Tonight is Kevin Correia's final start of the 2009 season.
It will be interesting to see how history will remember this Padres team, but here are the handful of things on my mind right now that may or may not form a part of what I think of when I think of this Padres team 5, 10, 15 years from now:
- Giles' horrendous start and injury that strangely sidelined him for the entire season;
- the CY and Peavy injuries that guaranteed the team would not be competitive;
- the weird but glorious 10-game winning streak in May;
- the trade for Tony Gwynn, Jr.;
- the promotion and solid play of rookies Everth Cabrera, Kyle Blanks, Will Venable and Mat Latos;
- the strong bullpen work of Luke Gregerson, Heath Bell, Joe Thatcher and Mike Adams;
- the Scotty "Bombs" Hairston trade that netted three power arms;
- the Peavy trade that netted four arms, including Clayton Richard and Adam Russell, who played key roles down the stretch;
- A Gon's ridiculous first half and strong overall season to net 40+ bombs;
- Headley's strong to quite strong August and September;
- the return of Tim Stauffer;
- the outstanding play of the team overall from July 28 to season's end; and
- Kevin Correia's absolute surprise/beast season that makes him the current Drino ace.
Honestly, if the Drinos were suddenly named the Wild Card team tomorrow, I'd like their chances to win a series more than I liked the chances of the 2005 and 2006 Padres.
I'm going to enjoy the playoffs over the next month because I am a fan of baseball generally, but the real excitement will be the Padres front office marshaling its assets and working the Hot Stove this offseason in preparation for Spring Training.
Bring on 2010.
A couple more things I'm going to remember about the 2009 Padres:
