At the end of April, my wife and I made a friendly wager about what would cause the Padres to eventually improve during the course of this season. We both agree that they have now improved to the point where it should be possible to settle our bet, but we need to settle this thing in a scientific way. That’s where you come in. We have decided to put the matter before you, our jury, and to accept your decision as final and binding.

Before you leap to a conclusion without due diligence, let me tell you how low the stakes are here: If she wins, I have to take her to Cheesecake Factory. If I win, she’s taking me to Pizza Port. Keep those facts in mind as you vote and let’s not forget that household bragging rights are also on the line here.

She took the view that our team suffered from psychological pressure and/or a lack of confidence and once these players knew they were not in contention for the play-offs, they would start to get hot. “We will see a marked improvement and more wins from the Padres once they fall flat because the pressure is now off and so now these boys can just play ball!”

My position was that the Padres would improve due to the return of players from the DL and the promotion of players from the minor league system.

Why are the Padres doing better? We throw ourselves at the mercy of the jury...

For whatever reason I'm not getting an "attach poll dialog" but if I did, your voting options would be:

1. It's because the pressure's off. Buy her the cheesecake you cheapskate.

2. It's the call ups and DL returnees making the difference. She owes you a Cardiff Cream Ale bro.

3. You're both wrong, it's obviously just regression to the statistical mean. Where's my beer, pizza and cheesecake?

4. I couldn't live with myself if I contributed to the failure of a stranger's marriage, it's a tie.