It struck me after writing the last post that not only do the Padres’ hitters appear worse by playing at Petco, but the lack of a stud hitter makes the group seem worse than they are. The best hitters that have been with the team for the whole season are Brian Giles and Adrian Gonzalez at a 117 OPS+. Only the Dodgers and Pirates don’t have a full-time player at that level:
Tm Player OPS+ SFG Barry Bonds 183 FLA Miguel Cabrera 172 ATL Chipper Jones 168 STL Albert Pujols 155 PHI Chase Utley 154 MIL Prince Fielder 154 COL Matt Holliday 146 NYM David Wright 144 WSN Dmitri Young 142 CHC Lee/Ramirez 132 HOU Carlos Lee 128 CIN Griffey/Dunn 126 SDP Giles/Gonzalez 117 ARI Eric Byrnes 117 LAD Jeff Kent 116 PIT Xavier Nady 113
Additionally, the starting rotation is extremely top-heavy. The top two NL starters by raw ERA are both Padres, giving even more acclaim to the staff than it deserves. Jake Peavy sports a 2.23 ERA and Chris Young is at 1.93. The rest of the staff has ERAs of 4.00, 5.54, 4.16, and 6.18.
So not only does Petco take some of the hitters’ thunder and give it to the pitchers, but the pitching staff has a more thunderous personality.
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Sky is a baseball fan and racket sport afficianado living in upstate NY. His favorite color is orange and is just about ready to give up on his life-long dream to become the next Magnus ver Magnuson (World's Strongest Man). His favorite baseball teams are the Yankees and Red Sox, proving that there's hope in the Middle East.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Milton Bradley (202 OPS+) has been en fuego since coming to San Diego, although that is a small sample. Also, it’s worth noting that Brian Giles is hitting .316/.418/.503 since his return from the DL on June 29.