San Diego Padres - Lookin' Good

Woohoo! Lovin' my Pads these days! After taking three out of four games against the Pirates to win their fourth consecutive series, the Padres are headed to Colorado to hopefully continue their role as spoiler in the NL West. What a difference from last season, when the Padres were hard-pressed to come back in a game, any time they were down by two or more runs. This season, how many times have they been down by four, five, even six runs, and they fight back to win a game. I love it!

I am so proud of this 2009 San Diego team. They started off strong at the beginning of the season, in spite of having several inexperienced youngsters on the team They hit a long rough patch when they were suddenly inundated with injuries prior to the All-Star break, losing some key veteran players, and suddenly the San Diego Padres were more like the "San Diego Rookies." But man, have these young players stepped up! I mean, obviously they are going to be eager to prove themselves, and I think they have done just that. Cabrera, Venable, Headly, Blanks, Gwynn - they have been impressive. And of course our remaining veterans have done no less - Gonzalez, Eckstein, Kouzmanoff. Is Brian Giles still on the team? JK, but seriously, we probably don't even need him now, so I'm wondering what will happen for him next season.

I am very excited about next season. These Padres have shown a tremendous amount of heart as a team, especially during the second half. And finally we seem to have a solid starting rotation of pitchers and a strong bullpen. And our late relievers? Adams, Gregerson, Thatcher (coming around this season), and closer Heath Bell? Pitchers that I think other teams are not looking forward to facing these days. So awesome. If they can keep this group of players together, I think this could be at least, a division-winning ball club in another season or two. go Pads!