The maddening part about the NL West this year is the drop-off.
You have three teams that are over 60 wins, running around having great seasons...then fourteen games behind them, you have the Padres and the Giants, two of the most pathetic teams in baseball this year not based in Philadelphia.
Right now the Giants have the worse record, because the aged interior of the team isn't amounting to crap this year. The Padres have the opposite problem. Whereas the Giants have developed this solid, World Series-winning core that's now disobeying them, the Padres have no core, they have pretty much nothing, and the guys they DID have that were good last year are disappointing this year.
There is a small core of youth beginning to form, with Jose Pirela and Manny Margot stepping up this year to join a still-alright Yangervis Solarte. The only problem is that a lot of the other guys that the Padres want to be part of this youth movement, like Cory Spangenberg, Austin Hedges and Hunter Renfroe, aren't hitting very well at all this year, at least not for average. Two players already have 100 strikeouts. Only one starter's over .300, and he started in, like, June.
It's not good, guys. Only a nice comeback season from Jhoulys Chacin is making this team anywhere near noteworthy. The guy had a few nice seasons in Colorado, bounced around for a few years unsuccessfully, and is now finally needed and trusted by a team this year. Even with all this crap that's going on with the Padres, you at least have to admire that.
Coming Tonight: He's fast, he's young, and he might be helping the Rays stay in the conversation.
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