With all the hoopla surrounding the San Diego Padres’ truly rags-to-riches story this season, it seemed appropriate to take a deeper look at the Cindarella story emerging out of the city of Saint Diego (or, according to Ron Burgundy, the ”whale’s vagina”).  As of August 26, 2010, the Padres are 76-49.  They are 6.5 games up on the San Francisco Giants in the NL West and they have the best record in the National League.  They are only 1 game behind the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays for the best record in the majors.  Yet, their payroll is second lowest in the majors.  What gives? 

To understand the 2010 San Diego Padres, one must first understand the events that transpired after the Padres’ 2009 season.  Then-current General Manager Kevin Towers was the longest tenured GM in the majors, having completed his 14th season as the Padres’ GM.  However, after the 2009 season, Towers was fired by Padres CEO Jeff Moorad.  Moorad lead a group that was buying the ballclub from then-owner John Moores.  Despite a bounceback 74-85 2009 campaign (the Padres were 63-99 the year before), Moorad indicated that he wanted his own personnel in place.  Under Towers, the Padres had won division titles in 1996, 1998, 2005 and 2006.  They reached the World Series in 1998 but were swept by the New York Yankees.  Thus, Towers’ firing came as a shock to most baseball people and two months ago, Jake Peavy – former Padres ace - was quite outspoken against his firing last year.  Towers was eventually replaced by Jed Hoyer but most people around baseball, including Peavy, believe that the Padres’ success this year has all to do with Towers and little to do with Hoyer.

Just before the trade deadline, Towers traded Peavy to the Chicago White Sox for four pitchers which also saved the Padres $56 million in payroll.  Those pitchers were Clayton Richard, Aaron Poreda, Dexter Carter and Adam Russell.  Russell has pitched a handful of games this year but Clayton Richard was the big prize and a key part of the Padres’ current success.  Richard is 12-5 with a 3.55 ERA and 126 strikeouts in 159.2 innings pitched.  Mat Latos is the other stud in the Padres all-around stellar starting rotation.  He has a 13-5 record with a 2.33 ERA and 144 strikeouts in 142.2 innings pitched in his second season.  His strikeout/walk ratio is 1.70.  Latos was drafted in the 11th round of the 2006 amateur draft under Towers.  Chris Young, who has been on the DL for most of this year but talented nonetheless, was also acquired by Towers from the Texas Rangers in 2006.  Jake Peavy, by the way, is done pitching in 2010 with a detached lat muscle.  Bolstered by a bullpen that includes closer Heath Bell (1.84 ERA) and relievers Mike Adams (1.81 ERA) and Joe Thatcher (1.32 ERA), the Padres have the #1 ranked pitching staff in the majors in terms of ERA and the #1 ranked pitching staff in the National League in terms of wins.  All three players were acquired via trade by Towers.

And although most people cannot name more than 3 of the Padres’ position players (if that many), one big name player is sure to stand out: Adrian Gonzalez.  A-Gonz has almost single-handedly carried the Padres offense on his back this year with a .289 BA (tied for 25th in the majors), 26 hrs (tied for 12th in the majors), and 82 rbis (tied for 16th in the majors).  As I’m sure you’ve already figured out by now, Towers was the mastermind behind the acquisition of A-Gonz as well.  In fact, both A-Gonz and Chris Young came over to the Padres in the same 2006 trade with the Rangers.  This trade exemplified the true genius of Towers.  For A-Gonz and Young, the Rangers got in return Billy Killian, Adam Eaton, Akinori Otsuka.  Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of these guys because I haven’t either. 

Of course, with a pitching staff putting together a season such as this, the Padres don’t need to score many runs.  The Padres have shut out opponents the second most amount of times in the majors this year – 16 times.  As the old adage goes, pitching a defense wins ballgames.  And can you guess where the Padres rank in terms of fielding percentage?  Yeah – tied for first (.989).

Okay, so the Padres are doing it with pitching a defense.  Nothing necessarily new except that their 2010 opening day payroll was the second lowest in the majors at roughly $38 million – just ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  In the last 35 years, not one major league team has ever won the World Series with the second lowest payroll in baseball.  The 2003 Florida Marlins came the closest but even they weren’t second to last.  That’s not to say that it cannot happen.  Heck, the Padres are 27 games over .500 and are tied with the Yankees and the Rays for the fewest losses in the majors (49).  But can their regular season success translate into the playoffs?  Only time will tell.  

One thing, however, is clear.  Despite Hoyer actually lowering Towers’ payroll from last season, the Padres are performing exponentially better under Hoyer’s new regime.  And while all of this accumulated talent was really the product of Towers, perhaps Hoyer and Co. should be given at least some credit for putting it all together in what looks to be one of the most memorable stories of the 2010 season.  Can this success continue for a sustained period into future seasons if Hoyer remains the Uncle Scrooge of baseball?  Almost certainly not.  But the Padres and baseball fans alike might as well ride out this perfect wave as long as we can…

Stay classy, San Diego.

Trade information made available by baseball-reference.com

Ron Burgundy information made available by “Anchorman”