2 Padres who've earned an apology from their doubters, and 1 not quite there

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The San Diego Padres are a team that deserves no apologies from their fan base. Fans have packed Petco Park all season long only to watch this team go 32-34 66 games into the season. While they've played a bit better of late winning four of their last five, the Padres are still 8.5 games back of the first place Dodgers while sitting on the outside looking in for a Wild Card spot.

San Diego has had a handful of players perform up to their standards. Josh Hader has been excellent, and really the entire bullpen has been mostly solid. Fernando Tatis Jr. has picked it up of late, Rougned Odor has been serviceable, but there aren't many other players even worth complimenting.

This team has created its own doubters because of their struggles. Two players fans have doubted have given them reasons to apologize while a third is on his way, but not quite there yet.

1) San Diego Padres pitcher Michael Wacha has earned an apology from his doubters

Things couldn't have started out much worse for new Padre Michael Wacha. San Diego inked him to a four-year deal following a great year in Boston only for Wacha to post an ERA of 6.75 in April. He had one great start in Atlanta but had four poor to awful starts sandwiched in between. His rough start gave him plenty of doubters, myself included.

Ever since the calendar turned to May, Wacha has been a completely different pitcher. In his seven starts since May 2nd, Wacha has a 1.05 ERA in 42.2 innings of work. No, that's not a typo.

Wacha has allowed earned runs in three of those seven starts. This includes outings against solid teams like the Twins, Red Sox, Yankees, and Mariners.

Thanks to his dominant month and a half, Wacha has lowered his season ERA from 6.75 at the end of April to 3.18 after his six dominant innings against the Mariners.

The Padres are 8-4 in Wacha's starts and it's easy to see why. This team has looked lost for much of the year with him, they'd be way further out of it without him. He's the one guy they can depend on right now to give them a great outing each and every time out no matter the opponent or location.

2) San Diego Padres catcher Gary Sanchez has earned an apology from his doubters

The catching situation for San Diego has been a mess this season. Or I guess I should say had been a mess.

Austin Nola is slashing .135/.256/.180 with one home run and seven RBI in 44 games. Brett Sullivan is slashing .170/.184/.298 with one home run and five RBI in 21 games. You can live with awful offensive numbers if you have a good offense surrounding them and if the catchers are elite defenders. The Padres don't have a good offense and these guys aren't Gold Glovers behind the dish.

The Padres took a flier on Gary Sanchez and most fans dismissed it. Sure, an offensive punch was needed, but Sanchez hadn't exactly done much at the MLB level in years. There was a reason this guy didn't have a consistent job in the majors until now.

Since arriving in San Diego, the two-time All-Star has been on fire. He's slashing .255/.300/.681 with six home runs and 15 RBI. He has six home runs in 13 games played. He's already tied for fifth on the team in home runs and he's been here for two weeks.

Sanchez has settled into the cleanup spot in the order and the team has gone 8-5 with him in the lineup. While it's obviously unreasonable to expect him to hit a home run at an 81 game pace like he's doing now, it's not unreasonable to think he can be a legitimate starting catcher for a team that needed some offensive firepower.

San Diego Padres starting pitcher Blake Snell / Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

3) San Diego Padres pitcher Blake Snell hasn't earned an apology quite yet but is trending in the right direction

There aren't many more frustrating pitchers in baseball than Blake Snell. The talent has always been there, but inconsistency and injuries have tormented him.

After Snell finished last season so strongly, I had high hopes for him entering the season. Those hopes faded awfully quickly when Snell got off to an abysmal start to his season.

Through his first nine starts of the season, Snell had an ERA of 5.40. He had 27 walks in 45 innings, and the Padres were just 1-8 in his starts. Not ideal.

In his last four starts, Snell has begun to turn his season around. He's allowed two runs in 24 innings pitched, pitching to a 0.75 ERA in those starts.

The problem here is these starts have been against mostly bottom feeders, with good outings against the Nationals, Marlins, Cubs, and Rockies. Now I get that the Marlins have been good, but their offense is still subpar. And I get that the Rockies start was at Coors Field, but Colorado is one of the worst teams in the majors.

In his starts against good offenses most of Snell's starts have been pretty brutal. His start this weekend against the Rays will be a huge test for him.

Snell is definitely on the right track, but I just need to see more from a pitcher who's been so incredibly inconsistent his entire Padres tenure.

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