Another Year of Pitching Duels: The last couple years, I’ve been on record saying the San Diego Padres were a couple legitimate bats away from being favorites in the National League. But year after year, those bats don’t come. Instead, the team relies on a bunch of veteran role players to fill holes. While the pitching staff of this team remains among the game’s elite, an awful offense is keeping this team from being true World Series contenders.

Bats. Padres CEO Sandy Alderson has attempted to carry over the blueprint he used to build winners in Oakland. He’s a fan of inexpensive guys with good on base percentages. However, you’ll find few of those in this lineup. While the infield is full of young talent, San Diego’s Opening Day outfield is arguably the worst in baseball.

1st baseman Adrian Gonzalez, a former #1 overall pick and San Diego native, has flourished with the Padres. In his second year with the team, Gonzalez hit .282 with career highs in homers (30) and RBIs (100). Despite playing in a pitcher’s paradise, his left-handed bat has emerged into one of the league’s best at the position. Now if only he could avoid a month long slump that has plagued him the last two seasons. Across the diamond, 3rd baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff overcame a terrible start to post solid rookie numbers of .275-18-74. With a full season under his belt, Kouz should be hearing far more “Koooooz” than “Boooooo” in 2008.The middle infield should be good. Rather than rush promising Minor Leaguer Matt Antonelli, the Padres signed veteran Tadahito Iguchi to a one year deal. Iguchi’s mission is simple: Keep the seat warm for Antonelli, who should be up in the big leagues later this year or by Spring Training in 2009. At shortstop, Khalil Greene has emerged as one of baseball’s best shortstops. Despite a lousy batting average (.254) and horrid on base percentage (.291), Spicoli’s Greene’s 27 homers and 97 RBIs put him in the upper echelon of NL shortstops. Now if only he would cut that hair and try smiling.

With three good young players and a solid veteran in the infield, why is the Padres’ offense so anemic? Maybe because their Opening Day outfield consisted of Paul McAnultey, Scott Hairston and Brian Giles. With Jim Edmonds surprisingly on the disabled list to start the year, the Friars have had to play some musical chairs in their outfield. One of the worst moves of Spring Training was the demotion of young outfielder Chase Headley, ranked among the top prospects in the National League. Headley hit nearly .400 in Spring with four homers, but was sent down in favor of guys like Jody Gerut and McAnulty. Why?

Brian Giles may have the sweetest gig in baseball. In the last four seasons, he’s been paid over $30 million by a frugal organization. How has he repaid them? By declining power numbers and on base percentage every season. Even in the company of his nudist brother last year, Giles was utterly useless. Not many guys get paid more than $8 million to hit .271 with 13 homers and 51 RBIs. But Giles does!

Arms. The top of the rotation remains elite. Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy, despite another poor October start, was entirely deserving of the award. Peavy rebounded from an injury-plagued 2006 to win 19 games with an ERA of 2.54. He continued that dominance in Monday night’s start against Houston, throwing seven shutout innings. When Peavy is under control and not overly amped, there’s nobody better. Yes, that’s including Johan Santana.

No, that’s not a stork at the #2 spot in the rotation. It’s former Princeton bookwarm/baller Chris Young, who was a Cy Young Award contender before injuries ruined the second half of his season. Opposing hitters mustered a .192 batting average against Young last year, the best mark in all of baseball. Better than Peavy, Santana, Webb, Oswalt, Anyone. He’s also the only pitcher to win a playoff game since Sterling Hitchcock won game six of the 1998 NLCS.

It doesn’t matter how old Greg Maddux is or where he’s pitching. The guy can flat out pitch. He went 14-11 in his first year with the Padres and delivered more than his fair share of vintage Maddux performances, outings where he barely breaks a sweat and forces 20 ground ball outs. When these three guys are on, the Padres become a nightmare postseason matchup…provided their lineup can plate more than a couple runs.

The back end of the rotation is more competitive than in past years. A number of veterans were brought in to compete for the jobs and for now, the 4th and 5th slots are taken by Randy Wolf and Justin Germano respectively. Shawn Estes will also probably get some starts, but the wild card here is Mark Prior, a low-risk signing. A full recovery by Prior, however unlikely it is, will make the Padres rotation absolutely freakish.

Despite blowing two saves in the season’s final weekend, there’s few closers that are more reliable than Trevor Hoffman. Sure, his velocity is nowhere near what it used to be. But when Hells Bells start tolling in downtown San Diego, you’re probably SOL. The heir apparent to Hoffman’s job appears to be set-up guy Heath Bell. The fatass righty posted an ERA of 2.02 in his first year with the club. In a couple years, Padres fans will look at “Heath Bell for Ben Johnson” in the same light as “Adrian Gonzalez and Chris Young for Adam Eaton and Aki Otsuka.” Both were absolute steals by GM Kevin Towers.

Outlook. The Padres lineup doesn’t have nearly the talent of Arizona, Colorado or Los Angeles. But what they do have is a great pitching staff in the best pitching ballpark in all of baseball. That alone will keep them in the playoff race. And lets not forget. If the Padres don’t lose their last three games of 2007, Colorado’s miracle World Series run never happens.