The Padres offense faces a more and more daunting task each time out in the upcoming series, facing Chris Volstad, Ricky Nolasco, and Josh Johnson.

Can they jump on Volstad? Is Johnson going to be as unhittable as usual? Find out after the jump.

In between series with the Dodgers, the Padres will host the Florida Marlins for three games from July 30 to August 1. The Marlins enter the series 51-51; the Padres come in an NL-best 60-40. The Marlins will also be somewhat weakened, as they just traded Jorge Cantu away, while the Padres just acquired Miguel Tejada.

The Padres will start lefty Wade LeBlanc and righthanders Kevin Correia and Jon Garland in the three-game set.

Find out how they match up with Florida’s offense after the jump.

I predicted the Dodgers series to be a hard-fought affair that would likely come down to the bullpens. After losing the first game 2-0 to the Dodgers, largely because Bud Black didn’t turn to his bullpen–namely lefty Joe Thatcher–quick enough–the Padres bounced back and took the last two games, winning the finale 3-2. Joe Torre returned the favor on Black’s error in the ninth inning of the finale, leaving lefty setup man George Sherrill in to face righty Oscar Salazar with dominating righthanded closer Jonathan Broxton ready to go in the bullpen. Salazar drove home the winning run on a single.

The series victory pushed the Padres to seven games up on the Dodgers. The Giants are now firmly in second, 3 1/2 back, while the Rockies are a distant nine out of first (although you never know with these Colorado teams).

The Padres host the Florida Marlins in a three-game set next, where they’ll have some tough pitching matchups, running a gauntlet that includes Ricky Nolasco and Josh Johnson. The team will get newly acquired Miguel Tejada before the series; hopefully he’ll provide something of an offensive boost.

Meanwhile, the Giants and Dodgers will have another series, one that could either leave the Dodgers as non-contenders or put both teams five or six back. If both the Dodgers and Padres sweep their respective series, San Diego will open up a gaping 6 1/2 game lead.

Following that series, the Padres will visit the Dodgers for what could promise to be another tough series–hopefully, Bud Black won’t make the same mistake twice.

The Padres acquired third baseman Miguel Tejada from the Baltimore Orioles today in exchange for Double-A righty Wynn Pelzer.

I analyzed the deal rather exhaustively at Call to the Pen, so rather than repeat myself, I’ll just send you there. I like the deal–Pelzer means little to the Padres, and Tejada, while in decline, is a definite upgrade.

Padres outfielder Kyle Blanks, who was bothered by right elbow problems all year and went on the disabled list May 17, will have Tommy John reconstruction surgery on the elbow and miss the rest of the 2010 and possibly part of 2011. He’ll have the operation on Friday.

Position players tend to have fewer hurdles to clear from some of the injuries, like Tommy John surgery, that often knock pitchers out for a year or even two, so I’d expect Blanks to be on a quicker timetable back than most pitchers would be.

You can only hope that the elbow problems a) will be properly and permanently fixed and b) were at the core of Blanks’ 2010 struggles, where he struck out nearly every other at-bat and couldn’t break the Mendoza Line.

It’s worth noting that Blanks’ uncertain status could keep Adrian Gonzalez in a Padres uniform longer than initially expected. Blanks was expected to succeed Gonzalez at first base once the Padres star was traded, but now, there’s no clear candidate to replace Gonzalez, and if Blanks has rehab setbacks, he may be out until after next year’s trade deadline. The Padres’ three other in-house options to replace Gonzalez would be AAA players Mike Baxter and Kyle Phillips and Double-A first baseman Matt Clark.

Best of luck to Blanks on his surgery and recovery; hopefully, when he finally comes back, he’s in 2009 form or better.

Just days after the Diamondbacks gave away Dan Haren for nothing of consequence, the Dodgers became the second NL West team to pull a head-scratching move, acquiring outfielder Scott Podsednik for two solid prospects.

My full analysis of the trade can be found here, but for those of you who don’t have the patience for 1,211 words about a medium-importance trade, I’ll excerpt the important part:

The Dodgers…have three Triple-A outfielders who are all mashing the ball in Jay Gibbons (.339/.364/.593), Trent Oeltjen (.317/.372/.540), and Michael Restovich (.296/.365/.509). If they wanted more of a defense/contact type, there’s also Jamie Hoffmann (.315/.372/.435).

The ZiPS rest-of-season projections call for Podsednik to hit .294/.344/.394 the rest of the way–a .738 OPS. I know the Triple-A Albuquerque park inflates numbers, but I really doubt that none of those four outfielders could at least approach that production. Sure, maybe the Triple-A guy they would choose would put up a .700 OPS or so, giving the Dodgers .5 wins instead of .8. You really think those .3 wins are worth two solid prospects? Really?

If the Dodgers’ AAA team was devoid of good-hitting outfielders, and/or the team had a nice big budget, I could actually OK this deal from their side. But Frank McCourt is broke and the team has four replacements who could at least be almost as good as Podsednik just sitting there. Those four replacements are all cheaper, under team control for longer, and, most important, are just a callup away. You don’t have to trade your best catching prospect and a live arm to get them.

Apparently, this logic is lost on Ned Colletti and the Dodgers.

So, um, yeah, that’s two teams in the Padres’ division that have shown signs they have no clue what they’re doing. Then again, everyone should have figured out the Dodgers were clueless back on June 10, so maybe this isn’t news.

All I can say (beyond those 1,211 words) is: The Padres should be very thankful for what division they’re in, and let’s hope they aren’t the third NL West team to do something stupid this week. I’ll be picking apart every trade that goes down between now and the deadline for Call to the Pen, so I’ll be right on top of whatever moves the Padres choose to make–I’ll link that up to here if and when it happens.

The Padres face righthanders Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda, and Vicente Padilla in their upcoming three-game set.

Find out how the San Diego offense matches up with those three after the jump.

The Padres open an important three-game set hosting the Dodgers tomorrow, fresh off an off-day today after their three-game sweep in Pittsburgh.

The Padres begin the series six games ahead of the Dodgers; that could expand to as much as a rather decisive nine or shrink to a rather uncomfortable three depending on the outcome of these three games.

San Diego sends righty Jon Garland, lefty Clayton Richard, and righty Kevin Correia out to pitch in the three-game set at Petco.

I’ll break down how they match up with the Dodger offense after the jump.

The Padres made a few rather trivial moves over the weekend. They don’t deserve their own post, so I’ll just run them down here:

Righty Erik Davis was demoted from Portland to Lake Elsinore after making one Triple-A spot start. The outing went well (7 K, 2 ER in 5 IP), but it wasn’t enough for Davis to get more chances.

Lefty Mark Hardy was sent from Lake Elsinore back to the AZL after making one spot start in place of Davis. He threw four shutout innings but ran into trouble in the fifth, allowing three runs.

Lefty Josh Spence was promoted to Eugene from the AZL to take Matt Lollis’ (who was promoted earlier in the week) rotation spot. He threw three solid innings in his first start.

Outfielder Rico Noel, who had been on the DL in Fort Wayne, was activated and demoted to Eugene, where he could get more playing time. Noel had hit just .136 in 12 games in Fort Wayne.

So…that’s that. Nothing particularly unexpected or major, just some things to be aware of, I suppose.

In between last week’s big series against then-NL-leading Atlanta and this week’s big series that could put the Dodgers as many as nine out of first (or as close as three), the Padres had a three-game series with NL basement-dwellers Pittsburgh.

My series previews were optimistic that the Padres’ pitching could stifle the Pirates’ offense and that the Pirates’ pitching was ill-equipped to prevent the Padres from scoring. In short, these were the classic “games you’re supposed to win.”

The Padres can’t afford to lose to Pittsburgh when they have three NL West teams breathing down their neck, and thankfully, they came through with a three-game sweep on the road. That’s no mean feat, mind you: Pittsburgh isn’t all that devoid of talent, particularly on offense, and they were hitting well against Milwaukee in the series prior. San Diego could’ve easily let one or even two slip away, but they didn’t.

It’s good they didn’t, too, because the Giants continued to win, and remain just three back of San Diego, poised to strike the second something goes wrong with the Padres. The Rockies, however, have now lost five straight, and are a distant 7 1/2 back. The Dodgers are six back, but the upcoming series (which I’ll break down later today) could drastically influence their standing in the divison.

So, props to the Padres for making the Pittsburgh series turn out like it should have. Hopefully the three-game winning streak carries over into their tough battle with LA.