The San Diego Padres are a Team to Watch

And they came to my attention when my favorite team invaded Petco Park for a three game weekend series in mid May. Because of some quirky COVID-19 issues, Fernando Tatis Jr. was out of the lineup all weekend long. I am not as familiar with Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers. But they were out of the lineup too. The results: 5-4, 13-3, and 5-3. The St. Louis Cardinals left town without a win.

Some have said that Tatis is the new face of Major League Baseball, and it is hard to argue with that. As I write this post on June 6, the San Diego club is two games off of the pace in the NL West and basically fighting with the Dodgers for second place. This past weekend (June 3-6) brought a split of a four game series at home with the New York Mets, who are leading the NL East. The Chicago Cubs are next up at Petco, and the fun should continue into this week.  

Tatis is in the hunt to win the home run crown this year. He has 17 at the time of this post.

West coast teams can be more difficult to follow due to time zone differences. But many baseball fans are already familiar with players like Tommy Pham, Austin Nola, and Manny Machado. Manager Jayce Tingler has discussed the passion of the team that produces heated arguments such as the one Pham and Ha-Seong Kim got into after colliding in pursuit of a fly ball in recent days - reported by Yahoo! Sports.

Key pitchers for the Padres include Chris Paddack, Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, and Joe Musgrove.

As we enter the month of June, we begin to separate the contenders from the pretenders. In the National League Western Division, the contenders are the Padres, Giants, and Dodgers. 

I think the Padres will come out on top in this division.

James A. Rose

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