Monday, April 5, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m. Pacific
 

LENNY IGNELZI / AP Sean Burroughs AL West AL Central AL East NL West 1. San Diego Padres 2. Arizona Diamondbacks 3. Los Angeles Dodgers 4. San Francisco Giants 5. Colorado Rockies NL Central NL East Baseball '04 main

1. San Diego Padres
 
He's here: LHP David Wells, LHP Sterling Hitchcock, RHP Ismael Valdez, C Ramon Hernandez, OF Terrence Long, OF Jay Payton, OF Kerry Robinson, INF Jeff Cirillo, RHP Antonio Osuna, RHP Akinori Otsuka.

He's outta here: OF Mark Kotsay (Oakland), RHP Kevin Jarvis (Seattle), C Wiki Gonzalez (Seattle), INF Dave Hansen (Seattle), C Gary Bennett (Milwaukee).

Ranking the rotation: 4th in the division, 18th overall. There's a high upside, but a lot of questions. David Wells isn't getting any younger (or thinner), and he needs to stay healthy. Brian Lawrence, Adam Eaton and Jake Peavy need to make the leap from potential to production.

Written in Stone: The Padres, last-place finishers in 2003, have undergone an impressive makeover, just in time to move into Petco Park. It began last year with the late-season acquisition of Brian Giles, and continued with a series of aggressive winter moves by GM Kevin Towers. In a division without a dominant force, there doesn't seem to be any reason the Padres can't make a worst-to-first transition — provided Phil Nevin and Trevor Hoffman stay healthy. Former Oakland catcher Ramon Hernandez solidifies a perennially troublesome position for the Padres, while rookie Khalil Greene needs to do the same at shortstop. This could be Eaton's breakout season.

Lineup card

P Hitters Avg. HR RBI 3B Sean Burroughs .286 7 58 2B Mark Loretta .314 13 72 RF Brian Giles .299 20 88 1B Phil Nevin .279 13 46 LF Ryan Klesko .252 21 67 CF Jay Payton .302 28 89 C Ramon Hernandez .273 21 78 SS Khalil Greene .215 2 6

TH Starters W-L ERA SO RH Brian Lawrence 10-15 4.19 116 RH Jake Peavy 12-11 4.11 156 LH David Wells 15-7 4.14 101 RH Adam Eaton 9-12 4.08 146 LH Sterling Hitchcock 6-4 4.72 68   TH Closer W-L ERA SV RH Trevor Hoffman* 2-5 2.73 38

*2002 stats