You typically can’t write off a baseball team 15 games into the season.
The 2012 San Diego Padres are an exception. You can close the door on their season now.
No need to wait until May to rule them out of the National League West race. The Padres already need a telescope to find the top of the division and trail the Los Angeles Dodgers by 8 1/2 games.
The Padres are going nowhere and have the worst record in the majors at 3-12 after Friday’s loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. The start equals the poorest in franchise history, accomplished three previous times (1974, 1987 and 1994).
The on-field product is even more of a mess than the team’s ownership issues, which is really saying something.
It was almost comical when play-by-play announcer Dick Enberg said the following during the ninth inning of Friday’s 4-1 loss.
“The Phillies just don’t allow any runs,” Enberg uttered.
If team broadcasters were allowed to be honest, there would have been more to that sentence.
“… And the Padres just don’t score any.”
San Diego is batting just .211 and has scored 49 runs with its anemic offense and some of the lineup parts are laughable.
Why a guy like second baseman Orlando Hudson is even on a team like this makes zero sense. There is a reason why the O-Dog was with his fourth different team in four years when he joined the Padres last season (he was on the Diamondbacks in 2008, the Dodgers in 2009 and the Twins in 2010).
Teams that employ him tend to feel they can find a better option and the Padres will be no different. The fact that the notoriously cheap franchise is paying Hudson $5.5 million this season is downright scary.
Hudson had injury issues last season and batted a career-low .246 while playing in just 125 games. Then during spring training prior to this season, Hudson suffered a groin injury and has gotten out of the gate slow.
Hudson is batting .156 through Friday’s game and you have to question why a team going nowhere fast is penciling in his name on the lineup card. The Padres are no place for a 34-year-old in decline mode.
The Padres need to cleanse their roster of Hudson sooner rather than later.
A 28-year-old journeyman named Jose Guzman is the cleanup hitter. Guzman drove in his 51st career run on Friday. He’s better known for being the guy who bunted into a triple play in last Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Yes, he and the Padres got a raw deal from home-plate umpire Dale Scott on the disputed play. But what legitimate major-league baseball team calls on their cleanup hitter to bunt with two on and none out in a tie game in the ninth inning?
Guzman is batting .188 with seven RBIs this season. As you might expect, he hasn’t homered. He has five in his major-league career.
Yep, you can count all the career homers of San Diego’s cleanup batter on one hand. Sounds more like a mess.
Batting fifth against the Phillies was catcher Nick Hundley, who would bat ninth in some American League lineups. Hundley is batting .175.
The Padres awarded center fielder Cameron Maybin with a five-year, $25 million deal during spring training and the newfound security isn’t aiding his bat. Maybin is batting .167 and has struck out 20 times in just 54 at-bats.
San Diego has just nine homers and four of them have come from third baseman Chase Headley. Yep, the same guy who the Padres have avoided giving a long-term contract to thus far due to his established lack of power.
Got to feel for manager Bud Black, who is one of the true first-class people in all of baseball.
So you figure things can’t get worse, right? Well, not only have the Padres lost 13 straight home games to the Phillies, but they will be facing Roy Halladay on Saturday.
You can issue the first no-hitter alert about three hours before game time.
Yeah, this season is already over – before it really even began.
MrSportsBlog 