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Season Wrap Up

Like most of the NL West, the Padres had a disappointing 2008 season going 63-99, the third worst record in baseball last season! Who would have thought that the Giants would finish higher than San Diego at Spring Training last year? I for one did not even think it possible. Granted, 2008 saw injuries to SP Chris Young and C Josh Bard and SS Khalil Greene (now in St. Louis), but a 63 and 99 record goes beyond the injuries. The Giles brothers had a bad season as well as Greene (when healthy) and others. It must have been miserable to watch.

Holes to Fill

They need a starting catcher as Nick Hundley would make a fine back up and a second baseman to replace Marcus Giles and possibly a new SS to replace the recently traded Greene. But the most glaring need is for help in the rotation behind Peavy and Young (3rd/4th/5th starters) as well as a legitimate closer to replace Trevor Hoffman.

Free Agents

SP Charlie Haeger (25), SP Clay Hensley (29) who was signed by Houston to a Minor League contract, RP Trevor Hoffman (41, a type A Free Agent) and SP Mark Prior (28). It is a known fact that they will not bring back Hoffman, the closer with the most saves in the history of the stat. They will not miss Haeger, but with the current status of their pitching rotation, they should look into retaining Prior. They should look towards signing SP’s Tony Armas Jr., Paul Byrd, Josh Fogg, Tim Readding or Jon Garland (to name a few) to fill in the obvious holes in the rotation. Then maybe Paul Bako, Gregg Zaun, Paul Lo Duca or Pudge Rodriguez at catcher and either Chris Burke, Orlando Hudson or Ray Durham at 2B. Then maybe they’ll consider Orlando Cabrera, David Eckstein or Alex Cora at SS to replace Greene.

The Outlook

It doesn’t look too good if you ask me, if I were Peavy, I’d start to add more teams to the list of acceptable trade destinations. They should definately improve upon their 2008 record as they aren’t really that bad, but I’m not so sure they’ll get over .500 either. It will take them a few years at best before they get competitive again in the NL West. My condolenses go out to our good friend Geoff over at Ducksnorts.com.

Off Season Moves Made So Far

They exercised the 2009 option on OF Brian Giles in November. Then in December, they acquired RHP Mark Worrell and a player to be named later from the St. Louis Cardinals for SS Khalil Greene; then selected INF Everth Cabrera from the Colorado Rockies and RHP Ivan Nova from the New York Yankees in the Rule 5 Draft and signed OF Jody Gerut to a one-year contract.

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