30 Teams in 30 Days 2018 28 San Diego Padres

UPDATE: I SWEAR I HAD THIS WRITTEN AND SCHEDULED ON FRIDAY AGO BUT FORGOT TO CLICK PUBLISH AND IT IS NOW SUNDAY I AM STILL ON SCHEDULE I SWEEEEEAAAAARRRRR!

For the past three point five years, the Padres have had a decidedly tumultuous run under General Manager A.J. Preller. First they emptied their farm system for a dramatic push for contention. Then when that failed spectacularly, they flipped most of their short term assets for promising young talent. And now, with much of that talent coming to fruition at the Major League level, and with one of the splashiest moves of the offseason, San Diego is hoping that relevance is not too far down the horizon. It'll still be an uphill climb, on the fact that they share a division with three 2017 playoff teams, but here's the core of what will hopefully be the next Padres contenders:

All-Acquired Factor

Eric Hosmer was probably the most polarizing figure on last year's free agent market. On the one hand, he's got a reputation as a clubhouse leader, he drives in runs, and he passes the eye test at first base. On the other hand, he has yet to put together consecutive good seasons, he's on the wrong side of the launch angle revolution, and he's far from a darling of fielding metrics. Somehow, in this curious and outrageous economic landscape, that skill set equates to an eight year contract at $20mm per year. The other two additions to San Diego's lineup were acquired via trade: Freddy Galvis, the next-most significant, came from the Phillies, and will serve as a one-year stopgap for MLB.com's #8 overall prospect, Fernando Tatis Jr., some of that aforementioned young talent. And the last, corner infielder Chase Headley, is a familiar face, having been developed as a Padre, and also having been taken back from the Yankees primarily as a means to offset some salary in order to acquire the player they were really after, starter Bryan Mitchell. However, he's been all but supplanted at the hot corner by red-hot hitting, and un-ranked, Christian Villanueva.

Fifth Starter

Mitchell has stuck in the rotation so far, despite a winless record, and is in fact scheduled to pitch tomorrow. However, one full half of the rotation projected by Sports Illustrated in their baseball preview episode is now out of commission. Dinelson Lamet, who SI projected as their fantasy breakout candidate, which would have been good news for the Cancer fantasy astrology team, had he not suffered a torn UCL and required Tommy John surgery. And Luis Perdomo, who had seemed very promising, especially for a former Rule 5 pick, was just optioned to the minors. Instead,  another familiar face, Tyson Ross, saw his MLB.com rank increase to 541 with the news that he had won a job in the rotation. But the last spot went to rather unheralded lefty Joey Lucchesi, ranked #9 on the list of Padres prospects by MLB.com, and he's been the best of the bunch with a 2.70 ERA / 2.89 FIP through his first five MLB starts, the sixth of which might be happening RIGHT NOW. The strategy of using midrange prospects in the rotation worked so well that Perdomo's place was filled by San Diego's #8 prospect Eric Lauer, who got hammered in his one appearance so far.

Outfield

Two years ago, former Rookie of the Year Wil Myers moved from the outfield to first base full time,
which seemed to have allowed him to unlock more of his potential, perhaps by removing some of the physical toll from his body. Then Eric Hosmer's acquisition pushed Myers back to the outfield, and he somewhat predictably got hurt less than a week later. He's back now, and hitting well, but his absence opened up right field for last year's right fielder Hunter Renfroe, whose rank dropped to 399 when it was announced that he would not join a healthy Myers in the outfield, having been surpassed by last year's breakout left fielder Jose Pirela, which is why his ranking is shaded in green above. However, I do see a way for both Pirela and Renfroe to be in the lineup, and it involves the fact that Pirela was once a second base prospect for the Yankees. If he can take some time at the keystone, as FanGraphs positional power rankings suggest, he could displace Carlos Asuaje, who's ranked more than 300 spots worse.

Pronunciation

Before Lamet's injury, when I was trying to decide between him, Marco Estrada, and Patrick Corbin for the "Decapods" fifth starter, I assumed you emphasized the first syllables of his name, like DIN-ell-sun LAMB-et. Conversely, Baseball Reference claims the emphasis should go on the second syllable of each name, as in "di-NEL-son lam-ET" and I have no reason not to agree with them. As for the Padres second baseman, I would have said as-WAH-hey, like in the George Harrison song "Wah-Wah". However, when I was listening to a Padres game on the MLB.com At-Bat app, which I then subsequently plugged on my blog, just now, I distinctly heard the broadcaster say as-WAY-hey, and... I kind of still think I'm right. Although, I was also firmly convinced that the first name of the current Mets infielder with the surname Cabrera was pronounced AZZ-dru-ball, until I was finally enlightened enough to say as-DREW-bull.

Song

San Diego - Blink-182

I liked Blink-182 in the 90's. I still loosely follow Travis Barker's career, due mostly to his association with Run the Jewels, which, if you'll recall, is also related to my recent interest in Lorde. But can you blame me if I was still a little surprised to see that the San Diego-based band had released an album as recently as 2016? And then if I was even more surprised to find out that the "San Diego" is a surprisingly deep song about the relationships of the band members, the themes of which could be applied to a rebuilding baseball team? Either way, I promise this is the last team where I had to find an entry for this feature through Internet searching.