The Padres over the weekend unveiled their 50th anniversary logo, the first of a long line of events celebrating the franchise’s stay in San Diego.

The content will flow from the team, blogs and of course the Union-Tribune.

Best and worst moments. Timelines. All-time teams.

In fact, you’ll get a lot of the latter.


First up: Tom Stone’s “Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All-30 Franchise,” a 600-plus-page who’s who of each franchise.

Teams like the Yankees, Dodgers required more than 30 pages each to sift through their history.

The Padres?

Just 13, although it’s a wonder that even that many are needed given the course of the organization over the last decade or five.


Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman are in the Hall of Fame and on the team.

Dave Winfield, too, is in Cooperstown as a Padre despite appearing in twice as many All-Star Games as a Yankee (8) as a San Diegan (4). Roberto Alomar is also in the Hall of Fame as a Blue Jay and Hall-of-Famers Rollie Fingers (Athletics) and Goose Gossage (Yankees) are in a stacked bullpen behind Hoffman.

Beyond those shoo-ins and Cy Young winners Jake Peavy and Randy Jones, the starting lineups presented for both left-handed and right-handed opposing pitchers offer plenty of reason to debate, which is sort of the point of a book like this.

Against RHP


CF Tony Gwynn (L)

2B Bip Roberts (S)

RF Dave Winfield (R)

1B Adrian Gonzalez (L)

3B Chase Headley (S)

LF Ryan Klesko (L)

DH Brian Giles (L)

C Terry Kennedy (L)

SS Ozzie Smith (S)

Against LHP

DH Tony Gwynn (L)

2B Roberto Alomar (S)

Dave Winfield (R)

1B Nate Colbert (R)

3B Ken Caminiti (S)

CF Kevin McReynolds (R)

LF Bip Roberts (S)

C Gene Tenace/Benito Santiago (R)

SS Ozzie Smith (S)

Top-five starting pitchers

RHP Jake Peavy

RHP Andy Ashby

RHP Andy Benes

LHP Randy Jones

RHP Eric Show

One hot (corner) debate

Both switch-hitters, Chase Headley’s selection in the right-handed-pitcher lineup ahead of Ken Caminiti is a curious one. Headley played longer in San Diego than Caminiti (nine years vs. four) and accumulated more WAR (18.6 vs. 17.5), although the bulk of his production stemmed from a better glove and a 2012 campaign in which he hit 19 of his 31 homers over the final two months of the season. Beyond that summer, Headley was a three-win player in just two other seasons. He never pushed the Padres in the playoffs (surely not all on him, at all) nor was he an All-Star (he did win a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger in 2012). He was unceremoniously released last year in his second stint with the Padres.

Caminiti’s impact went much deeper during his four-year stay. He was the MVP in 1996. He played on a World Series team. He was an All-Star twice. He hit 121 homers in four years as an admitted steroid user against Headley’s 87 in nine years.


The PED use didn’t disqualify Caminit’s inclusion in the Padres Hall of Fame so we’re not scrutinizing it here, either (Stone’s passage on the Padres’ hot corner did not mention Caminiti’s steroid use).

Find Stone’s book here to dig into the Padres’ all-time team.

A future all-timer?

Speaking of the all-time team, Stone’s book mentions both Wil Myers and Eric Hosmer as current stars who could one day butt their way into the conversation but overlooked Fernando Tatis Jr., who is certainly deserving of a spot on the all-time Padres hype team.

Add another line on the resume: MVP of the Dominican Republic’s round-robin semifinals.


The Estrellas shortstop, the Padres’ top prospect, led the playoff field with 10 RBIs and three homers, including a walk-off job last week that went viral on social media after Tatis’ enthusiastic bat flip. Tatis also swiped six bases and hit .254.

Estrellas continues its playoff run Friday in a series championship matchup with Este.

The kids are all left

Padres prospects comprised nearly half of MLB.com’s list of top-10 minor league southpaws: MacKenzie Gore (ETA 2021), Adrian Morejon (2020), Logan Allen (2019) and Ryan Weathers (2021).

Gore and Weathers were first-round picks in 2017 and 2018, Morejon was the top addition in the 2016-17 international spending spree and Allen arrived in the Craig Kimbrel trade.


The Padres did not have any prospects crack the right-handers’ top-10 ten prospects list. The series is counting down to MLB.com revealing its latest top-100 on Jan. 26.


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jeff.sanders@sduniontribune.com; Twitter: @sdutSanders