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Padres Editorial: Are Padres Playoff Hopes Dead?

By Keegan Tatum

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Jun 25, 2015; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Diego Padres starting pitcher James Shields (33) returns to the dugout after an RBI single by San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey (28) during the fifth inning at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

The Wild Card

The Cardinals and Pirates are probably going to take the NL Central and top Wild Card spot leaving just the second wild card open. The biggest threats to the Padres here are the current second wild card leading Cubs as well as the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets. The Braves, Diamondbacks, and Reds are above San Diego in the standings, but really aren’t going to compete.

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The Padres will play three games in Citi Field at the end of July and will play nine games against the Giants (six at Petco). No more games will be played against the Cubs.

The Cubs are on pace to win 90 games. To win 91 games, the Padres will have to go 52-25 (.675 winning percentage) from here on out.

Regardless of the holes the teams above have, the Padres have a nearly insurmountable task ahead of them. It is highly unlikely that they will win over 50 games during the second half. The first half has seen the Padres play more games against winning teams than any other club in baseball. But unless Matt Kemp has a monster second half, Justin Upton and Derek Norris break out of their slumps, and Wil Myers comes back strong, the Padres won’t have the offense to win 50-plus games. And unless Andrew Cashner, Tyson Ross, and James Shields all step it up too, the team won’t have the pitching.

GM A.J. Preller did his job. The players he got have not. When answering the question of whether the Padres should be buyers or sellers, just remember that they will have to win over 50 games going forward.

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