Slim pickings

The San Diego Padres have pretty much lived down to expectations this season, compiling Major League Baseball’s worst team batting average of .216 as well as the worst record (16-30) among MLB’s 30 teams entering play Monday.

So, Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Shaiken visited the Padres team store at Petco Park to see which Padres players were getting top billing.

“Among the jerseys and T-shirts, you could buy a Tony Gwynn or a Trevor Hoffman, a Dave Winfield or a Goose Gossage, a Randy Jones or a Steve Garvey or a Garry Templeton or …

“What the heck? A Kurt Bevacqua?

“That Kurt Bevacqua, the career .236 hitter best known in Los Angeles as the guy Tommy Lasorda once said ‘couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat?’ ”

Bevacqua, it turns out, is a San Diego cult hero for hitting a home run in the only World Series game the Padres ever have won, in 1984.

“Good for him, then,” Shaiken wrote. “But, seriously, where are the jerseys promoting the current players? The Wil Myers jerseys have been in stock all season. The Manuel Margot jerseys just showed up, and there aren’t very many of them.

“That was it for the current squad. Really, who could blame the marketing folks? Other than Myers, an All-Star last season and signed for the next six seasons, this year’s entire cast is subject to audition. Order a few hundred jerseys with anyone else’s name, and you could be stuck with the bill if the guy is demoted, traded or released.”