Living in the Panhandle of Texas, you mainly hear about the Texas Rangers or Houston Astros if you're a causal baseball fan. In fact, if you don't live on the west coast, then you aren't hearing about baseball's best kept secret. The San Diego Padres.
Most people will say San Diego will eventually crumble to the exceptional pitching and fiesty bats of the San Francisco Giants, but for right now, that's not the case.
The Padres are off to an early 1.5 game lead in the NL West with Jon Garland heating up on the mound. Garland (3-2) has pitched a few gems in his last three starts. His overall ERA is 2.06. He has only struck out 23 in his six starts, but his defense has had his back and he's not giving up runs. All of this while starting pitcher Chris Young is on the DL.
In addition to that, the Padres are dead last in batting average in the NL west, 19th in MLB (.249). The Dodgers, Giants, D-Backs and Rockies (in that order) all have higher team batting averages.
You might ask how they're hanging in there? They find ways to win with solid, not great, but solid pitching, good defense, and they drive in runs when guys are on base. Plus the sweet camo gear isn't hurting their cause...
I'm not saying the Padres are going to the playoffs, but I am saying give respect where it's due. These guys were picked to finish in the cellar of the NL west. Who knows? Maybe the wild card will go through San Diego this year. We'll get a better barometer on the Padres in the next week when they open up sets against SF and the Dodgers.
Just remember whent his becomes the most popular sports blog in the nation that it was Greg Collier who made the first comment, making this entire website legit. Good stuff by the way man, checked out some of your stuff at that news station your at, keep up the good work
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