The Padres went to Queens and took two out of three to knock off the Mets last week. They’ll now start a five-game set looking to take down the Dodgers, a team that was 22 games clear of them for the lead in the NL West. San Diego makes one change to their roster from the Mets series.
Here’s how it all breaks down:
Right-Handed Pitchers
- Mike Clevinger (Game 1 starter)
- Yu Darvish (Game 2 starter)
- Luis Garcia
- Pierce Johnson
- Nick Martinez
- Joe Musgrove
- Robert Suarez
- Steven Wilson
Left-Handed Pitchers
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
The only adjustment for the Friars is the installation of Mike Clevinger onto the Division Series roster. The right-hander was sidelined by a non-COVID illness late in the regular season. While he reported to the team in Flushing, the Friars didn’t carry him on the roster for the series. Clevinger, who had a 4.33 ERA with a career-low 18.8% strikeout rate over 114 1/3 innings this year, may not have gotten a start over Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove during the three-game set regardless. With the potential for a five-game series this time around, San Diego adds an extra arm to the staff. Clevinger will step right into the mix with a Game One start after the Friars deployed their top three arms late last week.
As a result, the Padres swap out infielder Brandon Dixon. Carried as a right-handed bench bat during the first set, Dixon didn’t make an appearance. He won’t be an option for manager Bob Melvin this series unless he’s added as an injury replacement.
That’s a strong roster.
From an NL West rival: let’s go Padres!
I’ll gladly take the Padres in this series
His wind up drives me absolutely nuts. I would be stepping out and calling time at least 3 or 4 times every AB with him. Taste of his own distracting medicine. Other than that, good pitcher. Hope the Dodgers jump on him though.
I can’t watch when he pitches. As Mike Krukow said, every parent of young kids knows what it means when your kid starts doing that. Hopefully the pitch clock will have some remediating effect next season..
Padres are trying to stop Dodger fans from buying all their tickets by geo-blocking certain counties. I already know of friends and family buying tickets in SD and riverside county for LA fans. Can’t wait to see all the dodger hats at Petco.
How dare them. Dodgers fans are going to flood that stadium with blue tonight no doubt. Mookie going deep tonight.
Mookie went 0-fer. Maybe tonight.
Has to tonight! I don’t think Freddie hit anything either. Trea and Muncy and Smitty did damage though!
Who ever shows up to Petco in a dodger hat better be ready. This isn’t some random Tuesday in June we are talking about here.
Dodger fan is expecting another walkover, I suspect by this weekend they will be fully aware that isn’t what’s on the menu.
99, hahaha Man you sound like you mean business. I don’t want to rumble haha
LOL I’m just saying, let’s not go thinking this is going to be “Dodger Stadium south” like Dodger fan is used to.
Hahahahahahaha”Dodger Stadium South!” Funny stuff 99 seriously. I’m sure it will be a congenial affair tonight as usual haha
I’ll be looking in the stands!
I guess they didn’t want to pay the $
I was at both games. Didn’t see much blue at all. Guess ya’ll didn’t want to pay the money to be there.
Padres playing with House Money. Pressure is on the Doy ers
We gonna act like the Padres didn’t just unload their farm for Soto?
Yeah, pretty delusional.
What a weekend, huh?
D*dgers still had more to lose, it appears.
And TODAY it is back on SD!!!
And now LA is in shambles
Clevinger sucked and, just like Blake Snell, are only good occasionally. Snell had a great run after a horrible 1st half. He stunk up New York.
The Padres need people who stay stable. Missing tons of games is no way to be competitive.
I thought, at the time, Clevinger just for Cal Quantrill was a Padres blunder. The added haul for Cleveland made it a real heist.
That insane triggering tic of Clevinger’s makes it a bad trade just by itself. It spread to teammate Nick Martinez, albeit to a slightly lesser degree. .CUT IT OUT, BOTH OF YOU.
What would San Diego look like today had Preller never made a trade? This year’s playoff teams are littered with his castoff stars. Trea Turner nearly by himself makes that an intriguing debate.
It’s going to be tough for Pads fans to see Quantrill win about 150 games for Cleveland until he returns to San Diego as a free agent. Or in another bad Preller trade.
By an odd coincidence, tonight Clevinger and Quantrill both struggled when it mattered most.
Actually a fun question to see what the Padres would look like without any Preller trades. Using Sportrac i came up with this 26-man squad, only considering players who could still be under team control:
C Hedges
1B France
2B Urias
3B Machado
SS Turner
LF Profar
CF Suwinski
RF Renfroe
DH Reyes
Bench: Hosmer, Kim, Miller, Campusano, Abrams
SP Castillo, Lauer, Quantrill, Patino, Gore.
RP Clase, Cimber, Pagan, Munoz, Bednar, Lamet, Johnson
That bullpen looks amazing! This team could be a lot better in the near future if Gore, Hassell, Abrams etc. turn into star players
Not a playoff team, so I guess in that respect Preller did his job.
Rotation is a bit sus. Especially when including Castillo isn’t really fair. But the lineup is only marginally worse than the current lineup. Losing Crone is the biggest stinger but is more than offset by adding Turner. Then Hedges can’t hit at all but Nola and Alfaro aren’t very good hitters to begin with.
You’re right, I missed his trade coming in in 2016. Stupid since I did check for Josh Naylor. So exchange him for… Nick Martinez?
This is a fringe playoff team at best but it does have some great prospects coming up soon
What about Max Fried and Zach Eflin for SP?
Padres will fall out of contention probably next year, Preller will be fired after 2023, and that will be the end of it for the next 10 years, at least
They should be fine next year. I’m worried about 2024 because Musgrove is their only starter under control for that year and Manny can opt out. And don’t try it with “He’s not going to opt out because he wants to stay in San Diego.”
They don’t have that many impending FA to expect a drastic drop off in 2023. A lot of the FA they do have leaving (Myers, Manaea) were underperforming their pay anyways so their money coming off the books probably helps SD.
They’ll have a few holes and will need to get a 1B, another OF, and a couple backend starters, but they also get Tatis back at the end of April and a full season of Soto. There is not a lot to do roster-wise to make them a playoff team again.
They might have long term issues because of the amount of prospects they’ve unloaded, but in the short term they should still be really good.
2023 will have to be their year. Losing Bell, Myers, Clevinger and Manaea is very doable. 2024 onwards will be rough, especially if the D-backs don’t mess up their rebuild for once
That didn’t work out so well.