans.  Trust me. 

So what does all of this mean for the Padres and the NL West?  It means good times I think.  I had originally picked the D-Backs as the team to beat in the NL West, and they might still be.  However, the Padres seem to have the numbers to put up a good fight in 2008.  The only thing the D-Backs have that San Diego doesn’t is the taste of the 2007 Post-Season in their mouths.  It could be that finishing third last year will make the Padres all the hungrier in 2008.  And that’s how I’m calling it.  I think San Diego will be the team to beat in the NL West this year.  And if the Chargers and the Padres get their acts together…..look out Boston….there could be a new double dynasty on the map.

- Mile High Mouth

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Baseball preview, Baseball Hotstove, Baseball News and Views, Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.