FanPost

Padres 2012 Potential Milestones

It's becoming a pattern in this annual post that I have to say goodbye to another Padres player that was working his way up the Padres career leaders chargers. At the start of the 2009 season, I originally didn't have to. Padres stalwarts like Jake Peavy, Brian Giles, Adrian Gonzalez and Chris Young all returned. However, when the 2010 season was about to start Peavy and Giles were no longer around. Then at the precipice of the 2011 season, I was recapping Gonzalez' and Young's efforts. This year Mat Latos and Heath Bell have departed. Latos wasn't around as long as the others, but was so effective in certain areas that he was making his mark. Bell, of course, was making his mark with Saves totals, which for any team it's pretty easy to get in the top 10 since only 1 guy a year since the late 70s, early 80s gets a lot of saves.

Still, players like Will Venable, Chase Headley, Cameron Maybin, Tim Stauffer, Clayton Richard and Luke Gregerson are still around and can put their fingerprints on Padres stats history.

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Heath Bell

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Heater leaves the Padres with the 2nd most saves in franchise history. He was never going to catch franchise leader Trevor Hoffman, but that's a tall task to accomplish. Instead, he'll stand as the guy future closers can strive to surpass without a career path as a future Hall of Famer. Bell also finished 26th in Strikeouts (389), tied for 29th in Wins (27) and 3rd in Games Played (354).

Mat Latos

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The young fireballer never got into the top 10 in any career statistic (although his 3.37 ERA would have been the 9th highest in franchise history and his 1.154 WHIP would have been 2nd, but never reached the 500 IP needed to qualify), but did reach the top 10 in a single season category. Last year he finished with 185 strikeouts, good enough for a tie with Pat Dobson's 1970 season for the 9th highest single season total. He had already cracked that same top 10 in 2010 with 189 Ks and a tie for 7th on the list with Andy Benes' strike shortened 1994 season. Mat finished 23rd on the career list for Ks with 413. He also finished tied for 29th in Wins (27), 25th in Games Started (72) and 17th in Won-Loss % (.482).

Will Venable

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Will's longevity with the team has helped him crack a bunch of lists' top 50s, but he's actually close to the top 10 on one list. He is currently 14th in franchise history with 18 triples. In 2010 and 2011 he had 7 and if he matched that in 2012 then he'd end up tied with Tim Flannery and Brian Giles for 7th place. He'd pass Luis Salazar (24), Dave Roberts (23), Nate Colbert (22), Bip Roberts (21) and Ozzie Smith (19) along the way.

Another category where's he's making headway is in stolen bases. His career high for SBs was 29 in 2010. Matching that total would tie him with Rickey Henderson in 11th with 91. He'd need to set a career high with 3 more SBs than that to pass Luis Salazar (93) and reach the top 10. Getting that high he'd pass Benito Santiago (62), Eric Owens (62), Dave Roberts (72), Steve Finley (85), Quilvio Veras (87) and Roberto Alomar (90).

The notable categories where he's in the top 50 are: Runs (163, 47th), Hits (291, 49th), Home Runs (36, tied for 36th) and RBI (143, 47th). Will could move into the top 25 in HRs if he were to 16 and finish with 52, one ahead of Jack Clark and Graig Nettles.

Will is also 196 Plate Appearances away from qualifying for rate statistics. His current .250 Batting Average would be ranked 34th in franchise history among qualifiers displacing Khalil Greene and Carmelo Martinez (.248). His .321 OBP would tie him with Jerry Turner for 28th. Finally, his .410 SLG would place him 19th, just ahead of Steve Garvey's .409. Of course, those numbers could change based on what kind of season he has.

Chase Headley

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Savior's assault on a top 10 list is limited to the Doubles category. He needs 27 doubles to get to 135 and pass Steve Finley's 134 for 10th place. Chase's career high is 31 doubles and has had at least 28 in each of the last 3 seasons. That also means that reaching Khalil Greene's 9th place total of 150 is out of reach this season. Headley current sits at 16th (108) and would pass Nate Colbert (130), Ken Caminiti (127), Benito Santiago (124), Gene Richards (123) and Carmelo Martinez (111) if he reached the top 10.

Headley's notable top 50s are: Batting Average (.269, 22nd), OBP (.343, 17th), SLG (.392, 25th), Games (529, 28th), Runs (217, 32nd), Hits (506, 25th), Home Runs (36, tied for 36th), RBI (204, 27th), BB (202, 23rd), Singles (354, 25th) and SBs (44, 25th).

Cameron Maybin

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Maybin had 8 triples in 2011, but is young and could break out this season. If he were to set a new single season mark in triples with 15 (Tony Gwynn's 1987 and Dave Roberts' 2006 tie the single season franchise record with 13), he'd tie the same Dave Roberts for 10th place passing too many players to mention on the climb from 48th to 10th.

Maybin's 40 SBs got him up to 31st place and a tie with Ken Caminiti on the franchise list. A crazy total of 53 would tie him with Luis Salazar for 10th place with 93. Matching his 2011 total would get him to 15th, just ahead of Dave Roberts' 72 and behind Quilvio Veras' 87.

Tim Stauffer

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Tim needs 64 IP to reach the 500 IP qualifier. Once qualified he would show up 20th in career ERA if it stays somewhere near its current 3.94. His 1.314 WHIP would be 15th.

Notable top 50s are: Wins (23, tied for 39th), Win-Loss % (.426, 26th), Strikeouts (299, 34th) and Games Started (69, tied for 27th).

Clayton Richard

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Clayton needs 134 2/3 IP to qualify for the Padres franchise lists for rate stats. His 3.84 ERA would be good for 19th tied with Andy Hawkins and just behind Joey Hamilton's 3.83. His 1.423 WHIP would put him 26th among the 29 current qualifiers for the stat.

Notable top 50s for Clayton Richard are: Wins (24, tied for 25th), Strikeouts (254, 46th), Games Started (63, 32nd).

151 Ks this season will given him a career milestone of 500 Ks (remember, he played for White Sox for 2 seasons). 20 wins would give him 50 for his career.

Luke Gregerson

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Luke currently ranks 15th in franchise history in Games Played by Pitchers with 213. 18 more games would get him 10th place where Mark Davis and Gary Lucas sit with 230. A full season from the lone remaining member of the Tri Force would be 70-80 games. That would put him in 6th place just ahead of Rollie Fingers' 265 and Randy Jones' 264, but behind Scott Linebrink's 5th place total of 306.

Gregerson currently has 3 saves. If somehow he became the closer he'd need 29 to pass Luis DeLeon's 31 and slide into 10th place in franchise history. Obviously, a full season of closing from Huston Street (or whoever) would also give them a shot at this top 10. 40 saves is typical amount for a current Padres closer and that would be good enough for 8th place supplanting Randy Myers' 38 saves.

Orlando Hudson

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The last time ODog hit 10 or more HRs was in 2007, but if he got exactly 10 he'd have 100 for his career. Orlando battled injuries last year, but set a career high with 19. A new career high of 21 would get him to 100 SBs on his career.

H/T to Baseball-Reference.com for all the stats.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Gaslamp Ball community and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Gaslamp Ball staff or SB Nation.