Everything seems to get a little better looking with age (over-the-hill movie starlets with face lifts aside). So now that nearly a dozen years has passed since the Padres last had an entrant in the World Series, a glance back to the glorious season of 1998 is likely to bring back only happy memories.
As it should.
Through 41 seasons of Padres baseball, clearly no team was ever better. The NL Champion Friars (actually, don’t think anybody had called them Friars yet back then) won 98 games, which is six more than any San Diego team in history. They moved into first place for good on June 12th and stretched their lead in the NL West to as many as 16 games before easing home 9-15 in September and settling for a 9 1/2-game margin over second-place San Francisco.
Favored Houston, and then heavily-favored Atlanta (both 100-win teams) were vanquished in the playoffs before the World Series brought the nearly unbeatable 114-win Yankees and an end to San Diego’s World Championship dreams.
Now fast-forward to the Padres of current vintage. Unloved at first, then upstart, and now practically unbelievable. Despite the weekend sweep at the hands of Philly and their first four-game losing streak of the season (matching the longest by the ‘98 team, by the way), Bud Black’s overachievers still hold a solid five-game lead in the division with five weeks to play. They’re also still 1 1/2-games clear of the rest of the National League.
But, seriously, would this club stand even a remote chance against the ‘98 powerhouse? The numbers, believe it or not, actually suggest they would.
Let start first, with the record. In ‘98 the Padres ran away to a rather remarkable 89-49 record by the end of August — a mark that that renders rather sub-par the 76-53 ledger of the current club. But, with so large a cushion, the ‘98 team let up in September and therefore missed out on the opportunity to be the first 100-game winner in franchise history.
Through it’s unlikely this season’s edition can finish 23-10 and set a new Padres’ mark with 99 wins, it’s still very possible that the ‘10 clan could wind up with the club’s second-best record ever. Currently that mark belongs to the ‘84 NL Champs of Garvey, Goose, Nettles and Gwynn at 92-70. If Venable, Adrian, Headley and Hundley can finish 17-16, this would rank as the new number two.
In ‘98, the Padres were a solid 44-37 on the road, but that mark pales in comparison to the road work done so far by Black’s boys, who are already 11-games over .500 away from home at 38-27. In a season where new GM Jed Hoyer gets so much credit (deserved) for putting together a Petco Park-friendly team, the fact that this year’s group is just as good on the road as it is at home has often been overlooked.
As dominant as the ‘98 team seemed, the numbers don’t support the notion that this year’s Padres edition wouldn’t be able to keep up. In fact, the ‘98 team outscored its opponents by 114 runs for the entire season. In a note that might surprise some, know this: the ‘10 club is already 120 runs ahead of the competition — and still has 33 games left to play.
Surely the ‘98 team – led by Greg Vaughn’s 50 homers and powerhouse threats like Caminiti, Steve Finley and Gwynn — was the far-better hitting club of the two. But again the number don’t necessarily back that up. In ‘98, the Padres hit .258 as a team to rank 12th-best in the National League. This year, the Pads are currently at .250, but they also rank 12th.
In ‘98, the boys had more power (167 HR’s to 102 so far this year) but far less speed (79 SB’s to 107 so far this year). The ‘98 team certainly scored in a more marquee fashion, but the ‘10 bunch has proven its ability to create runs almost as effectively.
Pitching was (and is) the key for both teams, but the numbers show that this year’s Padre edition is slightly better (though the Petco factor does have to be considered). The ‘98 team finished with a 3.63 team ERA, 3rd best in the NL. This year, of course, the Friars are atop the NL at 3.28.
Kevin Brown, Andy Ashby, Joey Hamilton and Sterling Hitchcock carried the ‘98 team to the postseason. And it was a solid group. But was it better than Mat Latos, Jon Garland, Clayton Richard and Wade LeBlanc?
If you don’t think so, then consider the bullpens. Trevor saved 53 games in ‘98, but Heath Bell has been near his equal this season with 37 and counting. Beyond that, the numbers put up this year by Mike Adams, Luke Gregerson, Joe Thatcher, Tim Stauffer and others in the pen are far superior to those posted by the likes of Donnie Wall, Brian Boehringer, Dan Miceli and and Scott Sanders 12 years ago.
Another edge in this year’s club’s favor is defensively. Despite a rare four-error performance Sunday, the Padres have allowed just 22 unearned runs this season, far and away the best in the league. The ‘98 edition was good on D, but not that good — allowing a total of 48 unearned runs for the season.
Certainly, the greatness of ‘98 can never be erased. And the final chapter of the 2010 Padres has yet to be written. But before writing this club off as a fluky one-year wonder, be sure to give credit where it is due.
– Ello
Craig Elsten -
Chainsaw -
