3 San Diego Padres predictions we wish we'd have made before the season began

The San Diego Padres got off to a rough start to this season. After a loss in Chicago on Tuesday night, the Padres find themselves at the 12-13 mark 25 games into the season. While it was nice to see this team get back to .500 with a series win in Arizona over the weekend, a record close to even isn't exactly what fans envisioned. The Padres were just three wins shy of the National League pennant last season and got better over the offseason.

San Diego is still trying to figure out exactly who they are. We expect to see Josh Hader return to his elite form, and expected Xander Bogaerts to be great for the Padres but there are certain things happening that we just didn't expect. Some good, some bad.

Here are three predictions we wish we would've made prior to the start of the season.

1) San Diego Padres prediction we wish we made: They wouldn't become a juggernaut right away

The talent on this team isn't hard to see. There are All-Stars everywhere. San Diego had three All-Stars last season, and that's not including guys like Xander Bogaerts, Juan Soto, and Josh Hader, who were All-Stars for other teams. It's also not including guys like Fernando Tatis Jr., Yu Darvish, and Blake Snell, who have been All-Stars before and certainly have the talent to get back to the Midsummer Classic.

The Padres even added around the stars that they had with guys like Nelson Cruz, Matt Carpenter, Seth Lugo, and Michael Wacha. This roster, when healthy, is loaded.

Unfortunately, the Padres have not been healthy to begin the season. Tatis Jr, of course, still had a little bit of time with his suspension so he was out. Joe Musgrove fractured his toe in spring training. Both of these players just returned in Arizona.

The Padres have also gotten extremely slow starts from some of their stars. Juan Soto does have a .355 OBP but is hitting just .188. Manny Machado has a .527 OPS with one home run. Blake Snell has an ERA of 5.48 through his first five starts. It's been rough out here.

When the stars start playing like stars, and the Padres get healthy, that's when you'll see this team become the juggernaut you expected. 12-13 is disappointing, but there's no reason to believe the Padres aren't for real.