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- The Padres are shooting for their third consecutive winning month, while the Dodgers are shooting for their first winning month since May. The Padres are 11 - 9 in Sept, the Dodgers are 9 - 11. At one point in Sept the Dodgers were 3 - 0. That seems a long time ago.
- The Dodgers and Padres have identical home records 40 - 35, but the Padres are 15th in attendance at 1, 925, 659, while the Dodgers are 3rd with 3, 100, 671.
- The Padres are now owned by a group led by the Los Angeles Dodger First Family. Seems a tad strange.
- The Padres could play a key role in who represents the National League in the play in game as they play the Dodgers three at home, and then conclude the season with three on the road against the Brewers. Which for some might remind them of the game where Tony Gwynn Junior, then a Brewer dashed some cold water on his Dad's Padres postseason hopes with a game winning triple in game 161 of the 2007 season. I urge to you to click on that link, it is a cool story. Might be a good time for some Padre revenge on the Brewers.
- Chase Headley would probably be getting some MVP consideration if his team was a little more involved in post season possibilities. He does seem to be getting some publicity, but the Padres also boast the best offensive second baseman in the NL in Sept, and I suspect most baseball fans have never heard of Logan Forsythe. Actually most second baseman in the NL have been pounding this month, just not ours.
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Hanley Ramirez has a triple stat line in Sept of .231 / .259 / .359. I only bring that up in a Padre preview because Everth Cabrera has a triple stat line of .302 / .343 / .365. I may simply not be watching the Dodger games in Sept as closely as I did in August but seems to me that the ICU from Hanley has for the most part been missing from his repertoire. I'm no rocket scientist but my gut tells me it is hard to do an ICU as you walk back to the bench after most at bats. I'm searching for a position in which the Dodgers are doing better then the Padres in Sept. I'll keep trying.
- At 1st base Yonder Alonso is starting to live up to his Red hype posting a .395 OBP in Sept and .351 overall. His slugging % is still a tad shy of .400 for the season but it is Petco. His splits don't show much power on the road so maybe he is the next Mark Grace. Either way even with the two home day from Adrian yesterday, Alonso is outhitting the Dodger 1st baseman in Sept. Dodger fans have to hope that is the last time that happens.
- I hesitate to even look at the catcher spot. AJ Ellis is by far the worst offensive catcher in the NL for Sept with a triple stat line of .148 / .233 / .185. Anybody can top that, but Yasmani Grandal is smoking hot in Sept. In fact when you look for future stars, Grandal just may be one of them. The 23 year old is doing everything the Padres hoped for when they traded Mat Latos. If they do end up with a solid first baseman, one of the best catchers in the NL, and a rotation piece, you have to say, they finally did well when selling off their signature pieces. Still we are only 200 plate appearances into his career so all that could change, but it has been a sweet first 200 plate appearances. The Reds may have kept the wrong highly rated catching prospect. Or not
- Let's trot over to the outfield and see what the two headed monster in right field is doing for the Padres. Oh My, amazing what kind of production an intelligent platoon can muster. Chris Denorfia and Will Venable are reminding people of the Lacy/Lowenstein days. I'm probably overstating their case. Venable has been doing a poor mans Andre hot and cold show this season. Two months with an OPS over .900 and four months with an OPS below .700. He did all his damage in Aug when he posted an OPS of .923. Making up for the slack in Sept has been Denorfia who followed his August .902 OPS with a solid .838 OPS. And yes, combined they have been better then Andre in Sept.
- Surely Kemp has out hit Maybin in Sept. Ouch, surely not. Maybin has in fact been one very hot hitter. For most of the year you could make the argument that Cameron Maybin was one of the most disappointing players in the NL. On Aug 19th he had an OPS of . 609. By that late date it is usually hard for a full time player to move the OPS over 50 points but Maybin has managed to get his OPS up to .669 by virtue of his .907 OPS over his last 29 games. It is still a far cry from average but just remember, Maybin comes into this series hot, and that is what is relevant.
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In left field sits the teams best offensive player. Unfortunately for the Padres he also spends a good amount of time sitting on the bench due to health problems. Carlos Quentin has only played in eight of the twenty games in Sept so far. He has missed four straight games but is expected to play in the Dodger series. I don't need to say he's better then Shane or Juan do I?
- With Tim Stauffer, Corey Luebke, Andrew Cashner, Joe Wieland, Jason Marquis, and Dustin Mosley shut down for the season the Dodgers will face Edinson Volquez, Clayton Richard, and Casey Kelly. All three were acquired via trades. Volquez in the Latos deal. Richard in the Peavy deal. Kelly in the Adrian deal. That is some amazing talent that went the other way.
- 15 different pitchers have started at least one game for the Padres.
- If you simply looked at the names you'd expect the Dodgers to sweep the Padres. It won't happen. These no name Padres have been out playing the signature name Dodgers for over two months. I doubt that changes this week.