San Diego Padres hurting on, off the field

Pity the poor San Diego Padres.

Not only will they probably have MLB’s worst record over the second half of the season; they also have more than half of their payroll on the disabled list.

And that’s not good for an organizational that cut its payroll to $45 million this year (second lowest in the majors.)

The Padres have $25.475 million sitting on the DL in:

Pitcher Jake Peavy, $11 million
Outfielder Brian Giles, $9 million
Pitcher Chris Young $4.625 million, and
Second baseman David Eckstein, $850,000

And that’s not to mention three others who have been out all (or virtually all) season costing another $1.679 million:

Outfielder Cliff Floyd, $750,000
Pitcher Shawn Hill, $500,000, and
Pitcher Cha Seung Baek, $429,000

All told, these seven veterans are costing the Padres about 60 percent of their payroll for not even playing.

The Padres also traded away their second-best hitter in Scott Hairston ($1.25 million) this week in a further salary dump.

Sadly, this is a team whose only direction seems down … on and off the field.

San Diego Padres: Pitching staff is a mess!

Imagine this: Opening Day is less than two weeks away, and the San Diego Padres still have five openings on their pitching staff.

That’s not good news, especially if you are a San Diego sports enthusiast.

There are seven spots filled on the staff … with even some of those being less than what you would expect at this level.

For starters, Jake Peavy and Chris Young are solid. After them are presumably (No. 3) Cha Seung Baek and (No. 4) Kevin Correia, both of whom would be long relievers at best on most teams.

And it gets even worse in the bullpen.

Heath Bell will be a closer for the first time.

Cla Meredith, who was sent to the minors for a time in 2008 for being ineffective, will be one of the two main set-up men.

The other – Duaner Sanchez – was already cut by the New York Mets this year and hasn’t been the same since suffering a serious shoulder injury in a 2006 taxi cab accident.

After those seven, the final five spots are up for grabs. Even General Manager Kevin Towers says the Padres will be looking for pitchers cut by other teams.

So there you have it: The best the Padres can do is hope for people on the scrap heap elsewhere to suddenly become successful Padres in 2009.

Put it this way. If you are the opposition, you have to like your chances unless Peavy or Young pitch at least eight innings vs. you!

Without Maddux, Padres face pitching blues

Now that Greg Maddux has traded in his Padre uniform for Dodger Blue, it sure leaves the Padres’ pitching staff with the blues.

After Jake Peavy (and with Chris Young disabled), who would you now consider the team’s No. 2 starter?

Cha Seung Baek, who is 0-7 at Petco Park?

Josh Banks, whose ERA is 6.51 since the All-Star break?

Chad Reineke, who has one major-league start and throws a fastball without any movement?

Yikes!

Thinking back to the start of the season, the Padres were hoping to make a pennant run with a pitching rotation of Peavy, Young, Maddux, Randy Wolf and eventually Mark Prior.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen!