The Padres 2-8 Start, Cause For Concern? XTRA Roundtable

XTRA Roundtable

The Padres 2018 season hasn't had the best start.  The XTRA 1360 staff weighs on the first ten games of the 2018 Padres season. Who's worried - who's not.  


Judson Richards - Two things that are most concerning about the Padres 2-8 start: First and foremost, the Padres very quickly became an injury riddled team, with a club that is already remarkably thin. Dinelson Lamet has had an elbow issue, and Will Myers hit the DL after five games with a nerve issue in his arm. With the importance of good starting pitching, and this teams desperate need for offense, these two cannot have an injury plagued season. 

Second, the Padres play the next ten games against divisional opponents. If they do not get on the good foot with upcoming games against COL, SF, and LA, their sluggish start, if it continues for the next week and a half, could be one that they may spend the rest of the season trying to overcome.

Rich Ohrnberger - People overreact, that’s what we do!! The Padres having a tough stretch through 10 games in a MLB season is NOT a big deal. To lend some perspective, here is what 10 games looks like when applied to other sports/activities:

  • A single NFL game
  • An hour of your day
  • 5 errant strokes on a golf course (shooting par)
  • 15 minutes of traffic on a 4 hour drive
  • 1/2 a slice of pizza (out of a pie)

If they lost ALL TEN games there is still no need to panic. Let’s all take a deep breath and realize, it’s a long season.

...OK ...maybe the pizza thing would be a real problem for me... but you get what I’m saying.

Mark Willard - Ever get the company email that an “upgrade” is about to take place? That word is aimed at long-term success, but often means temporary discomfort is coming first.  That’s what happens during any transition, which is exactly what the Padres are going through.  We should have expected some bumps out of the gate as Andy Green figures out which major league players will fit where.  Last year, he only had about 3 or 4 major league players in his lineup, so it didn’t matter as much.  This year, he’s got an actual roster.

I’m still not sure if this actual roster is anything better than mediocre, but we’re not supposed to know yet.  It’s April.  You don’t judge a baseball team after 10 games the same way you don’t judge a football team after 1 game.

Steve Hartman - Ten games does not make a season. Let me repeat. TEN games does not make a season. The Padres 2-8 record looks bad but a deeper look into their statistics shows promise for the immediate future.

The biggest concern going into the season was starting pitching but the weekend series in Houston showed more promise than concern. The hitting will improve. So will the Padres record.

Mike Costa - Okay, 2 and 8 start for the Padres. Hey. It’s not 0-10, you know? I am not bummed or pulling what little hair I have left, out of my head. I wasn’t expecting major fireworks early on nor am I anticipating them throughout the season. They are a team searching for pieces and looking to the future. Some guys have been pleasant surprises, i.e. Freddie Galvis and even Tyson Ross. Ross has shown there is still something there and only 2 starts into the season I am not writing him off. Eric Hosmer has to get hot, as do a number of guys. But I’m not down in the dumps over the Friars.

We have been asked to trust the terribly cliché’d “process.” So I am going to. I know there is talent on the farm, and there is talent on the club now. It’s matter of time, and I am willing to give it time. I think Andy Green is the right guy to manage this club, and I do believe in GM AJ Preller. The question is, does ownership? I think they do, and are willing to put up with a few seasons of mediocre ball to see it all come to fruition in a few seasons. Can the die-hard Padres fan? We’ll see as the season goes along.

Jon Schaeffer - I don't think it's time to panic but here's my biggest reason for concern -- the Padres are just 1-7 in games decided by three runs or less after going five games over .500 in such games a year ago. So while the Padres had the worst run differential in baseball last year (-212 runs), they still managed to win 71 games because of the strength of their bullpen, specifically all-star reliever Brad Hand (2.16 ERA, 21 saves). This year's team should have a much better run differential but that alone does not guarantee more wins if they aren't able to win close games. There's no question that the addition of Eric Hosmer will make the Padres offense better but ultimately I think the success of this team will come down to how their young starting rotation holds up. If youngsters like Joey Lucchesi and Bryan Mitchell are able to stay injury-free and hold their own at the big league level, I still think that the Padres can win 75 games or so. And even if they don't flirt with the .500 this year, the abundance of youth that's littered throughout the Padres system has the franchise heading in the right direction.

Brendan Kennealy - The Padres are slightly worse than I was expecting to start the season. With the adrenaline of regular season baseball back I was expecting at least one victory in the opening series against a revamped Brewers team. Next, I thought the Padres could have at least come away with a series split against Colorado, but the bats just were not timely enough, especially in the series finale where the Padres didn't scratch a run across until the Manuel Margot home run in the ninth. Honestly, the Padres played their best baseball of the season when they traveled to play the Astros in Houston over this past weekend. Although they only went 1-2 in the series, the Padres showed flashes of being able to hang in there against the MLB's finest clubs.

My biggest takeaway from the first 10 games is the impact that Freddy Galvis has both on offense and in the field. He seems to always have a knack of knowing exactly where the ball is going while in the field, and he gets on base with ease at the dish. Obviously the biggest standout performance so far was Christian Villanueva's three-home run game against Colorado, but on the opposite side of the spectrum Margot and Austin Hedges have really disappointed me. It was assumed that Margot was to turn the page and be a cornerstone star for the team, but a .135 batting average so far will not cut it. Better days are to come, and hopefully it can start with the 10-game stretch against NL West teams on the upcoming schedule.

Photo: Getty Images


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content