This is it people. Penultimate road trip. Penultimate homestand. The homestretch of this ridiculous season.
Jbox dragged me out to the game last night to watch the Padres beat the Rockies and move over .500 again. With the Giants losing again, we push our magic number down to 17 with 23 games to go. A 90 win season is still possible, but we can only lose three games over the next three weeks. Considering the fact that all but three of our games are against the NL West, I say the probability is actually pretty decent that we still end up with 90 wins.
Here's a good Canepa article. I like reading Canepa's articles even though I think he contributes a little to the fairweather mentality around here, but the fact of the matter is, people have decided to not show up any more. If anybody asks, here's the thing I think is keeping people away:
- Boring baseball
As an example, what happens when the other team gets a base hit with a runner on second base? They score. Without fail they score. And why is that? Because our outfielders have weak, inaccurate arms. They field their positions well enough, but exciting baseball means a play at the plate. It means having some chance of catching the runner at home.
On the flip side, what happens when the Padres have a runner on second and there's a base hit? The runner advances to third, but only sometimes. And that's it. They never score from second anymore. Again, boring baseball.
The most exciting player on the field defensively is Khalil, and no offense to my man Khalil, but he's a robot vulcan. The personality just isn't there. Loretta isn't exactly Mr. Good Times either. Dave Roberts? Friendly enough, I guess. Brian Giles is interesting, but a little insane.
Our most interesting players - the ones we want to get to know better - are guys like Fick, Olivo, Ben Johnson, Sweeney, Aki... Red Alert Squad. But ultimately, they're bench players. Having an exciting bench doesn't make for an exciting team.
I hate to say it, but by trading away Phil Nevin, the Padres got rid of the one spark of fire that they had off the field. On the field it's cold and now off the field it's cold.
I want to see a team that makes me go, "OH DANG!" and "DID YOU SEE THAT?!" As it is, jbox and I wandered around the park last night, bored.
I keep hoping for one of the NL West teams to make a run at us. At least make it interesting, but it looks more and more like it's not going to happen. The Padres go through the motions, and they just keep increasing their lead.
Somebody wake me when we're in the playoffs.