Padres Fan Reacts: Padres Fall Below Reds in NL Wild Card Standings | The Slumpbuster Podcast

[Applause] [Music] what is going on slump busters this is your boy kyle and we are back with another youtube quick hitter i wish i was coming bearing better news here today but my uh san diego padres uh since the all-star break have given back a six and a half game lead on the national league wild card and headed into saturday they find themselves tied with the average to below average cincinnati reds for the second national league wild card spot and this would be a catastrophic disappointment if the padres don't end up making it into the playoffs this is a team that now has the sixth highest payroll in major league baseball and is treading just on the line of the luxury tax threshold that the team intends to then surpass next year with some key offseason acquisitions hopefully uh that might begin with keeping tommy pham around but 2021 was always the year that the padres had intended for this rebuild to turn around and they have the young stars they have the mvp of major league baseball they've supplemented that with giant contracts for eric hosmer and will myers and eu darvish and of course manny machado who he himself has a second tier level mvp candidacy but the padres find themselves now tied with the cincinnati reds for that final wild card spot at a time where the san diego padres have lost some really winnable games they got swept last week by the colorado rockies and lose the season series against colorado they lost three games against the arizona diamondbacks and then they lose to philadelphia in a winnable game on friday night that gets cincinnati to to a tie with them but cincinnati hasn't been playing their best baseball either they dropped a few games against the cubs and then found themselves in a series against the marlins this weekend the same marlins team that split four games against the padres early on in august and this is really frustrating for a few reasons if you're a san diego padres fan not the least of which is that the team has the mvp of major league baseball fernando tatis jr on their team right now he's a heavy favorite to win national league mvp even if the padres find a way to squander what was at one point a 93 chance to make the playoffs and end up fading out of contention altogether not only do the padres find themselves in such a position with the mvp of the league but cincinnati isn't even that good the reds and the padres both have the same war among starting pitchers padres are tied for 12th with cincinnati so far this year their pitching staffs have equally been deep but also battling injuries and don't have a true number one starter and the cincinnati reds offense which last year was the worst offense of any playoff team last year they finished 16th out of 16 among playoff teams the cincinnati reds offense this year has not been statistically that much better now they've been really top-heavy with nick castellanos and joey votto and jesse winker having all-star seasons and for joey votto he didn't make the all-star team but he hit seven home runs in seven days back a couple weeks ago with that top heavy offense it has been a cluster after that for the cincinnati reds it's been aristedes aquino being a disappointment eugenio suarez in the third base position being totally up for grabs the reds actually have the lowest war in major league baseball at the third base position and the center field position so far this year so other than those top three guys the reds offense has been poor so far this year and even during this stretch where they've surmounted a six and a half game lead in the span of a month since the all-star break even in that stretch the cincinnati reds have only been four games above 500 and the san diego padres have been eight games below 500 and that's been the difference of six and a half games swinging in favor of the cincinnati reds now are the padres out of it yet no there's still a 50 50 chance they make the playoffs but the padres only have three games left against the diamondbacks zero against the rockies and 13 against either the dodgers or the san francisco giants three-fourths of those 13 games happen to be on the road so not great for the san diego padres but their team is still much better than the cincinnati reds on paper and statistically significantly the padres have a pretty good ball pin so that should help them coming down the stretch altogether the padres should still beat the cincinnati reds even though the reds have one of the easier schedules in baseball the padres have one of the harder schedules in baseball but in order to prevent an all time of a collapse the padres need some wins over these next couple weeks against the philadelphia phillies and the arizona diamondbacks before september rolls around and they gotta play the giants a bunch and the easiest way to turn this around for the padres three games against the los angeles dodgers this week who are rolling in hot as can be on the trail of juju's san francisco giants by one and a half games as of saturday morning but the padres hold the season series against the dodgers and yes their pitching staff is depleted and yes the padres may be down to just two or three starting pitchers and a bunch of openers but if you can win two out of three against the dodgers i think you're starting to roll right back on track make sure to follow the slumbuster podcast on youtube and make sure to check out all of our social media platforms twitter tik tok instagram everywhere you can get slump buster content especially twitter because you can see some of the comical sports memes in their earliest templates make sure to check out the caveman coffee co and you can use that code slump with the link in the description to today's episode if you want to get 20 percent off of your order so make sure to use that code slump with the link in the description [Applause] [Music] you