San Diego Padres

Catchers & Infielders:

• C – Gary Sánchez
• C – Benito Santiago
• 1B – Adrian Gonzalez
• 2B – Jake Cronenworth (SS/1B)
• SS – Fernando Tatis Jr. (RF)
• 3B – Chase Headley (1B/LF)
• CI – Ken Caminiti (1B)
• CI – Nate Colbert (1B)
• MI – Bip Roberts (2B/SS/3B/OF)

Outfielders: 

• LF – Ryan Klesko (1B)
• CF – Dave Winfield (LF/RF)
• RF – Tony Gwynn (CF)
• OF – Phil Nevin (C/1B/3B/LF/RF)
• OF – Brian Giles (LF/CF/RF)

Starting Pitchers:

• SP – Randy Jones
• SP – Tyson Ross
• SP – Jake Peavy
• SP – Dave Dravecky
• SP – Andy Ashby

With every team, we started building their all-time 25-man and 40-man rosters by using the Hall of Fame as a starting point, figuring that a player enshrined in baseball’s immortal Hall would certainly qualify to make his team’s all-time roster.

Almost all the Hall of Fame members are easily identifiable with one team so it’s a simple way to start every roster with near-inarguable selections. There are a few brilliant players who made significant contributions to multiple teams, and it’s our job to decide where they made the biggest impact.

San Diego’s big fight is for Dave Winfield:

Dave Winfield

San Diego: 8 seasons, 4-time All-Star, 0 MVPs, 32 WAR, .284 AVG, 599 Runs, 626 RBI, 154 HR, 133 SB

N.Y. Yankees: 9 seasons, 8-time All-Star, 0 MVPs, 27.1 WAR, .290 AVG, 722 Runs, 818 RBI, 205 HR, 76 SB

The numbers favor the Yankees, but it’s interesting that Winfield provided more WAR (in one less season) as a Padre than as a Yankee. Given that Winfield would be in New York’s inactive roster, this is one of the rare occurrences where the player will go to their secondary team, because he will start and contribute there – helping the overall league be more competitive.

As with every team, we are trying to build an active roster with 13 position players and 12 pitchers, and then a 15-player inactive roster of guys who just missed the cut, but remain valuable as callups in case of slumps or injuries.

The 13 active position players are usually two catchers, six infielders, and five outfielders. The stats are built around the average of the player’s best three consecutive seasons.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame gives us a couple of names to start the Padres roster. Cooperstown provides Dave Winfield, Trevor Hoffman, and Tony Gwynn to San Diego.

With three players coming from Cooperstown, WAR (Wins Above Replacement), a great stat for looking at the all-around contribution to a team for both hitters and pitchers, can help us find the rest.

We get lots of help here, as in order we find: Adrian Gonzalez, Gene Tenace, Gene Richards, Chase Headley, Phil Nevin, Ken Caminiti, Brian Giles, Nate Colbert, Terry Kennedy, Ryan Klesko, Benito Santiago, Will Venable, Bip Roberts, Mark Loretta, Garry Templeton, Carmelo Martinez, Khalil Greene, and Darrin Jackson.

Fernando Tatis Jr. and Wil Myers’ short but notable Padres careers deserve consideration too.

Once plugged into the simulation software, we looked at their OPS (on-base + slugging percentage) and their defensive rankings and they break down like this:

CATCHER: Gene Tenace, Phil Nevin (sometimes)
FIRST BASE: Adrian Gonzalez, Ryan Klesko (sometimes)
SECOND BASE: Mark Loretta, Bip Roberts
SHORTSTOP: Fernando Tatis Jr., Khalil Greene
THIRD BASE: Chase Headley, Ken Caminiti
LEFT FIELD: Brian Giles, Ryan Klesko (sometimes), Chase Headley (sometimes)
CENTER FIELD: Dave Winfield
RIGHT FIELD: Tony Gwynn, Phil Nevin (sometimes)

San Diego’s got quite a bit of defensive versatility thanks to Swiss Army knives Phil Nevin, Chase Headley, and Bip Roberts.

That leaves inactive roster options for Will Venable, Nate Colbert, Benito Santiago, Terry Kennedy, Wil Myers, Gene Richards, Steve Garvey, and Garry Templeton.

For the pitching staff we’re looking for six starters and six relievers. Bear in mind that across the whole game you will see dynamic, outstanding starting pitchers that can’t crack an all-time rotation but are better served as relievers on a team than sitting inactive.

Hall of Fame pitchers are automatically on the roster so we start with Trevor Hoffman. With 22 players on the total roster we have room for 18 more pitchers.

Once we dug into the career WAR rankings (as Padres) we came up with: Jake Peavy, Andy Ashby, Andy Benes, Randy Jones, Ed Whitson, Eric Show, Joey Hamilton, Greg Harris, Bruce Hurst, Dave Dravecky, Dave Roberts, Clay Kirby and Heath Bell. Impressive relievers that bear consideration include Brad Hand, Mark Davis, and Scott Linebrink,

Young Stars Chris Paddack and Kirby Yates are in the discussion too. Their Padres career didn’t last forever, but Chris Young and Tyson Ross deserve consideration as well.

We looked at their overall numbers in the simulation software and leaned heavily on ERA to come up with these designations:

STARTING ROTATION: Randy Jones, Tyson Ross, Jake Peavy, Dave Dravecky, Andy Ashby, Chris Paddack
RELIEVERS: Greg Harris, Craig Lefferts, Brad Hand, Heath Bell
SET-UP: Kirby Yates
CLOSER: Trevor Hoffman

The relief corps looks dynamite with Hand, Bell, Yates and Hoffman.

The inactive pitcher options are: Scott Linebrink, Lance McCullers, Joey Hamilton, Clay Kirby, Eric Show and Mark Davis.

So how did we do?

Can you handle Ryan Klesko earning the backup 1B job over Nate Colbert?

Does Dave Winfield/Tony Gwynn sharing center field make you nervous defensively?

Did Tyson Ross’ numbers surprise you?

Let us know in the forums below and if you make a compelling case we will adapt it in-game. We want every squad to be the best they possibly can be and appreciate your help fine-tuning the Pirates for Eternal Baseball.

Photo Credits:

• San Diego Padres Cameron Maybin catches the fly ball by Dirk DBQ
• Petco Park by Eric Ward
• Myers and the Friar by Steve Lathrop
• Petco Park by Eric Golub