The biggest flaw of the Padres bullpen, and perhaps the team overall, is an inexplicable lack of left handed pitching.  The team allowed Alan Embree, their only reliable bullpen lefty last season, to sign as a free agent with Oakland.  The Padres replaced him by sending John Adkins and minor league outfielder Ben Johnson to the Mets for Royce Ring, a pitcher with a total of 23 major league innings under his belt.  Other than Wells and Ring, the only other lefty with major league experience on the Padres roster is Justin Hampson, a pitcher whose entire major league career consists of 12 innings last season with the Rockies.  That means the Padres will likely enter the season with a total of 35 innings of left-handed experience in their bullpen.  It’s possible that the Padres right-handers will prove to be effective enough against left handed hitters.  It’s possible the Padres will go out and trade for a veteran lefty at some point during the season.  It’s even possible the team will elect to bring back 70 year-old Jesse Orosco. Nevertheless, in the National League, where matchups are so important, their lack of a proven left-handed reliever is a big concern.

Another concern for the Padres is the top-to-bottom lack of pop in their lineup.  In the offseason general manager Kevin Towers did little to improve a lineup that last season ranked 26th in all of baseball in runs and 23rd in OPS.  The Padres return only two hitters who hit over .300 last season, and one of them, 28 year-old catcher Josh Bard, was a career .260 hitter before he batted .338 in 93 games last season.  

That means a heavy load will fall on the shoulders of first basemen Adrian Gonzalez, the Padres other .300 hitter. Gonzalez, the #1 overall pick in 2000, finally had his breakout year last season when he batted .304 and led the team with 22 homers.  This season Gonzalez will have to improve on those numbers in order to carry a team whose outfield consists of the aging Brian Giles, the strikeout prone Mike Cameron, and the unproven Terrmel Sledge.  The Padres need Gonzalez to be the catalyst for their lineup, and they need him to do it with less protection than Britney Spears’ scalp.

The Padres did make one offseason splash geared towards shoring up their offense.  The team sent 24-year-old second basemen Josh Barfield to the Indians for third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff and minor-league pitcher Andrew Brown.  The team hopes Kouzmanoff, who last season hit .379 with 22 homers between AA and AAA, will solidify a third base position that was a revolving door last season for the likes of Vinny Castilla, Mark Bellhorn, Geoff Blum, Russ Branyan, and Todd Walker.  Kouzmanoff should be an improvement, especially considering that the aforementioned five players routinely whiff like Pedro Cerrano the first time he saw a curve ball.  To replace Barfield, the team signed Marcus Giles from the Braves.  Giles’ numbers have slipped over the years as injuries have caught up with him, but he is a solid #2 hitter and should be an adequate replacement for Barfield.

Defensively, the Padres are unspectacular but adequate.  Cameron and Gonzalez are both Gold Glove caliber defenders, and while Marcus Giles and shortstop Khalil Greene lack range, they aren’t liabilities as middle infielders.  The Achilles Heel of the defense is catcher Josh Bard.  Bard threw out only 17% of base stealers last season, a number that makes Paul Lo Duca look like Ivan Rodriguez, and makes things more difficult on Padre pitching with runners on base.  Off the bench, Geoff Blum can play all four infield positions and Jose Cruz Jr. is an excellent defensive outfielder.

During an offseason in which the Dodgers and the Giants broke the bank to sign top-flight starters Jason Schmidt and Barry Zito, San Diego GM Kevin Towers elected to stand pat and head into 2007 with relatively the same team as 2006.  Towers’ belief is that the way to get this Padres team to the World Series was not to land a big free agent, but rather to make a few small moves, hire a new manager, and hope for timely hitting.  

That will put the pressure on San Diego’s young hitters, Gonzalez, Kouzmanoff, and Greene.  The NL West should be a season-long dogfight between the Padres and the improved Dodgers, and it will be up to the offense to give the excellent pitching staff enough run support.   If Gonzalez, Kouzmanoff, Greene, and the Giles brothers can make the Padres a dangerous offensive team, there’s no telling how far they can go.  Bud Black certainly does not have it easy, but if he plays his cards right, he might just get the Padres that playoff series victory they’ve been looking for.

 2006: 88-74 (1st in NL West, lost to Cardinals in NLDS)