SAN DIEGO -- One year later, here the Padres are again, in almost the exact same position.

Last season, the Padres entered the All-Star break in first place in the National League West, with a 48-41 record. This season, they entered the All-Star break in first place in the NL West, with a 48-40 record.

If you were to tell the Padres that they would proceed to duplicate their feat from 2005, when they captured the fourth division flag in franchise history, they would take it. If you were to tell them that they would have to navigate the same choppy waters, they might make a face like they had swallowed sour milk.

For last season was the year when the Padres and the West became a national laughingstock, when playing .466 baseball in the second half was enough to emerge from a pack of also-rans.

This year, the division is stronger across the board -- the Padres' lead is only two games, compared to a 5 1/2-game edge in 2005 -- and the 2006 Padres seem more legitimate, starting with the fact that they've already enjoyed more than one winning month.

Do they have staying power? Stay tuned.

First, though, a look back at the first half that was:

Biggest surprises

> Young gun. Chris Young is literally and figuratively the Padres' biggest surprise. The 6-foot-10 right-hander was expected to be a solid addition to the rotation after arriving in a trade with Texas, but no one expected what he has delivered.

Though passed over for an All-Star berth, Young has been the rock of a pitching staff that leads the National League in ERA (3.91). He's 8-4 with a 3.12 ERA, and opponents are batting only .206 against him, the third-best figure in the league.

The scary part? Young has repeatedly said he sees room for improvement.

> Backup backstops. Who would have imagined that Mike Piazza would have the lowest OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) among the Padres' three catchers? Especially when the reserves are Josh Bard, who hit .193 for Cleveland last season, and Rob Bowen, who entered the season with a career average of .108?

In San Diego, both players have been revelations. Bard, acquired from Boston in a trade for Doug Mirabelli, is batting .384 with five home runs and 20 RBIs, and has set himself up to start next season if Piazza departs or retires. Bowen, snatched off the waiver wire on Opening Day, boasts a .411 on-base percentage and 13 runs as a frequent pinch-hitter and defensive replacement.

"We found lightning in a bottle with those two," manager Bruce Bochy said. "I think the world of them."

> Right stuff on the right side. Josh Barfield won the second base job in spring training. Adrian Gonzalez took over first base when Ryan Klesko succumbed to shoulder surgery.

The Padres would have settled for solid defense and youthful energy from the new starters, both 24 or younger. Instead, they might have stumbled upon a couple of cornerstones.

After seeing his average dip as low as .251, Barfield went a scorching 26-for-59 in the two weeks before the break to bring his number up to .289. Gonzalez, who came over with Young in the Rangers deal, has added a club-high 13 homers to his Gold Glove-caliber fielding. They could be side by side for the next decade.

> Park factor. It's official: Chan Ho Park has resuscitated a career that was left for dead in Texas. Healthy and happy for the first time since his Dodgers days, Park trails only Young in wins (six, tied with reliever Scott Linebrink) and innings (109) while posting a respectable 4.29 ERA. Hey, has anyone seen Phil Nevin?

> Mighty 'pen. In the offseason, the Padres lost veteran relievers Akinori Otsuka, Rudy Seanez and Chris Hammond from an outstanding bullpen. In spring training, they lost key addition Doug Brocail to heart problems and broke camp with unproven pieces like Scott Cassidy and Brian Sweeney. Three pitchers who began the season as relievers -- Park, Woody Williams and Clay Hensley -- were quickly drafted into the rotation.

Yet, somehow, the Padres have pieced together a bullpen around closer Trevor Hoffman and setup man Linebrink that leads the majors with a 3.28 ERA.

Biggest disappointments

> The cold corner. Third baseman Vinny Castilla has given the Padres superb defense, but none of the other attributes that his position requires.

Castilla, who turned 39 last week, is batting .232 with only four homers and 23 RBIs. His woes at the plate could force the Padres to lean more on reserves Mark Bellhorn and Geoff Blum -- or to go outside the organization for help, as they did last year in acquiring Joe Randa to replace the struggling Sean Burroughs.

> Franchise player? Right fielder Brian Giles brings tremendous value to the Padres. He collects his hits, draws his walks, and plays hard every day.

But shouldn't a No. 3 hitter who's guaranteed $30 million be able to manage more than one homer, seven doubles and 14 RBIs since the beginning of June? Some in the organization wonder whether Giles shouldn't switch spots in the lineup with Mike Cameron, who has a .440 slugging percentage from the No. 2 hole.

> Shouldering the load. A first half unbefitting an ace wasn't all Jake Peavy's fault, of course. Several outings were sabotaged by shoulder tendinitis that he hopes the lengthy All-Star break will finally chase away for good. And once he returned to form, Peavy turned in four consecutive quality starts, but didn't earn a win because of lack of run support.

Still, though, the sight of Peavy with a 4-8 record and 4.46 ERA after the first half can only be termed a disappointment.

> Sledge or sludge? Remember Terrmel Sledge? He was the third player landed in the trade that brought Young and Gonzalez, and he was expected to serve as the Padres' fourth outfielder, if not push left fielder Dave Roberts for a starting job.

Instead, Sledge was sent to Triple-A Portland in April and has been with the Beavers since. When Roberts went on the disabled list last month, Sledge was barely mentioned as a candidate to replace him.

> Empty seats. Average attendance at Petco Park through 47 home dates is 31,785, a decrease of 10 percent from last year and 15 percent from the debut season of 2004. The Padres had only three sellouts in the first half versus 11 in the first half of '05.

Best performances

> 1. In a span of two starts from May 30 to June 4, Young twice took a no-hitter into at least the sixth inning and finished with eight innings of shutout ball in beating Colorado and Pittsburgh. Bochy called them the best back-to-back efforts he had seen from a pitcher as a player or manager. And Bochy used to be a teammate of Nolan Ryan.

> 2. On June 13 against the Dodgers, Cameron doubled, tripled and homered in his first four at-bats. Coming to the plate in the seventh inning, needing only a single to complete the first cycle in club history, Cameron watched three balls from pitcher Odalis Perez, then took a strike before accepting a walk. Asked why he didn't swing at 3-0, Cameron pointed to the 9-1 score and said it would have been disrespectful.

> 3. Taking full advantage of the launching pad that is Arizona's Chase Field, Giles on May 17 slugged a double and a three-run homer as part of a seven-RBI game, breaking his record of six, set with Pittsburgh in 2002. The seven RBIs, incidentally, equaled Giles' total for the 21 games leading up to the break.

> 4. Rather than coast to his fifth All-Star game, Hoffman charged into it. He saved games on four consecutive days on the Padres' final road trip -- something he has never done during a potential Hall of Fame career.

> 5. The first half was spotty for first-year starter Hensley, but never was he better than on May 14 at Wrigley Field. That afternoon he needed only 92 pitches, most of them wicked sinkers, to complete a two-hit shutout of the Cubs.

Worst performances

> 1. Park had a laudable first half, with one glaring exception. On May 21 in Seattle, he allowed 10 earned runs on 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings as the Mariners completed a three-game sweep. Not even as a Ranger was Park battered so badly. Remove that start, and Park would have a 3.65 ERA rather than 4.29.

> 2. Long before his shoulder problems cropped up, a fully healthy Peavy was rocked for eight runs on 11 hits in only four innings of an April 9 loss to the youthful Rockies. More puzzling: Just six days earlier, Peavy had shut down the Giants with a virtuoso showing on Opening Day.

> 3. No sense picking one game. Mirabelli's whole Padres tenure was awful. Sullen after the team signed Piazza to render him a backup catcher, Mirabelli virtually sleepwalked through April, hitting .182 with no homers or RBIs. The Padres' May 1 acquisition of Bard and reliever Cla Meredith (1.59 ERA) for Mirabelli looks like highway robbery.

> 4. In retrospect, it's hard to believe that Dewon Brazelton secured one of four spots in the Padres' rotation out of spring training. It didn't last long. In two starts, the Tampa Bay castoff surrendered a combined 17 runs in 6 1/3 innings to get bumped to the bullpen. By mid-May he was in Triple-A, where he has remained.

> 5. Hensley the pitcher was brilliant. Hensley the hitter? Not so much. The same day he threw his first shutout, the pitcher struck out five times against the Cubs to tie a major-league record. The wind was blowing out, all right.

- Contact staff writer Brian Hiro at b_hiro@hotmail.com.

Top of the First (Half)

Awards for the first half of the Padres' season:

MVP: Trevor Hoffman

> The Padres' strength is their bullpen, and its anchor is the ageless closer who has 24 saves in 25 chances with a 1.03 ERA.

LVP (Least Valuable Player): Shawn Estes

> Penciled in as the No. 2 starter, the left-hander made one start for the Padres before elbow pain ultimately led to Tommy John surgery that will shelve him until the middle of next season.

Best trade: C Doug Mirabelli to Boston for C Josh Bard and RHP Cla Meredith

> The Red Sox got a player to catch knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. The Padres got a potential starter behind the plate in 2007 and a promising young reliever.

Best victory:

> Down 5-0 to the Dodgers in the ninth inning on April 30, the Padres stormed back to tie it and won 6-5 in the 10th on a Mark Bellhorn single. They went on to win nine games in a row for their longest victory streak since 1999.

Best managerial move:

> Bruce Bochy took off the bunt sign after Josh Barfield failed to get the ball down in the eighth inning of a May 3 game at Dodger Stadium. Barfield slugged the next pitch for a tie-breaking homer, and the Padres raced to an 11-5 victory.