Brand New Infield Won’t Be Enough For New Look San Diego Padres

If a team is going to make noise in a season, the offense usually sounds loudest, but it’s always the pitching that makes the best music.

While the Padres have significantly improved their lineup and their defense, I don’t know if they have done enough to improve their pitching staff.

Back in February, Friars on Base projected the starting rotation.

SP1 – Clayton Richard

SP2 – Dinelson Lamet

SP3 – Luis Perdomo

SP4 – Bryan Mitchell

SP5 – Matt Strahm

SP6 – Jordan Lyles

Richard is the only veteran among them. The nine year veteran has spent seven seasons in San Diego, starting 148 games for the Friars.

No other pitcher in the rotation has anywhere near that kind of experience in the big leagues, let alone in San Diego.

And even though the team has a dominant closer in Brad Hand signed long term, there are plenty of question marks throughout the pitching staff.

Most of those questions center around the youth and inexperience, which can be misleading. The Colorado Rockies last season could have been described the exact same way.

The Rockies headed into 2017 with a potentially potent lineup that had many young unproven pitchers. And then, those pitchers pitched like they didn’t care that they were young and inexperienced.

For all the positives that can come from the Hosmer signing, the Galvis trade, the Headley reunion and even the Hand and Myers extensions, the success of the 2018 Padres will come down to pitching.