San Francisco Giants 2017 Preview of NL West: San Diego Padres

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Oct 1, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; A general view of Petco Park before the game between the Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports /

As we approach opening day, Around the Foghorn is taking a look at all the San Francisco Giants NL West opponents for the 2017 season. Today, we preview the Padres.

The San Diego Padres have been bad for a long time. 2010 was their last glimpse at the postseason. Thanks to the San Francisco Giants, that was not the case. What looked like a strong young team that was ready to compete for multiple years, has now been a big “what if?” for Padres fans.

It’s been a shame that downtown San Diego has such a beautiful stadium, and a great area surrounding Petco Park, or whatever corporate group owns the naming rights now. Either way, it’s a beautiful setup that’s essentially gone to waste with the product on the field.

Now they’re the only professional sports team in San Diego.

In 2016, most people didn’t believe the Padres would compete. They were stuck with an aging and underperforming Matt Kemp and one decent starter in Drew Pomeranz. Their big surprise of the year was Wil Myers. Myers lead their team in Home Runs and RBI, with 28 and 94.

As mentioned earlier, Pomeranz was their best pitcher, leading the team in ERA. He also posted a K/9 of 10.1, a K/BB rate of 2.8, an FIP of 3.15. All of those were quite good for a starter. Sadly, no other starter on that staff came close to those numbers.

While 2016 wasn’t good for the Padres, we’re going to take a look at how they’ve tried to get better for 2017.