Padres All-Decade Team – Position Players
The San Diego Padres have had a disappointing decade, with their last winning season coming in 2010. They have changed their colors back to their classic brown and gold going into the 2020s, and with the exciting young roster they’ve assembled, they look to have a bright future. Recently, they’ve signed some stronger hitters, and that stands to reason, because the strength of the Padres All-Decade Team from the 2010s is definitely their pitchers.
The 25-man Padres All-Decade team has eight starting position players. There are five reserves – a catcher, two infielders, and two outfielders. A five-man starting rotation and a seven-man relief corps fills out the rest.
Guidelines and Selection Process
- Statistics come from FanGraphs.
- It uses their statistic of weighted on base average (wOBA), created to correct the flaws of OPS (On-base Plus Slugging), to determine weighted Runs Above Average (wRAA). wRAA, in summary, determines how many more runs a team would score by having that player on the team for 650 at-bats rather than the average hitter from the league that season.
- A player’s wRAA is then added to his Baserunning Rating (BsR) and his defensive rating (Def), both from FanGraphs, to determine his overall rating. Both of these ratings are like wRAA – how many runs better or worse said player was than the league average.
- We only use individual seasons, not cumulative totals from the decade.
- Each player may only appear on the team once.
Without further ado, here are the position players from the Padres All-Decade Team for the 2010s.
Padres All-Decade Infield
Catcher – Rene Rivera (2014)
Reserve – Yasmani Grandal (2012)
This ended up being a three-horse race between Rene Rivera in 2014, Yasmani Grandal in 2012, and Yorvit Torrealba in 2010. All three played an abbreviated schedule – Rivera had 294 at-bats in 103 games, while Grandal had 192 at-bats in 60 games and Torrealba had 325 at-bats in 95 games. Since wOBA and wRAA extrapolate what would happen if the players maintain their numbers for 650 games, the lack of games played doesn’t matter.
Rivera hit .252 (74 for 294) with 18 doubles, one triple, 11 home runs and 44 RBI. He also had 27 walks, 76 strikeouts, and 27 runs scored. This gave him a wOBA of .329 and a wRAA score of 4.7. Grandal hit .297 (57 for 192) with seven doubles, a triple, eight home runs, and 36 RBI. In addition, he had 31 walks, 39 strikeouts, and 28 runs scored. His wOBA was .376, and his wRAA was 11.0. Both had negative baserunning ratings — -1.9 for Rivera and -2.7 for Grandal – but that is not surprising from catchers. These numbers gave Grandal an Offensive Rating of 8.3 against 2.8 for Rivera.
What gave Rivera the nod was defense. His rating was 34.7, while Grandal’s was 19.9. Altogether, that gave Rivera an overall rating of 37.5 and Grandal an overall rating of 28.2.
First Baseman – Adrian Gonzalez (2010)
Reserve Infielder – Wil Myers (2016)
This ended up being close, but Adrian Gonzalez’s offensive lead was big enough that Wil Myers’ defensive advantage didn’t put him ahead. Gonzalez batted .298 (176 for 591) with 33 doubles, 31 home runs, and 101 RBI. He also had 93 walks, 114 strikeouts, and 87 runs scored. Myers batted .259 (155 for 599) with 29 doubles, four triples, 28 home runs, and 94 RBI. In addition, he had 68 walks, 160 strikeouts, and 99 runs scored. Myers also stole 28 bases in 34 attempts. These totals gave a wOBA of .379 for Gonzalez and .341 for Myers, translating to 32.4 wRAA for Gonzalez and 13.0 wRAA for Myers. Baserunning gave Myers a huge advantage with a score of 7.6 versus a -1.9 for Gonzalez. In total, Gonzalez had an offense rating of 30.5, while Myers pulled in a rating of 20.6. Defense saw both in the negatives, as Gonzalez had -12.2 and Myers had -6.6. Adding offense and defense together gave a total of 18.3 for Gonzalez and 14.0 for Myers, giving Gonzalez the nod.
Second Baseman – Ryan Schimpf (2016)
Second base was not a strong position for the Padres in the 2010s. The only player to even score 10 or greater was Ryan Schimpf, who did so in 2016 despite a .217 average (60 for 276) in 89 games played. Of his 60 hits, 42 went for extra bases – 17 doubles, five triples, and 20 homers. He added 51 RBI and 42 walks while striking out 105 times. His .362 wOBA translated into 12.1 wRAA, which, added to his 4.1 baserunning rating, gave him a total offense rating of 16.2. Adding his below-average defense (-1.8) gives him a total rating of 14.4. The second-place finisher was Adam Rosales, whose total for the same season was 9.4.
Shortstop – Fernando Tatis Jr. (2019)
Reserve Infielder – Everth Cabrera (2013)
Despite playing only 84 games due to injuries, Fernando Tatis Jr. had a truly special rookie season in 2019 – so special that it was the best of the decade by a Padres shortstop. He hit .317 (106 in 334) with 13 doubles, six triples, 22 home runs, 53 RBI, 16 stolen bases in 22 tries, 30 walks, 110 strikeouts, and 61 runs scored. This gave with a wOBA of .398, 25.2 wRAA, and a 3.0 baserunning rating. His defense was slightly below the league average, coming in at -2.1, but his total rating of 26.1 was more than twice as high as the runner-up. That was the 2013 version of Everth Cabrera, who scored 13.0 overall. His average was .283 (108 for 381) with 15 doubles, five triples, four home runs, 31 RBI, 37 stolen bases in 49 attempts, 41 walks, 69 walks, and 54 runs scored in 95 games. This gave him a .329 wOBA, 5.2 wRAA, and a 6.1 baserunning rating. This gave him an offense rating of 11.3, and when added to his 1.7 defense rating, that finishes off the 13.0 overall rating.
Third Baseman – Chase Headley (2012)
The top three seasons for Padres third basemen all came from Chase Headley, but his 2012 season was by far his best. Not only was it the best by a third baseman, but at 44.5 overall, it was the best by a Padres position player. In 161 games, he batted .286 (173 for 161) with 31 doubles, two triples, 31 homers, and 115 RBI. In addition, he had 17 steals in 23 attempts, 157 strikeouts, and 95 runs scored. This gave him a .378 wOBA, 35.1 wRAA, and a baserunning rating of 1.9. With his offensive rating of 37.0 added to his defense rating of 7.5, this gave him his huge total of 44.5. By comparison, his second-best year had a total rating of 18.0.
Padres All-Decade Outfield
Left Field – Justin Upton (2015)
Reserve Outfielders – Jose Pirela (2017) and Carlos Quentin (2012)
Justin Upton was one of only three Padres outfielders in the decade to have an overall rating of 10.0 or greater. In 2015, he ended up having the second-highest rated outfield season of the decade. He did so while batting .251 (136 for 542) with 26 doubles, three triples, 26 homers, and 81 RBI. In addition, he had 19 steals in 24 attempts, 68 walks, 159 strikeouts, a .340 wOBA, and 13.2 wRAA. Adding his 4.9 baserunning rating to his wRAA gives him a total offense of 18.1. His defense was suspect – -5.9 – so his overall rating came in at 12.2.
The highest rating for a non-starting outfielder came from the 2017 version of Jose Pirela. He batted .288 that season (90 for 312) with 25 doubles, four triples, 10 homers, and 40 RBI. Base stealing was not a frequent activity for him – four swipes in seven tries – and he only walked 27 times. However, he still managed to score 43 runs despite playing in only 83 games. This gave him a wRAA of 9.8 and a 0.2 baserunning score. Adding that to a 0.1 defensive rating gives him an overall score of 10.1.
In 2012, Carlos Quentin only played 86 games. In that span, he batted .261 (74 for 284) with 21 doubles, 16 dingers, and 46 RBI. He walked 36 times and struck out 41 times with a .378 wOBA, giving him 17.2 wRAA. Adding that to his 0.3 baserunning rating and -8.0 defensive rating gives him an overall rating of 9.5.
Center Field – Cameron Maybin (2011)
This may surprise people, but Cameron Maybin had the highest rating of any Padres outfielder of the decade in 2011. However, it did not come from whacking the ball out of the park or hitting tons of extra-base hits. After all, in 137 games, he hit .264 (136 for 516) with 24 doubles, eight triples, and nine homers. He also had only 40 RBI and 44 walks. This gave him a .316 wOBA and -0.2 wRAA. However, he had a 9.7 baserunning rating due to 40 stolen bases in 48 attempts. When adding his 10.4 defense rating to his wRAA and baserunning rating, his total rating is 19.9.
Right Field – Chris Denorfia (2013)
If this went straight on batting, Seth Smith would get it with an offense rating of 16.1 in 2014. Will Venable had a similar offensive rating in 2013 with 15.4. However, both had solidly negative defensive ratings – -7.7 for Smith and -8.2 for Venable. That brings us to Chris Denorfia in 2013. In 144 games, he batted .279 (132 for 473) with 21 doubles, two triples, 10 homers, and 47 RBI. He also had 11 stolen bases in as many tries. Adding his 42 walks gives him a .323 wOBA and 3.6 wRAA. This is certainly nothing to write home about, and the same holds true for his 1.0 baserunning rating. However, his defense rating was 5.0. Adding that to his 4.6 offense rating gives him 9.6 overall. Believe it or not, that was the highest of the decade by a Padres right fielder.
Padres All-Decade Position Players
C – Rene Rivera (2014)
1B – Adrian Gonzalez (2010)
2B – Ryan Schimpf (2016)
SS – Fernando Tatis Jr. (2019)
3B – Chase Headley (2012)
LF – Justin Upton (2015)
CF – Cameron Maybin (2011)
RF – Chris Denorfia (2013)
Reserves
C – Yasmani Grandal (2012)
IF – Wil Myers (2016), Everth Cabrera (2013)
OF – Jose Pirela (2017), Carlos Quentin (2012)
For the full stat table, including rankings, click here.
Click here to see the pitching staff.
Main Photo
Embed from Getty Images
