No, the Padres aren't actually that bad. Most of the issues are with the defense(Kemp, Dickerson, Alexei Ramirez are awful defensively) and the pitching (they've used 25 pitchers this year, one catcher and Amarista, an infielder). Since they started giving guys like DIckerson, Jankowski and Schimpf a chance, the team has improved--they've been close to a .500 team since June.