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Thanks in part to spending the first week and a half of the season getting pounded by the Dodgers, the San Diego Padres come in to Coors Field today as owners of an MLB-worst 2-8 record. The Friars haven't received particularly good starting pitching up to this point, which is usually their forte. Only Clayton Richard (1-0, 2.77 ERA, 126 ERA+ in two starts) has been worth writing home about; the rest of the rotation has been awfully hittable to this point, even in the offensive black hole that is known as Petco Park. New acquisition Edinson Volquez has been striking out batters as per usual (one per inning so far), but he has walked more than six batters per nine innings which hasn't helped his cause. Meanwhile, San Diego's offense has, as predicted, been quite putrid through the first ten games of the season. Their starting lineup includes two guys (Will Venable and the player featured below) that have been above league average so far, and everybody else has flat out stunk.
Even with talent such as Cameron Maybin and Yonder Alonso on the roster, Chase Headley remains the Padres' best, and most proven, offensive player. This is a guy who has played in THE stupidest offensive ballpark in the history of baseball, and yet has been able to put up above-average to very good numbers over the past few seasons. 2010 aside, Headley has put up an OPS+ of over 100 in every big league season. Last year's mark of 120 was a career best, and he will likely improve while still in his prime. If the guy is ever able to get out of San Diego (he has an .808 career road OPS), we're probably looking at an All-Star caliber third baseman.
Former Rockie Huston Street is closing out games for the Friars these days, and so far he has been up to the task. In three appearances spanning three innings, Street has been perfect, retiring all nine batters he's faced while striking out three. Do not be surprised if Street has a big year in San Diego if he remains healthy. All signs indicate he's on the road to doing so already. Other than Street and Ernesto Frieri, the Padre bullpen has had some trouble so far in 2012, particularly with walking batters; three key components to the pen have issued more free passes than strikeouts thus far. While that trend is unlikely to continue (mostly because relievers who can't find the zone don't stick around too long), it has hurt the Padres thus far and will remain a concern, at least in the short term. Something must really be going array at the Padres' reliever factory in Temecula, CA.
Prediction: The Rockies take two out of three, stumbling in the series finale in which Jim Tracy runs out a lineup featuring Jonathan Herrera playing three positions at once while batting cleanup.
Full Padres roster and injuries after the jump...