Padres drawing wrong kind of national recognition from writers

In their better days, the Padres rightfully could complain that their feats often were overlooked by national media and baseball fans east of the National League West Division.

Now amid their worst days -- at least, their low point since moving to Petco Park in 2004 -- the Padres should be thankful for the fact they're so easily ignored. Especially with the Diamondbacks getting all the attention.

Then again, by having created what a rival GM called a "culture of winning" with two division titles and almost a third in the previous three years, the Padres have brought some outside focus on their difficulties in 2008.

Such as these recent remarks from Jerry Crasnick of

"While the Arizona Diamondbacks were jumping out to a big National League West lead in April, the Padres' offense was a portrait in stagnation. Somewhere between that playoff loss to Colorado in early October and their first Eastern road trip, they've turned into the NL's answer to the Kansas City Royals.

"If you want to dig a nine-game hole despite a rotation that includes Jake Peavy, Chris Young and Greg Maddux, try ranking last in the major leagues in runs (98), batting average (.225), on-base percentage (.296) and slugging percentage (.333) through Friday's games. It's a good thing those free-swinging Florida Marlins are around, or the Padres also would rank first in strikeouts.

"So here's the obvious question: Is this just an early-season funk, or a harbinger of a long, lost summer in that baseball nirvana by the Pacific Coast?

"The view from behind home plate isn't quite (so) optimistic. One advance scout who watched the Padres recently saw an array of hitters who can be pitched to up and down the lineup. The Padres have little power and even less speed, and with the exception of first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, there's not a player who evokes fear night in and night out.

"'It's a pretty stiff, unathletic group,' said a National League front-office man."

In its most recent power rankings, ESPN gave the Padres its dead-last rating, noting that San Diego had the largest deficit of any team in the majors.

John Donovan of Sports Illustrated called the Padres "one of the most inept offensive teams to stumble out of the starting gate in years. The Padres can look completely capable for brief, optimistic moments. They can, on the odd occasion, look close to good.

"But things too often end up very, very foul for San Diego. So foul that the Padres, not even six weeks into the season, are already in real danger of getting pushed out of the postseason picture altogether.

"Those results have been maddening for San Diego fans and something between peculiar and borderline amusing for everyone else. ... They average a baseball-low 3.32 runs a game. The last time an NL team scored fewer than 3.5 runs a game over the course of a full season was in 1992, when the 99-loss Dodgers scored 3.38 a game. This Padres team could do that.

"More galling than the sheer numbers, or lack of them -- which are bad enough to bring out the boos in a normally forgiving Southern California place like San Diego -- is the way the Padres' lineup has managed to not score runs. They are remarkably, even for a poor offensive team, un-clutch."


