Welcome to the 9th annual edition of my potential milestones posts. Last year, I lamented that the Padres had done away with many of their players with any history. This year seems to have gone a step farther. It was the position players that were hard hit last year and this year it’s the pitchers with Padres veterans Tyson Ross and Andrew Cashner no longer around. The team is also bereft of veterans like last year’s Matt Kemp, Melvin Upton, Jr., and Fernando Rodney. Jered Weaver just isn’t the same. However, Clayton Richard does return and a guys like Wil Myers and Yangervis Solarte are becoming veterans of the club. Let’s take a look at what might milestones might be in store.
As I reminder, I break the milestones down into 2 categories: Round Numbers and Franchise leaderboards to separate career milestones from Padres milestones.
Wil Myers, 1B
Myers has become a face of the franchise. He represented the team in the All Star game and signed a long term contract during the offseason. It should be fun to see him start to hit career milestones and move up the franchise leaderboards as he spends time with the San Diego club.
Round Numbers:
- 500 Hits: 118 hits are needed to reach this milestone, that’s a moderately healthy season’s worth for him. Less than what he got in 2016, but more than double what he had in an injury-plagued 2015.
- 500 Games: He’s 108 games from this milestone. This number goes hand-in-hand with the hits caveat, he needs to be moderately healthy and it should be no problem.
Franchise Leaderboards:
- Top 20 HR: 29 HRs from tying Kevin McReynolds for #20 with 65 homers. That’s one above the career high he set in 2016 of 28. Getting into the top 25 is much more likely since that only requires 16 HRs this season to tie Ollie Brown and Willie McCovey for 24th place. Wil is currently in 42nd place with 36 round trippers, so he’s already in the top 50.
- Top 25 SBs: 17 SBs from tying Derek Bell for #25 with 50 steals. Wil had 28 swipes in 2016, so top 25 is a reasonable goal. A stretch goal would be to get to 20th place and force a 3-way tie with Eric Owens and Benito Santiago at 62, which would require upping his career high of 28 to 29 in 2017. He’s currently in 39th place and comfortably in the franchise top 50. It will only take 3 steals for him to start passing people on the leaderboard.
- Top 50 RBI: 26 RBI from tying Ruppert Jones for #50 with 149 runs batted in. He plated a career high 94 last year and matching that would result in 217 and beat Tim Flannery and Jerry Turner's 209 for 26th place in franchise history. It require Wil to beat his career high by 9 (103) to tie Luis Salazar for 25th place at 226.
- Top 50 2B: 17 2Bs from tying Tony Fernandez for #50 with 59 two-baggers. He hit a career high 29 last year and matching would result in a tie with Everth Cabrera for 37th place at 71.
- Top 50 Hits: 125 hits from tying Bill Almon for #50 with 337. His career high of 155 safeties last year, and matching that would result in 367 to beat Alan Wiggins’ 365 for 47th place.
- Top 50 Runs: 25 R from tying Ruppert Jones for #50 with 164. Wil cross home plate a career high 99 times last year and matching would result in 238 and beat Mark Loretta and Alan Wiggins' 236 for 27th place. A stretch goal would be to score 104 in 2017 and tie Henderson for 25th place at 243.
- Top 50 Batting Average: Wil should reach 1500 PAs and qualify for rate stats. His .257 Padres carer batting avg to date would put him next to Cito Gaston at #31.
- Top 25 OBP: His .336 Padres career on base percentage would put him at #22 ahead of Robert Alomar and Yonder Alonso's .335 OBP.
- Top 10 SLG. His .451 Padres slugging percentage would put him at #10 ahead of Mark Loretta and Kevin McReynolds' .438 SLG.
Yangervis Solarte, 2B/3B
Having joined the club at the trade deadline in 2014, Solarte is one of the longest tenured Padres players. With consistent at bats and some improved hitting ability, he has started to move up the franchise leaderboards.
Round Numbers:
- 500 Hits: 120 hits are needed to reach this milestone. He didn’t quite hit that many in 2016 due to injuries, but he did hit at least that many in 2014 and 2015.
- 500 Games: 108 G are needed to get to this milestone. He has played in at least 108 games in all 3 years of his MLB career.
Franchise Leaderboards:
- Top 25 2B: 27 doubles from tying Loretta for #25 with 91. He slugged 26 2Bs last year and 33 in 2015. With a repeat of his career high of 33 he would vault up to 22nd place passing Mark Kotsay at 94. That would also put him 1 behind 21st place Bip Roberts’ 98.
- Top 30 HR: 13 HRs from tying Matt Kemp and Ruben Rivera for #30 with 46. Solarte blasted a career high 15 homers last year and matching would result in 48 long balls and that beats Hundley's 47 in 29th place. A stretch goal would be to launch 19 fence-clearers in to get into the top 25. Currently Ollie Brown and Willie McCovey are in 24th with 52.
- Top 25 RBI: 75 RBI from tying Luis Salazar for #25 with 226. He plated a career high 71 last year and matching would result in 222 and beat Flannery/Turner's 209 for 26th.
- Top 50 Hits: 21 hits from tying Bill Almon for #50 with 337. His career high in hits was set in 2015 with 142 and matching that would result in 458 and beat Chris Denorfia's 456 for 32nd.
- Top 50 Runs: 16 Rs from tying Ruppert Jones for #50 with 164. Solarte crossed home a career high 63 times back in 2015 and matching that would result in 211 beating Wally Joyner's 210 for 38th.
- Top 20 Batting Average: Yangervis should reach 1500 PAs and qualify for rate stats. His current .275 Padres batting average would put him next to Chris Denorfia and Steve Garvey at #17.
- Top 30 OBP: Solarte’s .330 Padres on base percentage puts him at #28 ahead of Damian Jackson's .329.
- Top 15 SLG: Solarte’s .428 slugging percentage puts him at #15 ahead of Greene's .427.
Travis Jankowski, OF
Jankowski has only been up with the Padres for parts of 2 seasons, but his prolific base stealing already has him poised to make some noise in that category.
Franchise Leaderboards:
- Top 20 SB: 30 SBs from tying Eric Owens and Benito Santiago for #20 with 62. Currently, Travis sits in 41st place with 32 swipes. If you try to guess at a full season pace based on his short history, then you might be able to figure about ~50 steals. That kind of 2017 total would result in 17th place ahead of Cameron Maybin's 74 (19th place), Chase Headley's 73 (18th place), and Dave Roberts' 72 (17th place).
Manuel Margot, CF
Margot has spent even less time with the Padres than Jankowski, but Manual is thought to be a very good base stealer and like Travis he could be in the top 50 in just one season.
Franchise Leaderboards:
- Top 50 SB: 24 SBs ties Brad Ausmus and Joey Cora for 50th place in franchise history.
Ryan Schimpf, 2B/3B
20 HRs as a rookie gets you places on the Padres’ franchise leaderboard. It is looking like Schimpf will get a starting nod for most of 2017 and should be able to build on his home run total.
Franchise Leaderboards:
- Top 50 HR: 12 HRs ties Mark Loretta and Ed Spiezio for 49th with 32 round trippers. If Schimpf matches his 20 from last year then he would tie Luis Salazar in 38th place with 40. A guess at a full season pace based off of his playing time last year versus what he might get this year would project to somewhere around 30. That kind of total would result in 28th place just ahead of Jedd Gyorko's 49.
Clayton Richard, SP
Richard left the Padres after 2013 with a bum shoulder that would keep him out of the major leagues in 2014. Since then he has made his way back to the big leagues and also back the Padres. That gives him the opportunity to add to his Padres totals that already put him in middle of a handful of franchise leaderboards.
Round Numbers:
- 1000 Innings Pitched: Clay is 116.2 IP from this round number. He hasn’t pitched that many innings since 2012, but he’s in the Padres opening day rotation and that number of innings is easily doable for a SP who sticks in the rotation.
Franchise Leaderboards:
- Top 15 Wins: 4 Ws from tying Eaton for 15th place at 47. An optimist might look for a possibility of 11 Ws, which would tie Hoffman for 10th place at 54. An extreme optimist would look at Richard’s career high of 14 (he actually did that twice), which results in 57 and passes Bruce Hurst and Joey Hamilton's, who both had 55, for 8th place.
- Top 15 Innings Pitched: 105.2 IP ties Adam Eaton for 15th at 796 IP. His career high is 218.2 and matching that results in 909 IP, which beats Dave Dravecky's 900.1 at #13.
- Top 25 Strikeouts: 13 Ks ties Bob Shirley for 25th place at 432. 109 Ks, which might be doable, ties Woody Williams at #15 with 528. Match a career high of 153 Ks results in 572, which beats Sterling Hitchcock's 548 at #13.
- Top 10 Games Started: 26 GS ties Joey Hamilton for #10 at 142. Matching a career high of 33 results in 149 which beats Brian Lawrence's 146 at #9.
- Top 15 Losses: 8 Ls ties Dravecky for #15 at 50. Matching a career high of 14 results in 56, which beats Dave Freisleben's 53 at #14.
Brandon Maurer, RP
If you were still tuned in at the end of the 2016 season, you would have seen that Maurer was the team’s closer to end the year. He picked up a handful of saves and that got him into the top 50 in franchise history and left him poised to move up the leaderboard with a return to the role in 2017.
Franchise Leaderboards:
- Top 15/Top 10 Saves: 4 saves ties Fernando Rodney for 15th place with 17. 25 saves this season would tie Randy Myers for #10 with 38. 9th place is also within reach as 26 saves ties Craig Kimbrel in that spot at 39. 8th place is probably not within reach, but is possible. Maurer would need 36 save in 2017 to tie Gary Lucas' 49 for 8th place.
Did I cover everyone that could be hitting a milestone in 2017? Is there some stat that you’re tracking for this coming season? Let us know.