Best Team in Years? Final Week In Review

The Padres ended the season on a strong note. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports

Opening Thoughts

The Padres ended September in predictably neutral fashion to end up with a final record of 77-85. That is the best record since the 2010 team won 90 games, and there is a lot of positives to take from that. What’s more – they went 29-24 AFTER the trade deadline. So after they shipped off their All-Star Closer Huston Street, after they traded away once-future of the franchise player Chase Headley, and after moving fan favorite Chris Denorfia, they played 5 games over .500.  The offense has shown nights where it can score 8 runs a night – and then only score 2 runs for the next three games. While ownership appears to be finally stable now, and a new GM has taken the reigns of the future, there is still a lot of work to do. 

More from Padres News

• Jurickson Profar free agency update likely rules out Padres reunion
• Fernando Tatis Jr. may not take to outfield move after Xander Bogaerts addition
• Padres News: Fernando Tatis Jr. trade rumors, Seth Lugo chase, Manny Machado
• Padres barely missed out on high-end veteran starting pitcher
• This veteran DH target seems ideal for contending Padres roster

Luckily, good starting pitching appears to be at a surplus. In the final week of the season Ian Kennedy showed that he can continue to be the veteran man in the rotation for the Padres AND throw over 200 innings on the season. Only 8 other pitchers in MLB pitched 200 innings with 200 strikeouts this season. An impressive accomplishment, and given that many of the Padres pitchers for the future are young and innings will be monitored in 2015 and 2016 makes it that much more important to have a reliable pitcher who can pitch deep into games and make his start every 5th day. He also evened out his record at 13-13 and a 3.63 ERA. The 13 wins ties for the team lead with Tyson Ross, and Kennedy also led all Padres pitchers in home runs hit this year at 1.

The fun of September baseball is seeing the youngsters getting to play. This week the Padres closed out Petco Park against the Rockies with the best record at home ever with 48 wins. They traveled to San Francisco and took only 1 of 4 though from the second National League Wild Card representative Giants. How some of these positives will translate into 2015 success remains to be seen, but read on to dig a little deeper in the Padres final week of the 2014 MLB season.