Padres Monthly Recap: August

Record: (11-16)

Rankings for starters:

Hundley (C)—13/61 9 R 2 HR 9 RBI .213
A. Gonzalez (1B)—25/93 15 R 2 HR 11 RBI .269
Iguchi (2B)—8/64 4 R 0 HR 4 RBI .125
Rodriguez (SS)—27/89 9 R 0 HR 4 RBI .303
Kouzmanoff (3B)—28/107 13 R 5 HR 12 RBI .262
Gerut (OF)—28/82 14 R 7 HR 19 RBI 1 SB .341
Headley (OF)—25/90 14 R 2 HR 13 RBI 2 SB .278
Giles (OF)—32/92 15 R 5 HR 18 RBI .348

Off the bench:

E. Gonzalez (2B/3B)—11/51 8 R 0 HR 5 RBI 1 SB .216

Starting Pitchers:

Peavy—39 IP 1 W 40 K 2.77 ERA 1.13 WHIP
Baek—31 IP 1 W 24 K 4.35 ERA 1.35 WHIP
Reineke—18 IP 2 W 13 K 5.00 ERA 1.44 WHIP
Young—9.1 IP 0 W 7 K 8.68 ERA 1.93 WHIP
Maddux—24.2 IP 2 W 13 K 3.90 ERA 1.10 WHIP

Bullpen:

Bell—8 IP 0 W 7 K 2.25 ERA 1.12 WHIP
Hoffman—7 IP 2 W 5 SV 7 K 2.57 ERA .71 WHIP (1 BS)
Hampson—10.1 IP 1 W 7 K 2.61 ERA 1.16 WHIP

Analysis:

The Good—Dead weight was shed this month with the departure of Wil Ledezma and Iguchi. The Japanese second baseman was truly a bust, earning $4 million while hitting .231 and missing two months to injury.

San Diego swept the first place Diamondbacks in Petco Park (including a pounding of Cy Young candidate Brandon Webb) and then took two of three from Colorado. Believe it or not, it capped off the best home stand of the season for San Diego at 5-1.

The Bad—The Padres decided to give Iguchi a chance to win his job back after coming off the DL, sending the team's biggest surprise, Edgar Gonzalez, to the bench.

With the team out of contention and shedding payroll, the mind boggles as to why Iguchi was allowed to come back with Gonzalez playing better baseball at a lower price.

This month, the Padres came to within one game of their worst losing streak of the season, losing seven and being held to 1 or less runs in three of those games. San Diego also had a separate losing streak of four in August.

The Ugly—In a season where much has gone wrong for the Friars, injuries to Chris Young and Scott Hairston sidelined the former for much of last month and the latter for the rest of the season. The Padres were swept by division rivals Arizona and San Francisco on the road, and San Diego's total road record was 3-9 this month.

Telling Stat—(6): Times the Padres were restricted to one run or less this month by opposing teams. All games resulted in losses.

Individual:

MVP: Jody Gerut—He's done enough to warrant a callback in 2009, and his offensive explosion has raised eyebrows. His seven homeruns and 19 RBI's led the team.

LVP: Tadahito Iguchi—Happy trails, Gooch. Despite getting the bulk of starts at 2B after coming off the DL, he was able to get only eight hits all month.

Report Card:

—Hitting: (D-) San Diego's 25 HR this month is second worst all season, only six more than the 19 they hit in April. As was mentioned before, San Diego's offense was held to one run or less six times this month.

—Starting Pitching: (C) Peavy and Baek were solid this month, despite accounting for only two wins between them in 70 IP. With the departure of Maddux, it'll be up to Hayhurst and Geer to impress Padres brass from here until season's end. Josh Banks was sent down to AAA due to a 6.94 ERA in his five August starts.

—Bullpen: (D) Solid performances from Heath Bell, Justin Hampson and Trevor Hoffman mask San Diego's biggest problem this year—protecting leads. Cla Meredith and Mike Adams were shaky, with ERAs of 4.50 for each in 20 IP of combined work.

—Overall: (D) The Padres' 5-1 run at home at the end of the month masks the ugliness that was August a little bit. However, this was still a month where the Padres lost 11 games in two separate streaks.

Looking Ahead:

The sweet embrace of death is near for San Diego. Soon, this aberrant season will be over and the Padres can look forward to investing money in free agents and watching young talent in the winter leagues.

Will Venable, Matt Antonelli, Josh Geer and Dirk Hayhurst are names to follow as they might be starters in 2009 or a little farther down the road.

Circumstances of this season will allow Bud Black and GM Kevin Towers to watch several young players looking ahead for 2009 and beyond. Geer and Hayhurst on the mound will get about seven starts each, and Nick Hundley seems to have a hold of the catching job despite Josh Bard coming back.

Will Venable will share time with Jody Gerut in center field, and the September call-ups will be sure to get some playing time as well.