Category: Padres
10 Things I’m Watching I’m In 2015: The San Diego Padres
Spring Training is finally here and with that, here’s the tenth and final installment of my ’10 Things I’m Watching In 2015′ series. Today’s topic: the San Diego Padres.
A.J. Preller made sure all baseball discussions revolved around the Padres in December as the new GM made a plethora of trades and stole the show at the Winter Meetings.
The Dodgers and Giants (although that whole win the World Series, then struggle the next year thing still applies) seem to be the teams to beat in the NL West, but the Padres certainly aren’t messing around.
During the heat of the Hot Stove season, Preller acquired Brandon Maurer from Seattle, Will Middlebrooks from Boston, Justin Upton from Atlanta, Wil Myers from Tampa Bay, Derek Norris from Oakland and Matt Kemp from Los Angeles.
But apparently that wasn’t enough as Preller went out and finished the off season with the acquisition of James Shields.
Shields, who went 14-8 with a 3.21 ERA last season, was one of the premier free agent pitchers on the market and will be very valuable in the Padres rotation and pitching in Petco Park will likely improve Shields’ numbers. The right-hander has thrown 200 or more innings in eight straight seasons, so he is certainly someone reliable that the Padres can count on to take the ball every fifth day.
The Padres have had a losing record in six of the past seven seasons, but if this new group of players is able to develop chemistry early, that could easily change in 2015.
San Diego has a lot of new pieces and will be a team to watch out West. While it will be fun to watch all the newcomers, it will also be intriguing to see what the team does with some of the old players.
The new outfielders are exciting, but what will San Diego do with Cameron Maybin, Will Venable and Carlos Quentin? The Padres traded Seth Smith early in the off season, but even so they have tremendous depth in the outfield. It’s hard to imagine scenarios where all six of the players receive enough playing time to stay content, so the team may need to make another move before it’s all said and done.
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10 Things I’m Watching In 2015: Lester, Shields, Scherzer
As we count down to Spring Training, here’s the eighth installment of my ’10 Things I’m Watching In 2015′ series. Today’s topic: Jon Lester, Max Scherzer and James Shields.
How will Scherzer Lester and Shields fare in the National League?
Generally speaking the American League is known for offense and the National League is known for pitching. The DH contributes a lot to this fact and it is likely a reason that big name free agent pitchers often opt to pitch in the National League.
When the 2014 season ended there were three big-name, free agent pitchers on the market and all three of them – Jon Lester, Max Scherzer and James Shields – opted to make the transition from the AL to the NL.
While Scherzer spent the first two seasons of his career in the NL, Lester and Shields have never pitched for a NL team. Each of them have spent nine seasons in the American League.
The trio of pitchers have combined for six All Star games and a Cy Young Award (Scherzer) and considering they all have strong stuff, it’s likely they will do just fine in the NL. However, it may be interesting to watch their transitions, especially over the first couple months as they get used to new parks, lineups and catchers.
Also, I wonder which one of them is the best hitter? And how long will it take Lester to collect his first hit?
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Boor on Baseball 