San Diego Padres: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season

San Diego Padres: 2020 Preview and Prediction

But there may be a saving grace for this San Diego Padres team, and that is undoubtedly the pitching staff that is stacked with youth that is on the cusp of breaking through and veterans who are catching their grooves in their careers.

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In terms of the young pitching this Padres team has, we could be here all day talking about it, but at the top of the heap is Chris Paddack who had a very impressive rookie season in 2019 pitching to a 9-7 record and 3.33 ERA with 153 strikeouts in 140.2 innings. Paddack still has some kinks to work out, but it’s worth noting that he is designated as the number one starter of this team after just one season of service. The Friars have a lot of young talent and number one-capable starters coming up, but Paddack is the one the franchise is anointing to the top right now.

Then there’s a strong comeback candidate in Dinelson Lamet who missed most of 2019 recovering from Tommy John surgery. Lamet burst onto the scene in mid-2018 to pitch to a 4.57 ERA with 139 strikeouts in 114.1 innings. Lamet is also a raw talent that needs to get his walks and home runs allowed under control, but the strikeout rate shows how high his ceiling can be. And if he can come into 2020 a new man after Tommy John, we may also see him take tremendous steps forward.

Capping off the youth movement among the pitching staff, we have Joey Lucchesi who’s pitched solid in his first two years of MLB service with a career 4.14 ERA and 303 strikeouts in 293.2 innings. Lucchesi is impressive in that he’s such a soft-tossing lefty, but his funky delivery and movement on every pitch he throws still gets him a ton of strikeouts.

Then we have guys like Cal Quantrill and Matt Strahm who are converted starters, and in Quantrill’s case, potentially still a starter for this team. We have Michel Baez and Adrian Morejon who are highly-touted prospects as well headed in a similar direction as Quantrill and Strahm in that they can be used as long relief studs as well as starters if spots open up. And we have two top 100 prospects in baseball set to potentially come up and make an impact this year in MacKenzie Gore (#5) and Luis Patino (#27).

Gore has a 2.56 minor league ERA in three years with 243 punch-outs in 183 total innings. Patino has a 3.00 ERA with 279 punch-outs in 234 total innings in the same time frame. These are two legit pitchers coming up in the Padres organization and once they both do, the Friars, along with the likes of Chris Paddack, Adrian Morejon, Michel Baez, Cal Quantrill, Dinelson Lamet, and Joey Lucceshi, all of whom throw super hard (outside of Lucchesi) with top-notch stuff, this team is going to be a pitching clinic in this league.

As for the veterans the Padres are catching on great waves, look… Kirby Yates might be the best relief pitcher in baseball right now with the best split-finger in the game. 41 saves a year ago and a 1.67 ERA since 2018. Boy, has this guy become a force out of nowhere.

They’re also catching Drew Pomeranz and Emilio Pagan at the perfect time as well. I don’t know what got into Pomeranz last year, but all of a sudden, he was hitting high velocity and becoming virtually unhittable as a member of the Brewers. Pagan landed in Tamp Bay last season after being kicked around Seattle and Oakland to become the Rays closer and rack up 20 saves with a high-90s fastball backing him.

This pitching staff as it is right now is vastly underrated, and now the Padres have a bullpen to be proud of. The strength of this pitching staff could go a long way in keeping the Padres competitive this year, and could even play a big part in helping them challenge for a playoff spot.

Ultimately, I believe the Padres’ biggest weakness will be their hitting, and for that reason, even though I really like their pitching, I don’t think this team will make that playoff push so many are predicting them to make.

I have the San Diego Padres finishing the year in third place in the NL West, and if it were a full 162-game season, I had them with a record of 76-86. This team is certainly on the rise, but I think they need a lot more help on offense.