San Diego Padres: Five Things To Reflect on This Season

In honor of the franchise's 3000th victory this afternoon, a 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, here are five things to reflect on during this 2010 season.

The San Diego Padres came into the 2010 season with not a whole lot expected from them. In fact, most "experts" had them finishing dead last in the National League Western Division and it turns out that they weren't far off.

There have been a lot of things that have happened during the season from injuries to the shocking trade of ace Jake Peavy to the Chicago White Sox.

But from that has come four very talented pitchers that will definitely make an impact with the Padres for years to come, while Peavy could be a few years past his prime. Though that's still yet to be seen.

Injury to Brian Giles allowed the emergence of Will Venable

When Brian Giles went down to injury, the Padres tried a few outfielders from Triple-A Portland, but none took the job and ran with it more than Will Venable.

Since his call up to San Diego, Venable has not only shown Gold Glove caliber defense but he has added power to what was a lackluster Padre offense void of a power bat outside first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

Venable is hitting .267 with 11 home runs and has driven in 33 runs. He's definitely giving San Diego something to look forward to next season.

Trevor who?

So far this season, Heath Bell has shown that he can become a proven closer even without prior experience in Major League Baseball.

So far this season, Heath Bell has converted 38 saves in 43 chances. But, even though Bell has taken over nicely for departed long time closer Trevor Hoffman, there's a lot of talk that Bell could be traded at the end of this season.

We'll just have to wait and see if that does in fact happen and who will be the closer for San Diego in 2010? Perhaps Mike Adams?

Mat Latos the next Jake Peavy?

Ok, so let's not get too ahead of ourselves on this one, but the young right hander has shown flashes of brilliance during his short stint with San Diego this season.

He has electric stuff and the ability to be a game changing pitcher, but he has a lot to learn and that will only come with age and experience.

He should be fun to watch next season.

Seems the Padres are committed to winning...finally

The one thing I look back on this season was the Padres' ability to sign all three of their top draft picks. Something that hadn't been done in recent years.

The Padres, under former owner John Moores, used to pick out of sign-ability which led them to one of their worst draft picks in history. That being Matt Bush who is no longer in baseball after several off the field issues.

But this season seems to be different under new owner Jeff Moorad. The Padres got their draft picks signed and they drafted players that were under super agent Scott Boras. A guy the Padres used to stay away from.

There's still a level of excitement from the fans

Although there's been a lot of criticism from the San Diego Padre fans, those fans are still turning out to watch this young team play.

There's more promise in the young players that are out there now and that's translating to the field. They've been picking up series wins over National League West foes like Colorado, San Francisco, and Los Angeles late in the season, even affecting the NL West race as well as the Wild Card.

They look to next season and wonder what this team will do with a full season together. There are questions being thrown around like, can they contend? Can they surprise a lot of people and actually stay in the race all season long?

Though those questions won't be answered for quite some time, at least the excitement is still there among the fans. That means they haven't given up on this team and they are still keeping with the Padres' motto that has lived on since it began during the 1998 season. "Keep The Faith."