The 2010 trade deadline is fast approaching, and for teams still in contention, it's time to decide whether or not they're for real--I'm looking at you, San Diego! The Padres are really in a catch-22, because frankly, they have no business playing the kind of baseball they've been playing. Going into the 2010 season the question wasn't whether or not they could win the division, but rather when was the right time to ship 1st baseman Adrian Gonzalez off for a slew a hot prospects to rebuild around. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you view things, The Padres started the season hot, and have remained relatively hot all season. The obvious reason for their success is their pitching, which has been other worldly good. They are first in team ERA at 3.29 and second in FIP at 3.74.
Hitting, on the other hand, hasn't come easy for the Pads. They're toward the bottom third of the league in on-base percentage, are fourth worst in slugging and sixth worse in team average. On top of that, their team BABIP of .298, when viewed through the prism of a team that only really has one stud hitter (Gonzalez) indicates their performance thus far is probably about as good as they're going to be this season.
So what do you do if you're GM Jed Hoyer? The answer, probably, is ride the wave. Yes, Gonzalez will never have as much value as he has right now (he's making 4.75 Mil. this year with a club option of 5.5 Mil. for 2011). But past the midway point in the season, with the pitching doing extraordinarily well in a relatively weak division, Hoyer will most likely stick with what he has and make a run for the playoffs. If the Padres do fade, Gonzalez will still be an extremely attractive option for a team next season at 5.5 Mil, but the one-less year of player control probably means a more modest bounty for the Padres.
Padres look like a great TEAM being led by the hairston brotherss.
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