4 Things That Might Surprise You About The 2013 Padres

Apr 5, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; (Editors note: Caption correction) San Diego Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera (2) fields a ground ball during the first inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

The 2013 season is almost a month old. It’s getting near the point where early season flukes are now becoming real trends for players and teams. While it’s quite obvious that the Padres have not gotten off to the start that they needed to in order to compete for the NL West title, I found four facts that were, quite honestly, hard to believe when I first came across them. These are as of Thursday night at around 11pm EST.

1. Through 21 games, the Padres have scored more runs than the Dodgers.

We all know the story with the Dodgers. Going back to the trade deadline in 2012 and into this past off-season, they’ve invested a boatload of money into players like Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Hanley Ramirez to join an already talented core group of guys like Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier. Meanwhile, the Padres began the year without their best hitter in Chase Headley, their starting catcher in Yasmani Grandal (who is still out for another month), and a banged up cleanup hitter in Carlos Quentin (who also missed eight games due to the suspension for charging the mound during the brawl with the Dodgers). With all that said, it’s quite surprising that the Padres have managed to muster up more runs than L.A., especially considering how badly the Padres have played this April.

2.  Will Venable has more RBIs than Josh Hamilton, Joey Votto, and Adrian Beltre, among others.

I’m not sure if this says more about Venable’s solid start, or the other guys’ slow starts. But numbers don’t lie. And in far fewer at-bats, Will Venable has been able to drive in more runs than those previously mentioned run producers. To make it more unbelievable, Hamilton, Votto, and Beltre all sit in the middle of three of the best lineups in all of baseball, and have far more opportunities to drive in runs than Venable does.

3. Everth Cabrera leads the Padres in hits, total bases and tied for the lead in home runs.

Uh, seriously? If this doesn’t tell you how bad the Padres have struggled to find consistent offense this season, I’m not sure what will.

4. The Padres are 4-2 vs. the Dodgers, and 2-13 vs. everyone else

Sure, when you only have six wins total, and you’ve already played L.A. six times, I guess this makes sense. But still, we’re a month into the season fellas. You don’t get to play the Dodgers series. Time to pick up the play.

Go Padres.