2009 MLB season in review: San Diego Padres

2009 was the 40th season for the Padres in San Diego. It was yet another season filled with disappointment where the team yet again failed to meet or exceed their expectations. It seemed that the National League West, a division the Padres won as recently as 2006, was wide open, but due to a front office shift and the sale of the team the Padres made virtually no improvement to their roster from a team that finished last in their division in 2008. The Padres finished the 2009 season with one of the worst team batting averages, and one of the worst on base percentages and all that equaled a very disappointing year.

Their final record was 75-87. At their lowest point, they were 24 games under .500, but finished the year 12 games under .500. During the later part of April they actually spent 9 days in first place, and as late as mi April had a one game lead on their division. At their lowest point, they were 24.5 games behind the lead, and ended up 20 games behind the division champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

Through the first part of the season, after they gave up trying to trade star pitcher Jake Peavey, they were actually able to win 10 games in a row. That was three games better that their season long losing streak of 7. As a team they hit just .242, hit 141 home runs, and drove in 605 runs. Their pitching staff featured just one pitcher who scored double digit victories, and their team ERA was 4.37. The staff recorded 1,187 strike outs and issued 603 walks.

In all 1,922,603 fans traveled to Petco Park to see Padres home games. For their 81 home games they averaged 23,735 fans, and they were only able to sell 55.8% of their 2009 ticket inventory.