San Diego Padres

A team is only as good as the last player on the bench.

The Padres bench in 2010 was good, but there was room for improvement.

Gone are the likes of Scott and Jerry Hairston, Matt Stairs, Yorvit Torrealba and probably Oscar Salazar. This is not a bad thing; after all, the Padres have Mark Loretta, Brad Ausmus and Trevor Hoffman back...

What? Retired? All of 'em? When? Dang it.

Loretta was rolling for me in fantasy when he was a Padre a few years back; then he broke his wrist and screwed me over at second base for the rest of the season.

It was raining the day I arrived for 2011 Spring Training, and by my first full day in Peoria, Ariz., it was pouring. Clouds hung over the entire weekend.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized the weather was appropriate considering the situation facing my San Diego Padres heading into this coming baseball season. It's certainly not going to be sunshine and rainbows for the new-look Padres, who have weathered a lot of departures in recent memory.

Adrian Gonzalez? Gone. David Eckstein? History. The Hairstons? Adios.

Miguel Tejada? Auf Weidersehen. Yorvit Torrealba? Movin on..

You get the picture. The Padres will be a different team in 2011.

The question becomes "Is different better?" I know that what I see on paper right now looks much better than the last two seasons teams did at this same point. Lets take a look at what should be the Padres starting line up for opening day.

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In Cameron Maybin's defense, he hasn't played an inning in a Padre uniform yet. But that inexperience didn't keep him from making headlines Monday.

Because for all of the positives that social media represents, it also has its drawbacks. Unfortunately, Maybin found out about the drawbacks the hard way.

With spring training around the corner, coupled with being snowed in here in Little Rock, Arkansas, I thought it’d be a perfect time for my take on the Padres in 2011.

The 2011 opening day lineup will most likely look similar to this:

1.     Jason Bartlett – SS

2.     Orlando Hudson – 2B

In preparation of the 2011 MLB Fantasy Baseball season, The Fantasy Fix team will preview a team's pitching rotation each day.

In this third National League West preview, Brett Talley examines Mat Latos and the San Diego Padres.

I've put in a lot of study and a lot of research into this, and I have  come up with my pick for the 2011 MLB Baseball World Series champions. The offseason has been filled with DFA's (Designation for Assignment) trades, free agent signings, and tons of teams in the league have put themselves in a good position to succeed.

The 2010 season abruptly ended for the San Diego Padres, who were hungry for a postseason berth. The Pads fell one game short of forcing a tie in the NL West, and needed to sweep the Giants or have the Braves be swept instead. Sadly, the Padres finished second in the West, and could not qualify for the wild card position. 

The San Diego Padres were the biggest surprise of the 2010 season, as they led the NL West for most of the year only to fall just short of the playoffs. Solid pitching, consistent defense, and timely hitting were the recipe for success for a team with only one true superstar in Adrian Gonzalez.   

Here is what I wrote about Jorge Cantu in my “Free Agent Primer” post…