At 27-28, you can't count the Padres out, but some early season struggles have cause people to worry perhaps a bit more than they should.
The Padres are riding a pretty good wave right now. They've won 7 of their last 11. Their last three series' were against clubs with winning record and they took two of them and split the other one. Not too shabby. Actually, the Padres have done pretty well against most of the teams they have played who currently have winning records. They are 16-16 against winning teams... if you exclude the Astros and Nationals.