Giants-Padres Series Preview: Eldridge vs. Tatis Jr.
The San Francisco Giants were still licking their wounds after the pasting the New York Yankees gave them opening week and it seemed as though their division rival the San Diego Padres would extend the misery. Instead, the Giants took 2 out of 3 and left San Diego with the same 2-4 record as the Padres. But, from this point, the two teams diverged.
The Padres exploded for an 18-7 record in April while the Giants went 11-15. The surprise was less that the Giants underperformed and more that the Padres were great. As I mentioned in the last preview: It’s expected to be a down year for the Padres, right?
The team’s finances are such that AJ Preller couldn’t make a big splash in free agency and years of huge trades has emptied their farm system. They scored just 7 runs in their opening series against the Tiges, tied for third with the Rockies and just behind the Diamondbacks, putting all four non-Dodger NL West teams in the bottom 5 of the sport in terms of runs scored. By wRC+, San Diego’s 66 puts them just outside that bottom 5 at 6th place.
Sustainable for all these NL West teams? Probably not. San Diego sold at a valuation of $3.
9 billion not long after the series and that seemed to gas them up to competing with the Dodgers for the top of the NL West. Except there’s been one cute little storyline accompanying all that winning: Fernando Tatis Jr. has not hit a home run this season.
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