All Padres team, position players

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In putting together this Padres team, I was surprised by some of the choices I ended up making. Some guys with big names didn't have the production associated with them. On the other side of the coin, some Padres were better than I remembered. And here we go.

Catcher: Gene Tenace The first name that came to mind when I thought of Padres catchers was Benito Santiago. Santiago had a great arm and was able to occasionally throw out base runners from his knees, but really didn't help as team as much as you might think. Santiago spent 7 seasons with the Padres and put up a WAR of 14.1. Santiago's defensive WAR was 8.6 but his offense drags him down. The biggest drag on his game was an OBP of .298. Terry Kennedy was actually my second choice. Kennedy had solid defensive metrics and swung a decent bat with some power. On some teams he would be the first choice. Gene Tenace had a nice four seasons with the Padres, compiling an OPS of .825. Tenace's success was driven in large part by his ability to draw walks. In 1977, Gene led the NL in walks with 125. Tenace's defensive metrics are also not bad. His overall WAR for his four seasons in San Diego strong 18.1. Good enough to nail down this position.

First base: Adrian Gonzalez From 2006-10 Adrian was like a machine. He combined power and a good batting eye to put together an OPS of .888. In his five seasons Adrian hit 161 home runs and drove in 501 runs. Adrian's WAR for his time with the Padres was 20.3. Nate Colbert was a dynamic slugger in the franchise's early days, hitting 38 home runs in both 1970 and 1972. Ryan Kelso also had some okay years. Steve Garvey? Outside of sinking the Cubs in the 1984 playoffs he didn't do much. Garvey's WAR for his five seasons with the Padres was only 1.3. Surprised? I was.

Second base: Roberto Alomar I didn't remember Alomar started his career with the Padres. He got better as his career went along. His WAR for his three seasons with the Padres was 12.1. He was very consistent. Those individual WARs were 3.4-4.5-2.8. Alomar was an all star in his last season in San Diego.  Alomar also had 33 sacrifices in his first two seasons with the Padres. Mark Loretta was also sneaky good while in San Diego. Loretta was an all star in 2004 and had a WAR of 11.3 in his three seasons with the Padres. Loretta's OPS was .815. That was driven by an OBP backed up with a little bit of power.

Shortstop: Ozzie Smith When the Padres traded Ozzie for Gary Templeton, I thought the Padres had gotten the better end of that deal. My bad. Though Smith wasn't an offensive force, his defense and speed made him a valuable player. His defensive WAR for his time in San Diego was 8.9. That's extremely strong for only four seasons. While his OPS was only .573, but he did steal 147 bases and twice led the NL in sacrifices. Ozzie was a two time all star and gold glover winner in his last two years in San Diego. Then it was off to St. Louis and bigger and better things. His replacement, Gary Templeton, spent 10 seasons with the Padres and put up a WAR of 10. Gary was never the same after leaving St. Louis.

Third base: Ken Caminiti Caminiti was just a tremendous player while with the Padres. In four seasons in San Diego, Ken's WAR was 20.8. In his 1996 MVP season, Caminiti's WAR was 7.6. That same season he hit 40 home runs, drove in 130 RBIs and had an OPS of 1.028. In his four seasons with the Padres, Caminiti hit 121 homers to go with 396.  He also won three gold gloves.  While you may wonder how he got there, Caminiti was an elite player while in San Diego. Chase Headley spent 8 seasons with the Padres and recorded a WAR of 19.1. That included a great 2012 season when he hit 31 home runs and led the NL with 115 RBIs. And then it was back to normal.

Left field: Dave Winfield Winfield played right field primarily, but he did spend some time in left. For purposes of this team, he's playing left. Dave played for the Padres for 8 seasons and put up a WAR of 31.8. Winfield's OPS was .821 and he was also a good base runner, stealing 133 bases. Winfield had an excellent arm but beyond that, wasn't a particularly good outfielder by defensive metrics. Yet he still won two gold gloves. In 1979 Dave led the NL in RBIs with 118. Winfield was a four time all star with the Padres before signing as a free agent with the Yankees.

Center field: Steve Finley Steve gets the decision over Kevin McReynolds. Finley spent four seasons with the Padres. During that time he won two gold gloves and hit 30 home runs one season and 28 another. Steve's WAR was only 8.6 while with the Padres, which was surprising to me. It looked like it should have been higher. McReynolds had a higher WAR for his time in San Diego, registering 12.4 during his four year stay. WAR or not, I'm giving the position to Finley.

Right field: Tom Gwynn Tony is the easiest choice on this team. Gwynn was one of the best hitters in the history of the game. Tony spent all 20 seasons of his career with the Padres. Tony won 8 batting titles during that time and hit a high water mark of .394 in 1994. His OBP for that season was also a league leading .457. For his career, his OBP was .388. Gwynn won 5 gold gloves and was a 15 time all star. His career batting average was .338. In the early part of his career, he was a good base stealer, peaking at 56 in 1987. Tony Gwynn, one of the best players in game.

So there are my picks for the all Padres team.  Agree?  Disagree?  Let me know.

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