Soooooooo close were we that you could have tasted it. I did. However, our arch-nemesis of the 2010 season came up and terrorized the last game and that was lack of run support behind our stellar pitching. The 162nd game was a bit of a microcosm of the 2010 season. Great performances from the starting pitcher and bullpen but just the bats could not help them out at all. So what do we need to do to help improve this Padres team and perhaps get a NL West pennant again? Let’s kind of break this down into what we have right now and who might be leaving for free agency, what we need, and some big questions in this off-season.

Free Agency

Let’s start off with the guys who are free agents and find out what kind of value will they bring to the 2011 Padres. Our list of free agents include:

1. Kevin Correia
2. David Eckstein
3. Miguel Tejada
4. Matt Stairs
5. Jerry Hairston Jr.

Let’s just go down the list one at a time. Kevin Correia is just too big of a question mark right now to spend at least another $3.6MM. Ever since his brother died, KC just hasn’t been the same. KC finished 5.40 ERA to have a career ERA of 4.57. For a current team that doesn’t score many runs, a pitcher who gives up an average of 4 runs, isn’t good. I think Cory Luebke has pretty much taken his starting role. David Eckstein: Give him a bit of a pay increase but don’t spend too much on him. He’s a great second baseman and he has great plate discipline. He swings, he’ll make contact, which is why he’s only struck out 35 times at 492PA. That’s a 7% K rate! But, Eck has a OPS+ of just 83, well below league average of 100. However, Eck is still a value to these Padres and we should keep him. Miguel Tejada: Boy was he a great asset to these Padres or what! .268/.312/.413/.725 and we got him for practically a box of baseballs and a case of maple bats just to sweeten the deal. We should definitely try to keep Miggy and he has expressed desires to stay in San Diego. Hopefully he can be a role model to Everth Cabrera and help develop his hitting. Matt Stairs: I don’t know about him, guys. He’s delivered some clutch HRs and help set his PH home run record. But, how many times did you all go “eeeeehhhhh” when Stairs came up to the plate? Jerry Hairston Jr.: We need to keep him only because we don’t have a lot of depth (read none) at second base. Also, when JHJ went down, we missed him sorely because that forced Bud to put a very underperforming Chase Headley at 3B (I’ll touch up on him, later). Where as we could have put JHJ at SS and moved Miggy to 3B. I think his line of .244/.299/.353 belies him only because he’s been on the DL a lot. He’s a better hitter than that, I believe.

The Adrian Gonzalez/Heath Bell Question

Our best hitter and one of our best pitchers. Two players who have been monumental to the Padres successes this season. I’m not quite sure on A-Gone right now, to be honest. Half of me says keep him, half of me says trade him. The front office is going to exercise his option. So for now, he’s coming back. He’ll be a FA for the 2012 at which point I strongly think he’ll walk. So rather him just walking away, let’s see what kind of value we can get for him. If nothing good comes over the winter, then we’ll see him in a Padres uniform come next April. The flip side is that trading him would be a bit of a blow to us and we’d be “rebuilding” once again after a stellar 2010 season. Now what about Heath Bell. There are clubs out there that are just salivating at acquiring Heath Bell’s arm. Is it time for Heath to go? Yeah. It is. Don’t hit me, yet! I don’t want to see Heath go at all, believe me. But right now, I think we can get A LOT of value out of him through a trade esp. for those pitching starved clubs. I think this is the highest value we’ll get out of him. I think Mike Adams is ready for that closer role.

Who is out there?

Going through the names of the free agent list one starts to immediately salivate at who is out there. You have names like Albert Pujols, Adam Dunn, Paul Konerko, Aubrey Huff, Jayson Werth, etc and I’m sure all you Padres fans are just thinking “Man, Adam Dunn in a Padres Uniform...dingers!” I hate to burst your bubble Padres fans but all those guys come with a hefty price tag. Apart from these big names, nobody really stands out from a list that the Padres could possibly afford. You all want Geoff Blum back, didn’t think so? Juan Uribe? I guess if we can weasel him from the Giants. Mark Grudzielanek is still playing baseball?? Russell Branyan possibly. .802 OPS and could platoon him with A-Gone and I don’t see him getting anything substantially higher than his current $1.5MM. Of course that depends on how Blanks performs in Spring Training. This will be a bit of a curious off season as far as free agency is concerned

Post-game Wrap Up

The Padres 2011 goals are pretty much boiling down to keeping all or most of what we have and finding a way to acquire more hitting. What’s really complicating the matter is the fact we did so well in 2010. I don’t think us Padres fans can return to “rebuilding” mode after just a single game away from the post season. I want to for us to be a contender again! Jed and Jeff, you have your work cut out for you.