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

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.