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“PADRES BASEBALL–OWES US”
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The Padres are ready to open the season, with the NL East-power Atlanta Braves in town starting Thursday afternoon.

When last seen, the Friars were giving us a ‘lost’ season of opportunity to be a World Series team.  Built for it, they failed to do it.  Failed to put the Dodgers away.  Missed the chance to likely take down the Mets in the NLCS.  Lost the chance to face the Yankees in the Fall Classic, the World Series.

Forever in my mind, in your heart, and on the back of Manny Machado’s baseball card, is the 24-straight scoreless innings that cost the Padres the playoff series with the Dodgers.  It pains me to say ‘choke job’.

Yes you can say the Friars are back, but they are not the same team that had the Dodgers on the brink.

So we launch 2025 not with foul line to foul line optimism, but some realism, and a ball bag full of questions that must be answered.

The Padres really need star years from Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis and Xander Bogaerts, not half seasons of hot bats, but a 40-home run season from El Nino and a 30-bomb season from LaSalsa and a bounceback solid season from X.  Getting paid superstar money.  Give us superstar stats.

Jake Cronenworth needs to be what he was early in his career, a .280-bat with continued good play with the glove.

Expect the usual, lots of spray hits from Luis Arraez and no such thing as a sophomore slump from the wonder boy in center Jackson Merrill.

That’s the good side of Friar baseball.

The question mark side includes how, who replaces the (.280) hits and excitement in left that Jurickson Profar provided?

Can anybody behind home plate hit the ball above (.143) or are you willing to settle for great glovework and leadership as a trade off for an automatic out in the batting order?

Who is first in line to be your DH?  Gavin Sheets, new lease on life, not wearing the 121-loss White Sox uniform.

Is this the correct bench bunch led by Brandon Lockridge-do everything personality, Jose Iglesias multi talent history, Jayson Heyward’s credibility as a rock solid veteran leader, and Yuli Gurriel’s bats with pop can come thru?

Pitching staffs are never the same year to year.  Two years ago, they all made 30-starts.  Last year, Blake Snell left, Joe Musgrove broke down, and Yu Darvish had ailments and family issues.

This year, the staff is even less.  Pray nothing happens health-wise to Dylan Cease-Michael King-Nick Pivetta.  That is a good front three.  But they will be without Darvis and Matt Waldron for a bit.

They are gambling that Korean League free agent Kyle Hart and Randy Vasquez can pitch better than they have in the past, Hart was awful as a Red Sox, and Vasquez registered big blowup innings virtually every start.

The bullpen needs to know Robert Suarez horrid spring ERA was an aberration and that he will dial back in his mixture of pitches rather than pumping fastballs all night long.  They at least have pitching depth when the phone rings out there in the left field bullpen.  Keeping Tanner Scott would have been a plus.

But this team just does not feel complete.  And yes I know, Stephen Kolek, Connor Joe, Luis Campusano, Tirso Ornelas are just a Southwest Airlines flight away, but who knows if they are difference makers.

The payroll is higher than we expected to start the season, but ‘name acquisitions’ are no longer part of the way AJ Preller is allowed to do payroll and roster building business.  And if they were to deal away Dylan Cease-Michael King somewhere this summer, it sends a horrid message to the 3.23M-fans who made Petco Park a destination point.

The Dodgers seem to own all the headlines right now as the season starts.
It sure feels as if the Padres, Phillies, Braves, Arizona and Mets  are in a dogfight for what will be wildcard spots.

I projected 88-wins last year; they delivered 93 plus the playoff experience.  I don’t know if (85-77) gets them to the postseason this year, and that’s 85-wins if nothing catastrophic happens.

And that’s what worries me.  Just don’t think the Padres have any pitching depth to trust, and little margin for error if they lose an everyday bat with a major injury.  Playing for 2nd in the NL West is the likelihood.  Hoping they could hang on for a wildcard spot, if anything goes wrong, is the real-real concern.

The Padres owe us for last year.  I have the receipts right in front of me.  I don’t know if they have the full roster to pay off the debt.

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