San Diego Padres Team Leaders at the Quarter-Way Point

The San Diego Padres didn’t quite get off to the start they had hoped to this year. A quarter-way into the season, here are some of the Friars’ statistical leaders on both sides of the chalk.

Any of us can get a feel for how the San Diego Padres’ season has gone thus far by taking a quick glance at their record and their stats. Things haven’t gone what scientists refer to as, “good” for the Friars so far this year.

Their starting pitching has been hit-or-miss over the team’s first 43 games. There have been some bright spots, like Joey Lucchesi, Tyson Ross, and as of late, Clayton Richard. There have also been some cringe-worthy moments, like the failed Bryan Mitchell and Luis Perdomo experiments.

The Padres’ bullpen has been terrific. Brad Hand, Craig Stammen, Kirby Yates, Adam Cimber, Phil Maton (DL), and Robbie Erlin have been magnificent. There have been outliers (Kazuhisa Makita, for instance), but overall, this team’s relief corps has been their anchor.

The Padres at the plate have been a mystery at times, but some of the bright spots are practically blinding.

Over the next few pages, we’ll take a look at the team’s leading hitters, starting pitchers, and relievers, and where they rank among their National League counterparts.

San Diego Padres Team Leaders – Hitters

As a team, the San Diego Padres rank thirteenth in the National League in hitting with a .227 batting average. Their .299 on-base percentage ranks second-to-last in the league, just ahead of the Marlins (.297). The Padres’ team OPS (.662), again ranks just ahead of Miami (.634) for last in the NL.

The team leads the league in strikeouts by a healthy margin (424; Giants are second with 398) and are ninth in the NL in bases-on-balls (138; Nationals lead the NL with 178).

These are specific areas of concern that need to be addressed by the Friars’ manager, Andy Green, and hitting coach, Matt Stairs, moving forward.

As for the players themselves, Jose Pirela is leading the team with a .265 batting average and Eric Hosmer is right behind him at .264 (minimum 100 plate appearances).

Travis Jankowski (.349 in 50 plate appearances), currently leads all non-pitchers in the category. After Pirela and Hosmer, Franchy Cordero (.261) rounds out the top-three hitters on the team.

Hosmer’s .832 OPS leads the team among qualified hitters, with Franchy behind him at .807. Villanueva still has an OPS of over .800 (.804) but it’s been plummeting over the last week or so.

Villanueva leads the team in homers with nine (Cordero, 6; Hosmer, 5), runs batted in with 20 (Cordero, 17; Hosmer, 14; Pirela, 14; Asuaje, 13). Leading the team in doubles are Eric Hosmer and Jose Pirela with thirteen and ten, respectively. Manuel Margot trails them with six two-baggers.

San Diego Padres Team Leaders – Starting Pitchers

The San Diego Padres must be somewhat pleased with how the cookies have crumbled for their starting rotation, on the whole. Sure, there has been a little bit of everything so far (injuries, demotions, etc.), but as a group, the Friars haven’t fared all that bad.

There’s certainly been some turnover, but the guys who have been here throughout have been mostly solid. With the grooves some of these guys seem to be finding themselves in as of late (Ross, Richard), good things could be ahead for this group.

Their team earned-run average ranks second-to-last in the NL (5.05, ahead of Cincinnati, 5.28), but Joey Lucchesi (3.23), Tyson Ross (3.40) are pitching very well, and even Clayton Richard has turned himself around after a very tough start to the year.

Fielding independent pitching ratings take away outside factors like the ballparks and the quality of defense behind the pitcher and spit out a “truer” earned-run average on the other end.

In this category, Ross has a 3.27 rating to lead the team, Richard is at 3.96, well below his 5.20 earned-run average, and Joey Lucchesi is at 4.26, which signifies that he’s been benefitting from some fantastic defense behind him.

Tyson Ross leads the team in strikeouts per nine innings with 10.01, Lucchesi is just behind him with 9.13, and Clayton Richard comes in third with an 8.39 rating.