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Wednesday April 24th, 2013

Volquez is coming off an up-and-down year with the Padres. He went .500 with an 11-11 record and had an average ERA at 4.14. He should be prepared for the 2013 season as he threw against real competition in the 2013 WBC so he’ll already have all of his stuff developed for the duration of 2013.

Bernie Olshansky (Baseball Writer): Follow @BernieOlshansky

The San Diego Padres currently have one of the most boring Starting Rotations in all of baseball. I cannot think of a rotation with more average pitchers than the one the San Diego organization has.

If someone presented me with the statistics of each pitcher in the Padres rotation, I probably would not be able to discern between the number one and five starters. The ace of the Padres — if we can call him that — is Jason Marquis. So far this season in four games, he has a 4.63 ERA to go with a 1-2 record.

Now some pitchers do get off to rough starts, so we cannot judge him based on his ERA and record. But, after looking further into Marquis, I found that his career ERA is 4.60. Is this really the career ERA a team would want for their “ace”?

Tyson Ross, whom the Padres acquired from the A’s was penciled in and made three starts in the five-slot in the rotation. Ross recently went on the 15-day DL with a left shoulder subluxation.

This year, Ross made three starts, none of them more than 5.1 Innings. Although Ross has a solid 3.86 ERA through those starts, it is unlikely that he will keep this up.

Edinson Volquez at the 2013 WBC:

Mat Latos was traded to the Reds for Yonder Alonso, Yasmani Grandal, Brad Boxberger and Edinson Volquez. It hasn’t been a banner trade for the Southern California franchise.

Also filling the rotation are Eric Stults, Edinson Volquez, and Clayton Richard. Stults is 2 – 2 – with a 4.70 ERA, Volquez is 0-3 with an alarming 8.84 ERA, and Richard is 0-1 with a 5.28 ERA.

I could try to justify these performances by suggesting that the entire rotation is off to a slow start, but unfortunately for the Padres, this is not the case.

Jake Peavy was dealt from the San Diego Padres essentially for Clayton Richard. This is 2 dominant aces (Latos/Peavy) – and an ALL – Star in Adrian Gonzalez for Cashner, Volquez and Richard. Not exactly a bunch of great trading. Throw in Anthony Rizzo’s potential – and this may turn out disastrous.

Stults has a career ERA of 4.19, Volquez a 4.63, and Richard a 4.16. So, with all of these ERAs, it looks like the Padres will need to score at least five runs per game to be successful. And, with the current offense, I highly doubt doing that is possible.

Edinson Volquez was once touted as being the next big pitcher. The Cincinnati Reds traded Josh Hamilton for him via the Texas Rangers (and others), and then traded him to the Padres for Mat Latos.

Latos was the outright ace of the staff at the time, so Volquez came in and was expected to take control of the staff. He has yet to figure it out in his nine year career and is already 29 years old.

It looks like Volquez is and will be a complete bust, unless he miraculously gets it together and strings together a bunch of good starts.

The Padres also got Yonder Alonso and two others, but so far it seems that the Latos trade was a mistake.

Andrew Cashner health will be key going forward for the Padres this season’s.Starting Rotation. The man is pretty much all that is left from the Adrian Gonzalez trade to Boston. Anthony Rizzo was originally brought to the Padres from the Red Sox – until being flipped for the former Cub Prospect Cashner.

Andrew Cashner is an option to fill in for Tyson Ross, and he has some potential. In Cashner’s one start this year (which was abbreviated as it was an emergency start), he went four innings and gave up two runs on two hits to go with a walk and five strikeouts.

Cashner got the start when scheduled starter Clayton Richard came down with the flu and was unable to go.

This start did not really mean anything since it was so last-minute, but if Cashner was in starting-form, it seems like he would have been able to go a few more innings and keep the Giants offense in check. If he looks solid in his fill-in starts, we might see him earn a permanent spot in the rotation.

Any one of these pitchers would be a four or a five starter in a solid rotation. If the Padres want to improve, they must acquire an ace. They probably should have made a run at Kyle Lohse before he signed with the Brewers, but I am mainly talking about a trade.

They could try to get some value out of Chase Headley’s strong 2012 campaign when he drove in over 100 RBI – and hit over 30 HR. I highly doubt the Giants would do this because of the fact that the Padres are in the same division.

That would be highly unlikely, but a trade like that would be helpful. Dan Haren could be another target, but signing him would be pending his improvement. Overall, the Padres have some work to do if they would like to compete in the NL West.

Volquez has started 2013 abysmally – with a record of 0 – 3, plus an 8.84 ERA. Volquez has been extremely erratic – throwing 5 Wild Pitchers already. The Walks are not foreign to his arsenal unfortunately. The Veteran Pitcher led the National League in free passes last campaign (105 BB in 182.2 IP). He has received the benefits of pitching at Petco Park in order to put up okay numbers.

***The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com or their partners***

Today’s feature was prepared by our Baseball Writer Bernie Olshansky. We highly encourage you to leave your comments and feedback at the bottom of the page and share in the discussion with our readers. You can also follow Bernie on Twitter. Follow @BernieOlshansky

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