It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

Wow. The only thing better than the Padres start is being able to laugh out loud at the idiocy of ESPN, who have the Braves ranked #1 on a day they lose to the Pirates 10-0 and have the Friars ranked 14th on a day they hang the first blown save in a Phillie uniform on Brad Lidge.The San Diego sunshine boys are 9-3 and still leading the NL West along with the Dodgers. The thing is, the Dodgers have been playing Colorado and Arizona while we've been playing the Mets and Phillies. This may sound a bit hypocritical coming from a guy who is basically asking for respect for a team that lost 99 games last year... but come on! Who do you think are the better two opponents? The World Champs and the team with Jose Reyes and David Wright, maybe? Huh? Yes, ESPN... I am talking to you.Most impressive to me is the manner in which the Padres are winning these games. Multiple players contributing... it seems like every night it is another spot in the lineup doing the job. Tonight, it was Kevin Kouzmanoff, already famous for slow starts, getting three hits and putting the Padres ahead for good with a three-run shot in the ninth. The Crushing Russian (I don't know if his heritage is really russian, it just sounds cool) has aurguably been competing with Brian Giles for the title of slowest starting Friar. Oh, yeah. And it was Giles who knocked in the tying run before Kouz batted.Seriously... if we had told you that the first two games of this series were going to feature Chris Young giving up five in the first inning on Friday and two Adrian Gonzalez errors and a Brad Lidge save op on Saturday, you would have said those were gonna be two losses.Instead, the Padres have already assured themselves of a split. Not that I expect this team to settle for that. One thing I am certain of and willing to predict... this ballclub is not going to give away games because they are down by two or three runs in the sixth inning. This club already believes they can come back on anybody. Something last years group never did believe.I know that people told these guys they were going to suck, so it is not that they don't know any better. I just don't think they care. Yes, its early. We still have not even reached the 10% mark in this very young season. But for fans who have heard over and over and over how horrible this season was gonna be... this is fun. I mean, I was almost laughed off the internet for saying this team had a chance to win 70 games.Sure, we might crash and burn come the first of May. But right now, to paraphrase Geoff over at Ducksnorts, I am going to enjoy the ride.