San Diego Padres (82-80, .506, 1st in NL West)

A breathtaking two games over .500 was all it took last year for the Padres to grab the invite to the post-season and set the Las Vegas bookmakers' all-time record for fewest bets placed on a baseball team in the playoffs.

At the time, I was driving to San Diego with a friend who was relocating out west and she and I would grab bits and pieces of the California radio broadcasts as we headed west. Suffice to say that with the season coming to a close and the Padres trying to hold on for the playoff spot, that interest in the team could have been a bit higher.

Simply put, there were more people who saw me have dinner a quarter mile from the stadium the last night of the season than who saw the Padres clinch the NL West. Had we not eaten outside that night, who knows, maybe it would have been a fair fight.

The team is decent, but not great. Kind of the same as last year's effort. Leading the list of solid guys is Dave Roberts, Khalil Greene and Jake Peavy. The list of past-their-prime guys is Ryan Klesko, Vinny Castilla, and Woody Williams. All of the above are capable players, but the older guys are due for injury issues (Klesko is already hurt) and that will be all that's needed to tank a season in San Diego.

Luckily there'll be the Giants, Rockies and D-Backs to soften the fall.

San Diego Padres
C: Piazza; Mirabelli; Ross; Laforest
1B: Klesko; Adrian Gonzlez; McAnulty; Young
2B: Barfield; Bellhorn; Hill; Eric Young
SS: Greene; Blum
3B: Castilla; Blum; Hill
LF: Dave Roberts; Sledge; Young; Ben Johnson; McAnulty
CF: Cameron; Roberts; Johnson; Guzman
RF: Giles; Sledge; Johnson

SP: Peavy; Chris Young; Woody Williams; Estes; Park; Hensley; Stauffer
CP: Hoffman
RP: Linebrink; Hensley; Cassidy; Andrade; Etherton; Brocail; Sikorski; Embree