“Padres–A Fiasco”

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They look lost, though if you look hard, you can find them down towards the lower part of the National League West standings.

Slugger shortstop-turned-righfielder Fernando Tatis, will be here by Thursday.  They need him to be their savior, be their catalyst, be their lead off man.

Tatis unpacked his bag in the Padres clubhouse, the one that contained hit hot bats, his new right field glove, and a (.515) batting average during his PCL rehab run.

Do they need him, his talent, his energy, maybe his leadership levels.

Hard to believe this (253M) Padres payroll has given us an (8-11) team.

Has given us one of the lousy offenses in the National League.

Has given us a slumping Manny Machado, off to his worst start of his career, with his batting average sitting at (.230) as of Wednesday morning.

This season’s start has given us the mystery of the lost talent of Juan Soto, who has a (.175) batting average.

It’s like a case of flu spreading around the clubhouse.  Everyone seems infected in the batting order.

Trent Grisham (.224)…Jake Cronenworth (.210)…Ha Kim (.224)…Matt Carpenter (.152)…Austin Nola (.115)..Rougned Odor (.115.)

Strikeouts, failures with runners in scoring positions, a power outage.

Who could ever imagine this team would go 25-innings without a run?  A losing binge that has seen them lose games early to bad teams, then get choked off by two of the top teams in the NL-East.

Early in the season, of course it is, but this team shows no confidence at the plate, and no leadership in the lineup.

For all the smart guys in that dugout, from Bob Melvin, to this year’s hitting coach, to all the metric guys upstairs, the franchise cannot come up with a batting order that produces.

No one has the belief Soto is technically flawed?  Something is not right in that batters box.  He’s not getting good swings.  Yes there are walks, an odd home-run, but no consistency to his game.  How does a (.290) hitter in Washington, hit   (.214) since he came to San Diego, and no one can figure him out?

What Melvin needs to do, is get the smart guys upstairs to run a computer study  of their batting orders, and find out which lineup best fits Soto to get him going.
Maybe it’s Trent Grisham first, Soto-second, then configure Tatis-Machado-Bogaerts and the rest.

Can you believe I am searching for answers to their problems, with all those names in the lineup.

But we cannot ignore that terrible start can we?

Machado is getting pitched around.
Scouts have figured out Cronenworth, having his 2nd off year in a row.
Righfield is a black hole, though Tatis will solve that on Thursday.
And then there is Soto.

They have lost (7-of-9).  Rebuilding Arizona is in first place in the division.  The Dodgers, who let 11-veterans go in the off season, have a better record.

Maybe El Nino can help them.  Am I the only one disappointed in this start?  Anyone see the flaws I see?

What a lousy start.  Tell me this isn’t a fiasco.

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