Padres owe fans more

The San Diego Padres have been a Major League Baseball team since 1969. In that time, they are yet to throw a no-hitter and have only reached the World Series on two occasions. They went 1-8 once they got there.

San Diego has only been able to muster 10 winning seasons and have never won 100 games in a campaign. While there have been many good players to come through town such as Nate Colbert, Randy Jones, Roberto Alomar, Joe Carter and Ryan Klesko, the only true great player would be Mr. Tony Gwynn. Outside of Gwynn, you are talking about a bunch of middling talents, the aforementioned names and more of the like.

In recent times, the Padres have given little hope if any at all. The 2010 season was the last time the team finished above .500, and that was during a September when they gagged away the National League West to the San Francisco Giants. The Giants would go onto win their first championship since moving to the Bay Area in 1958.

San Diego has yet to crack the 77-win plateau since that year, and considering it is 53-71 right now, things are not looking good for change in 2016. The roster is nothing short of depressing, with myriad issues both on the mound and in the lineup. Things just seem to fall apart for this group, especially when it comes to identifying talent.

After the 2013 season, San Diego went great guns. The Padres traded for Derek Norris, Matt Kemp, Justin Upton and Wil Myers. They signed James Shields and acquired Craig Kimbrel. It was going to be a fun season in southern California. Then, the bottom fell out.

Flash forward to today, and Upton, Kimbrel, Kemp and Shields are no longer on the roster. Myers has become the shining light of the bunch, making it to the MLB All-Star Game this season. Norris went from a 2013 All-Star with the Oakland A’s to one of the worst players in the sport. Norris is hitting a rancid .186 in 382 at-bats, and his defense is average at best. In short, Norris is a microcosm of everything that has gone wrong with this team.

The Padres play in beautiful weather and in wonderful Petco Park. If the product was any good, it would be one of the most enjoyable settings in baseball. Instead, it is annually depressing with little hope of getting better any time soon.

At some point, the Padres need to put a team on the field worth watching. They have become irrelevant in a sport that forgets about its low-profile franchises to begin win.

San Diego is desperate for a winner. The Padres need to provide one.