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Padres 2015 Season In Milestones

A sport full of stats cannot help but achieve some player milestones at season's end. Take a trip through the numbers looking at the Padres who hit round numbers, career bests and made franchise history. That includes one important one from Mr. Matt Kemp.

By Wonko
Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

If you do not want to hear about Padres stats from the 2015 season, then this article is not for you. If you have been reading Gaslamp Ball for a while, then you have an idea what stats I'm talking about. Back in March, I wrote about the Padres 2015 Potential Milestones. A yearly post that I have been doing for a while. So, once more into the breach of looking at the year's stats gone by.

Will Venable, OF

Venable was traded during the season, but his numbers will never get traded from the Padres record books. I covered Will's place in franchise history in this post, but it deserves to be included here as well.

Round Numbers

  • 3000 Plates Appearances, with a total of 3127 (3045 were with the Padres).
  • 2500 At Bats, with a total of 2818 (2752 were with the Padres).

Franchise Leaderboards

  • Triples: 3rd with 39, finishes behind #2 Gene Richards (63) and tied with Dave Winfield. Passed Garry Templeton this year and surprisingly caught Winfield since Venable only managed 2 triples in 2014 and need 3 to catch him.
  • Games Played: 6th with 918, passed Ryan Klesko, Terry Kennedy, Nate Colbert, Trevor Hoffman and Chase Headley in 2015 before getting traded.
  • WAR: 14th with 13.3. He started the season tied with Kevin McReynolds and Bip Roberts at 12.4, passed them early and didn't get to catch Benito Santiago's 14.1.
  • Runs: 13th with 370. Was able to pass Ken Caminiti's 362 this past season.
  • Hits: 13th with 694. Passed a bunch of people here. Steve Garvey, Tim Flannery, Steve Finley, Cito Gaston and Bip Roberts were all left in Venable's wake. Even without the trade, he probably wouldn't have caught Santiago's 758.
  • Doubles: 16th with 114. Steve Garvey and Carmelo Martinez both end up with fewer doubles as a Padre than Venable after Will added 10 to his Padres total in 2015.
  • HR: 15th with 81. 6 HRs in 2015 for the Padres helped Will to pass Terry Kennedy (76), Cito Gaston (77) and Greg Vaughn (78).
  • RBI: 17th with 304. 30 RBI almost equaled his 2014 total and got him past Steve Finley's 298 and over the 300 mark.
  • Stolen Bases: 8th with 130. 11 SBs in 2015 did equal his 2014 total and resulted in one more swipe than Enzo Hernandez had with the Friars.

Matt Kemp, OF

This was Kemp's first season as a Padre, but it had some memorable milestones.

Round Numbers

  • A cycle! The first of his career.
  • 200th HR (205)
  • 5000 Plate Appearances (5144)
  • His 3rd 100 RBI season

Franchise Leaderboards

  • A cycle! The first in Padres history.
  • With 147 strikeouts this season, Kemp tied Phil Nevin for 5th most by a Padres player in a season.

Justin Upton, OF

Round Numbers

  • 4000 At Bats (4329)

Franchise Leaderboards

  • I'm pretty shocked that Upton didn't grab the record for most strikeouts in a season by a Padres player. He ended with 159. That's 1 shy of Mike Cameron's record setting 160 in 2007. 2012 was the last time Upton struck out few than 160 times.
  • Upton's 4.4 WAR was good for the 37th best season in Padres history. 37 seems like a ways down the board, but with WAR that could effectively be the 37th best season by a position player in Padres history, so it's worth noting. Four other seasons totaled 4.4 WAR: Roberto Alomar's 1989, Darin Jackson's 1992 and 1983 and Terry Kennedy's 1983.

James Shields, SP

Round Numbers

  • 300 Games (319)
  • 300 Games Started (318)
  • 2000 Innings Pitched (2112 2/3)
  • 10th straight season with 20+ Games Started
  • 10th straight season with 100+ Innings Pitched
  • 10th straight season with 100+ Strikeouts
  • Career High in K/9 (9.6, previous high was 8.3 in 2010)
  • Lead the league in HRs allowed (33)

Franchise Leaderboards

  • Shields' 9.608 K/9 ranks 7th in the franchise history for a single season. Right above Jake Peavy's 2005, but below Peavy's 2007.
  • Shields 216 Strikeouts in 2015 is tied with Jake Peavy's 2005 for the 4th most in a single season by a Padres pitcher. It's also one more than Peavy's 6th ranked 2006 season.

Ian Kennedy, SP

Round Numbers

  • 200 Games (206)
  • 200 Games Started (204)
  • 1000 Strikeouts (1140)

Franchise Leaderboards

  • 23rd in Strikeouts with 436. The 24th spot in Ks is Tim Stauffer. Kennedy took 2 and 1/3 seasons to pass what Stauffer did in 9. He also almost caught his 2015 teammate Andrew Cashner (see below).

Tyson Ross, SP

Round Numbers

  • 100 Games Started (101)
  • 500 Innings Pitched (665 1/3)
  • 500 Strikeouts (628)
  • Career highs in Innings Pitched (196), Strikeouts (212), Games Started (33), K/9 (9.7).
  • Lead the league in Games Started (33, tied), Walks (85) and Wild Pitches (14).

Franchise Leaderboards

The 500 IP mark mentioned earlier is for his career, but he also passed 500 IP with the Padres. That number allows him to qualify for pitcher rate stats on the franchise leaderboard. Those rates can fluctuate in future seasons, but his current standing is still worth mentioning.

  • 4th in ERA with 3.07. When I tried to project milestones before the season, I had hoped for 2nd place. However, Tyson's ERA wasn't as good in 2015 as it was in 2014, so there was a little drop off. He currently sits behind Dave Roberts' 3rd place 2.99 and Dave Dravecky's 5th place 3.12. Trevor Hoffman is #1 (2.76) and Greg Harris is #2 (2.95).
  • 10th in WHIP with 1.233. I had hoped for something as high as 5th, but this was another stat that dropped off. 10th place puts him between Ed Whitson's 9th place 1.229 and Andy Benes' now 11th place 1.239.
  • 2nd in K/9 with 9.163. Ross' career high K/9 kicked him up to the #2 spot behind franchise leader Trevor Hoffman (9.725) and ahead of former #2 Jake Peavy (9.036).
  • 15th in Ks with 526. Ross has just been mowing guys down these past couple of years and he's approaching some lofty territory. He started the season in 40th place and now sits just behind Woody Williams (528) and well head of Andy Hawkins and Chris Young (489).
  • Ross' 9.735 K/9 in 2015 ranks 5th best for a single season in franchise history.
  • Ross' 212 Strikeouts in 2015 was good enough for 7th best for a single season in franchise history.

Andrew Cashner, SP

Round Numbers

  • 500 Innings Pitched (594 1/3)
  • Career Highs in Innings Pitched (184 2/3), Strikeouts (165) and Games Started (31).

Franchise Leaderboards

Like Tyson Ross, Cashner passed 500 IP both for his career and as a Padre and therefore his rate stats now qualify for the franchise leaderboards.

  • 10th in ERA with 3.50. He was on pace to be 4th (or 5th behind Ross), but ended up in 10th place. He's one spot behind Randy Jones' 9th place 3.30 and one spot ahead of Andy Benes' now 11th place (3.57).
  • 14th in WHIP with 1.254. Prior to 2015, Cashner's WHIPs were fantastic and was on pace for 2nd place in franchise history, but winds up instead down in 14th. He's behind Craig Lefferts and ahead of Eric Show.
  • 7th in K/9 with 7.447. Cashner's struck out opposing hitters at one of the higher rates of his career and is rewarded with the 7th spot here. He''s behind Andy Benes (7.55) and ahead of Adam Eaton (7.044).
  • 22nd in Strikeouts with 438. A career high in K's vaulted Cashner into the top 25. It's a long list of guys he passed since before the season started he didn't even rank in the top 45. He sits just ahead of now free agent Ian Kennedy.

Craig Kimbrel, RP

Kimbrel is one and done as Padre and was acquired so late that I didn't get to project his milestones before the season started, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about them.

Round Numbers

  • 200 Saves (225)
  • 500 Strikeouts (563)

Franchise Leaderboards

  • 9th in Saves with 39. One really strong season as a closer can indeed still vault a player into the Padres top 10 in saves. Kimbrel comes out 1 save ahead of Randy Myers in 10th place and 10 behind Gary Lucas' 8th place.
  • 14th in Saves for a single season with 39. 13 seasons rank ahead of Kimbrel's 2015, but only 4 players produced those efforts. Hoffman is there 9 times, Heath Bell has 3 and Mark Davis' 1989 Cy Young season is up there as well. Kimbrel just edged by Hoffman's 2002 and Randy Myers' 1992 where each tallied 38 saves.

Dale Thayer, RP

Franchise Leaderboards

  • 10th in Games Pitched with 241. It looks like Thayer's Padres career is over and he finishes with the #10 spot in games pitched. He finishes with 2 more games than 11th place Dave Tomlin and 23 less than 9th place Randy Jones.

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