27-year old lefty swinging 1B Adrian Gonzalez finished 12th in the voting for the N.L. MVP Award. Gonzalez played in 160 games for the Padres last season and he was 153 for 552 (.277 avg, .958 OPS) with 90 runs scored, 40 homers and 99 RBIs. Gonzalez has now played six years in the majors and he is 724 for 2,576 (.281 avg, .869 OPS) with 401 runs scored, 137 homers and 424 RBIs. The Padres should absolutely not trade Gonzalez as they should build a lineup around him.

The Padres weren’t thinking they found their shortstop of the future when they selected 22-year old switch hitter Everth Cabrera in the Rule 5 Draft last winter. But Cabrera has taken advantage of the huge hole the Padres had at shortstop when the season opened. He has played in 99 games for the Padres this season and he is 94 for 364 (.258 avg, .704 OPS) with 57 runs scored, 2 homers, 31 RBIs and 24 stolen bases. He missed a lot of time due to injury this season so it will be interesting to see what kind of numbers he puts up with hopefully a healthy, whole season in 2010 with the Padres.

The Padres decided to give 26-year old lefty swinging outfielder Will Venable a big chance after they traded Scott Hairston to the A’s. He has played in 85 games for the Padres this season and he is 70 for 259 (.270 avg, .800 OPS) with 36 runs scored, 11 homers, 33 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. He will likely get a chance to earn a starting job next spring with the Padres.

25-year old switch hitting LF Chase Headley has really picked it up this September. Headley has played in 18 games in September so far and he is 20 for 65 (.308 avg., .750 OPS) with 10 runs scored, 2 homers and 13 RBIs. He has now played in 145 games this season for the Padres and he is 134 for 503 (.266 avg, .750 OPS) with 56 runs scored, 12 homers, 61 RBIs and 9 stolen bases. The Padres hope his hot streak carries over into next season and is not just a product of expanded roster pitching.

27-year old lefty swinging 1B Adrian Gonzalez and 28-year old righty swinging 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff have been the guys that have produced by far the most with the bat for the Padres this season. Gonzalez has been a absolute beast this season for the Padres as he has played in 130 games this season in which he is 123 for 449 (.274 avg, .961 OPS) with 73 runs scored, 34 homers and 77 RBIs. The amazing thing about Gonzalez this season is that only 43 of his RBIs this season were not knocking himself in which shows how poorly the top of the lineup has been for the Padres this season. Even though teams have been trying to trade for Gonzalez the Padres should absolutely resist the temptation as he should be one of the players the team rebuilds around. Kevin Kouzmanoff has provided protection for Gonzalez in the lineup lately and it has helped him excel. Kouzmanoff has played in 129 games for the Padres this season and he is 124 for 483 (.257 avg, .724 OPS) with 45 runs scored, 16 homers and 76 RBIs. The fact that he has only scored 45 runs this season with 16 of them by his own doing shows how putrid the bottom of the lineup has been for the Padres this year. The Padres absolutely have to keep both Gonzalez and Kouzmanoff and build the offense around them.