Padres News: Padres Mathematically Eliminated

Not that this should come as a big surprise – the San Diego Padres have been officially eliminated from the 2015 playoffs.

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As reported by Yahoo Sports, the Cubs win means that the Padres have no chance of even getting a tie in the second wild card. Why it might be some comfort that it took this long for the Padres to reach their official death zone, certainly the year started with much higher expectations.

The Padres had two main “high points”, and neither is too much to speak of. On April 19-21 they held on to a share of first place in the NL West. Do you remember back that far? That was when Wil Myers was still healthy and raking at the top of the order, Will Middlebrooks was hitting some home runs, Brandon Morrow was doing quite well as the fifth starter, and James Shields was challenging his other starters to all go over 200 innings. Things looked good, and then in just a couple weeks all that was shattered.

If you can remember, when Bud Black was fired on June 22nd, the Padres were actually only one game below .500. THAT was the disappointment of the season and shows just how why the expectations of management were at the time. I still maintain that firing Black was the only way to go, I just still argue it should have been done sooner. By July 10th, they were 39-49. Perhaps the firing wasn’t quite the motivator they were hoping for.

In late August, they went on a nice little run getting within a game of .500 but were unable to reach the elusive mark once again. Matt Kemp hitting for the cycle certainly stands as the individual player highlight, and in fact his entire second half gives hope that he can duplicate the feat for at least another couple seasons of his long contract. Wil Myers is the big health wild card that will make a huge impact on the Padres down the road.

With 14 games remaining we still have some questions to figure out for this team, like if Robbie Erlin (starting today) can be a piece of the future rotation or Casey Kelly who also figures to get a start or two. Lost season? Yes. Unable to find some good? Absolutely not. More season reflections to come here at FriarsonBase!

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