Machado About Nothing

You can tell I'm excited to be doing puns again, because I'm gleefully doing up Daily-Show-esque pun titles for posts. Shakespeare would not approve, but I don't care.

So let's talk about the San Diego Padres. Who, for the first time in about a decade, finally have something interesting to talk about.

Yes, I am overlooking the 2015 season, where even when Justin Upton, Matt Kemp, James Shields and Derek Norris were on the roster, there was simply no cohesion between the new contracts and the old veterans. This is different, because the lineup has had a chance to grow and mature a bit over the last few years, which definitely helps. Now we're seeing good stuff from Austin Hedges and Manny Margot, and now Wil Myers and Eric Hosmer have gotten over initial troubles and are playing like their old selves. Instead of dropping four contracts in at once, the Padres planned this gradually, so that neither side would be exhausted, and it seems to be working.

Now the Machado addition can really work. As you can tell, there have been the expected amount of jitters over the last few games for Manny Machado, who is OF COURSE taking some time to adjust to his new team and ballpark. But the good thing is that it's just Machado who's really adjusting (and maybe Ian Kinsler too), rather than four players at once. Once we get to about May, Machado will have figured San Diego out, and will be on the same page as the rest of the team. And then they can add more pieces gradually, and work on this.

The team's 3-1 after 4 games. It's extremely early, but there's some definite signs of life from this lineup that I haven't seen in years. The ENTIRE ROTATION, consisting of Joey Lucchesi, Eric Lauer, and rookies Chris Paddack and Nick Margevicius, has an average ERA of 0.90. Considering how dire the rotation looked last year, this is an incredible step up. Hell, Kirby Yates already has 3 saves and hasn't allowed a run yet. I know it's early, but these are all good signs.

Still, with the Dodgers and Rockies in this division as well, I sincerely hope the Padres can build on this intriguing start. And I hope that once Machado hits his sweet spot, that he doesn't let up.

Coming Tomorrow- In a division featuring the defending World Champions and the Yankees, THIS is the team that opens (heh) the season in first. And THIS is its star player.