Reviewing San Diego Padres 2019 Season Through 60 Games

Now that we know the 2020 baseball season will be 60 games, we look back at what this San Diego Padres team did over that span in 2019.

Obviously, the San Diego Padres team that will take the field when/if a 2020 season actually happens — I’ll believe it when I see it — will be much different than the 2019 version.

But I still think we can get a solid understanding of what a 60-game sprint will look like.

Through 60 games in 2019, the Padres were 31-29, 10.5 games out of the NL West, and 1.5 games out of the NL Wild Card.

What this should tell you is that through 60 games in baseball there just isn’t a ton of separation, which could make things really fun.

At that time in the 2019 season, there were nine National League teams within five games of each other in the Wild Card race.

That could make for a really fun last week of the regular season.

Unfortunately, there won’t be an expanded postseason in 2020, so there will still just be five teams from each league.

But still, those battles down the stretch will be really intense.

As far as individual performances go, Fernando Tatis Jr. only played in 27 of the team’s first 60 games last year and was hitting .300 with 6 home runs in 100 at-bats.

But if you look at the first 60 games he played in last year he was hitting .326 with 14 home runs and wRC+ of 154.

Manny Machado slashed .251/340/.423 with 10 home runs through the team’s first 60 games in 2019. Let’s hope he does a little better in a short run this season.

And Chris Paddack was a Cy Young contender through 60 games last year with a 2.40 ERA in 56.1 innings with 62 strikeouts, a .170 BAA, and a WHPI of 0.82.

As a baseball traditionalist for the most part, while I’m not thrilled about a 60-game season, we could see some really fun races and a lot of interest stats.

It’s very possible we see someone flirt with hitting .400 over a 60 game season, and we may even see a starting pitcher flirt with an ERA under one.

Let’s just hope everyone stays safe during spring training 2.0 and throughout the planned season.