Padres Editorial: Kemp And Upton Two Of NL West’s Most Intriguing Players

By John Hiatt |

The San Diego Padres have some of the top players in the National League West and are relevant again? Yeah they are!

I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I am. Two of the Padres’ newest players, Matt Kemp and Justin Upton, are on the National League’s most intriguing players list for the 2015 season, and I couldn’t be happier to see we actually have a few Padres players on the top of any list for a change.

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So who exactly are some of the most interesting players in the National League West? Let’s go through the list shall we?

At the top is Madison Bumgarner of the San Fransisco Giants, who is easily one of the best pitchers in baseball right now. Next we have Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Latroy Hawkins of the Colorado Rockies, who will be retiring at the end of this season.

Next, one of our Padres, Matt Kemp comes in at number four, and while fellow Padres teammate Justin Upton rounds out the top ten.

Some of the other, more noticeable names that made the list are, Angel Pagan of the Giants, Troy Tulowitzki of the Rockies, and Yasmany Tomas of the Diamondbacks.

To me, the fact that the Padres have two, that’s right count them two, players on this list means they are no longer an irrelevant team in Major League Baseball anymore.

Matt Kemp, who used to be a Dodger, will be the Padres starting right fielder because last season’s starting right fielder, Seth Smith was traded away this off-season, and Carlos Quentin has a bad history with legs. If Quentin remains with the Padres he will most likely either be pinch hitting, splitting time in the now too-crowded Padres outfield with the other backups, or possibly sharing time at first base with Yonder Alonso.

Justin Upton on the other hand, will probably be the teams starting left fielder. He’ll be competing against Will Venable for the starting position at Spring Training, but I don’t expect to see Venable sharing equal time in the outfield when the regular season begins.

The past two seasons the National League West title has gone to the Padres most disliked rivals just up the 5-North freeway, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Not to be out done, fellow National League West rivals, the San Fransisco Giants have taken the World Series title three of the past five season but only capture the National League West title twice in the past eleven years

So who will win the National League West title this year? Who will be the biggest star in the National League West? I can’t wait to find out with regular season baseball only one month away!

What are your big predictions for the 2015 season?

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