As April closes, the Padres are in FIRST PLACE in the National League West Division. Yup ! You heard that right Padres Fans ! With all due respect, I take my hat off and congratulate Ex-Padres CEO Sandy Alderson and Ex-Padres Baseball Operations Grady Fuson. These two people laid down the foundation and literally built up the farm system from ground zero. A few journalist who covers baseball fail to acknowledge this and give credit to former GM Kevin Towers. I disagree completely, though I will admit Kevin Towers did make some trades, most notably the Jake Peavy and Scott Hairston which brought in a handful of pitchers. Fox Sports baseball analyst Ken Rosenthal had alluded that Kevin Towers had built this team. If Rosenthal had did some homework, he would have found over the course of 15 years, Towers was never known for his farm system.

May is here and things are going to get even more interesting. So far the Padres are making news around the league and some players have been on ESPN and MLB Network highlights. According to Fox Sports Baseball Power Rankings, the Padres are 8th and if you don’t believe me check this out here. I still believe this Padres team will end up the NL Wild-Card entry. The style of baseball they play can legitimately be successful in any ball park. This team reminds me like those St. Louis Cardinals, that Whitey Hertzog had with the rabbits (Vince Coleman, Ozzie Smith, and Willie McGhee) and Bomber (Jack Clark). Though, our Padres version has more power with Adrian, Kyle Blanks, Will Venable and Chase Headley.

Player of the Month – April

This is a tie between LHP Wade LeBlanc, 3B Chase Headley, and RHP Tim Stauffer. All three players had a profound affect on the Padres record during April. LeBlanc, substituting for Chris Young has been very impressive and surely earned a starting spot in the rotation. As I had mentioned before on a previous post, the Padres are going to make a move or two before May. Well May is here, give and take a week or so, the move is coming. Headley has assumed the clean-up spot and providing great protection for Adrian Gonzalez. Not only that, Headley has driven in runs when the opposing pitchers have walked Adrian intentionally. As for Stauffer, his value continues to skyrocket just like a few silver junior mining stocks are doing at the moment. Stauffer has provided the Padres outstanding long relief and has been vital in keeping the staff fresh. Kudos to these three players, and Padres fans, let’s give them a round of applause during the games when these player names are announced.

As I close out this post, and the Padres are creeping up on the so called experts charts, here’s a song titled ‘The Creeper’ by Blues artist James Cotton. Let’s Go Padres, send out a signal MAY DAY !…THE PADRES ARE FOR REAL !!…