Padres 2016 Potential Milestones

This year my streak of 7 years of talking about Padres milestones before the season came to an end. I missed the start of the season and the 8th edition of this post now falls into the category of better late than never. Sadly, this year's edition has a bigger issue. The Padres have basically scrapped almost all the players on the roster with any sort of history. The position players have been hit pretty hard in this regard. Alexi Amarista and Yangervis Solarte are the only Padres position players who spent any time with the club prior to the 2015 season. Normally, I would talk about players getting into the top 10 in offensive categories, but this year will most about even making the top 50. Pitchers are in a little better shape with Tyson Ross and Andrew Cashner still hanging around. But, first let's start with those hitters keeping in mind I break the milestones down into 2 categories: Round Numbers and Franchise leaderboards to separate career milestones from Padres milestones.

Matt Kemp, RF

Round Numbers:

• 5000 ABs: 288 are need to achieve this milestone. A moderately healthy season should accomplish.
• 200 SBs: 18 away. It has been 4 seasons since Kemp swiped more than 12, but the 12 came last year and maybe he's energized enough to get 50% more in 2016.
• 1500 Hits: 141 needed. A full, mostly healthy season should accomplish this. Kemp surpassed 150 in both 2014 and 2015.

Franchise Leaderboards:

• Top 50 HR: 2 HRs would be needed to match Kyle Blanks, Jerald Clark, Ruppert Jones, Fred Kendall and Xavier Nady for 50th at 28. If he mashes 23 like in 2015 that would tie him with Ruben Rivera in 30th at 46.
• Top 50 RBI: 35 RBI would be needed to match Chris Gomez for 50th at 147. Racking up 100 like in 2015 would total 200 for his Padres career and move him just ahead of Greg Vaughn in 29th.
• Top 50 2B: 27 2B would be needed to match Jedd Gyorko and Cameron Maybin for 50th at 58. Gapping 31 like in 2015 would tie him with Sean Burroughs for 47th at 62.

Yangervis Solarte, 3B

Franchise Leaderboards:

• Top 50 Hits: The Padres' 2016 Opening day 3B needs 125 Hits to match John Kruk for 50th with 331. Getting 142 hits like he did in 2015 would get him to 49th ahead of Bill Almon at 342.
• Top 50 HR: 10 HR would be needed to match Kyle Blanks, Jerald Clark, Ruppert Jones, Fred Kendall and Xavier Nady for 50th at 28. Clubbing 14 like in 2015 would tie him in 46th with Mark Loretta and Ed Spiezio at 32.
• Top 50 2Bs: 17 2B would be needed to match Jedd Gyorko and Cameron Maybin for 50th at 58. Recording 33 two baggers like in 2015 would get him to 37th place, tied with Everth Cabrera at 71.

Derek Norris, C

Round Numbers:

• 500 Games played: Norris needs to get in just 17 more games to reach the 500 mark.

Franchise Leaderboards:

• Top 50 HR: If Norris can match his 14 HR in 2015, then that would tie him for 50th in that category with Kyle Blanks, Jerald Clark, Ruppert Jones, Fred Kendall and Xavier Nady at 28.
• Top 50 2B: The Padres C would need 23 2Bs to match Jedd Gyorko and Cameron Maybin for 50th at 58. Getting 33 like he did in 2015 would tally 68 and get him to 41st place, one ahead of both Mike Cameron and Dave Roberts.

Melvin Upton, Jr., LF

Round Numbers:

• 5000 ABs: The elder Upton is 272 ABs away from the 5000 mark. That would require him to increase his 2015 total by over 100, but he should be healthier this season and seems to have secured a starting job. It's doable.
• 300 SBs: 24 SBs would seem like a stretch for him, but Upton has broken that mark a number of times in his career. He has just been unable to do it while struggling at the plate with the Braves from 2013-2014 and getting back into form last year with the Friars.
• 2000 TB: Much like the ABs this seems doable given health and a starting role. Upton has 98 total bases to go and is already in a groove in 2016 achieving 25% of his 2015 total already in just about 1/7 of the number of games played.

Franchise Leaderboards:

• Top 50 3Bs: Upton would need 5 3B needed to tie for 43rd place, which is the last spot in the top 50. He only hit 4 in 2015, but that was with missing much of the season. He had 5 triples with the Braves in 2014.

Wil Myers

Round Numbers:

• 1000 ABs: This one is really close with just 63 ABs to go. That's probably 13-15 games away.

Alexei Ramirez

Round Numbers:

• 5000 ABs: Ramirez is the third different Padres player encroaching on 5000 ABs. He needs 298 more, which should be pretty easy if he stays the starting SS for most of the season.

Tyson Ross

Franchise Leaderboards:

• Top 5 ERA: Ross started the year in 4th place in ERA, but his rough Opening Day has knocked him back to 5th place at 3.16. That's a couple points behin Dave Dravecky at 3.12. Bouncing back for the rest of the year could get him back to 4th, but it will require a better season than he had in 2015 since a 3.26 ERA would only make his Padres career ERA higher. A season slightly better than 2014's with a 2.81 ERA in 195 2/3 IP would see him pass Dave Roberts and his 2.99 ERA in 3rd place.
• Top 20 Wins: 13 wins would be needed to tie Bob Shirley in 20th place with 39. That's how many wins he had in 2014, but 3 more than he had last season.
• Top 10 WHIP: Ross actually started the season with sole possession of 10th place in WHIP, but now shares that ranking with Andy Benes at 1.239. Bouncing back with a WHIP similar to his 2014 1.211 would see him move past Benes again, but possibly also see him pass Ed Whitson's 1.229 for 9th place.
• Top 10 Strikeouts: Ross' 5 Ks on Opening Day already helped him pass Woody Williams for 14th place. He'll need 92 to tie Adam Eaton for 10th place at 623. Striking out 212 like in 2015 would get him to 738 and up to 8th place passing Randy Jones' currently 8th place 677 and Joey Hamilton's 9th place 649 along the way.

Andrew Cashner

Round Numbers:

• 200 Games: Cash is just 23 games away from this round number. He has pitched that many games in every healthy year of his career.
• 100 Games Started: The right-handed Texan is only 15 starts away from this mark. That's basically a half season as a starting pitcher.

Franchise Leaderboards:

• Top 10 ERA: Cashner's ERA has been going backwards for a while, but still holds the 10th spot in franchise history with a 3.55 ERA. To reverse the backwards trend in the rankings, he would need to put up something like 2.72 ERA over 200 IP this season to pass Randy Jones' 9th place ERA of 3.30.
• Top 20 Wins: Matching his career high of 10 wins (back in 2013) would elevate him from 40th place in franchise history (24) up to 22nd place in a tie with Rollie Fingers and Sterling Hitchcock at 34. It would take 15 to crack the top 20 and tie Bob Shirley's 39.
• Top 10 WHIP: Like ERA, Cashner's WHIP has been going backwards, but he currently sits in 14th place with a 1.260. It would take something around a 1.085 WHIP in about 200 IP to get to the top 10.

James Shields

Round Numbers:

• 2000 Strikeouts: Since 2007 Shields has always whiffed more than 158 batters in a season and that's how many Ks he needed to get to 2000 back when this season began. He's now already 14 into that total and the milestone seems well within reach.

Franchise Leaderboards:

• Top 25 Strikeouts: Shields is only 27 away from catching Kevins Brown and Correia for 50th place in franchise history. By matching his 2015 total of 216 he would vault all the way up to a tie in 25th place with Bob Shirley at 432.

Fernando Rodney

Round Numbers:

250 Saves: With just 13 saves to get to this milestone, even the victory-challenged Padres might be able to get Rodney there.

Franchise Leaderboards:

Top 15 Saves: The Padres have had a fair amount of save-tallying closers over the years, so the top 10 is quite the challenge for one season with Randy Myers setting the bar at 38 saves. The top 15, however, is still doable in a Padres debut season since that's just 16 held in a tie by Luke Gregerson, Butch Metzger and Vicente Romo. Rodney even got to 16 last season despite his struggles with the Mariners. His career high is 48, which would best the 9th place Craig Kimbrel's 39 and fall just short of Gary Lucas' 8th place 49.