Padres Report - August 16th

Padres’ Minor League Report – August 16, 2006

Hitters:

AAA – Tremel Sledge --- 2-4; HR (18), R, 3 RBI, SO
Hi-A – Chase Headley --- 2-4; 2B (29), 2 RBI, SO
Hi-A – Nic Crosta --- 0-3; 3 SO – & an E - ouch!
Lo-A – David Freese --- 2-4; 2B (11), R, 2 SO
R – Luis Durango --- 3-4; R, RBI, BB
R – Rayner Contreras --- 2-5; R, 2 RBI, SO
R – Cedric Hunter --- 4-5; 2B (11), 2 R, RBI
R – Kyler Burke --- 0-3; R, RBI, 2 BB

Pitchers:

Lo-A – Grant Varnell --- 5.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO, 0 HR
Lo-A – Joakim Soria --- 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR

Commentary:

Despite Grant Varnell’s electric performance today, he is NOT a prospect. The 23 year old (he’ll turn 24 next month) who’s allowing roughly 25% more hits than IP and is barely striking out one guy every two IP (58 SO in 105 IP) is getting by on guile and maturity. The going will become too much as he advances.

Who is Joakim Soria? All I know is he pitched in Mexico for Diablos Rojos del Mexico, going 0-0 over 37 IP with a 3.89 ERA allowing 37 H, 2 HR, 11 BB & 30 SO with 15 Saves… Age? We’ll find out…

It’s quite the small sample size (107 AB) but Luis Durango was hitting .402/.487/.500 going into tonight’s contest. Going 3-4 with a walk raises those already awesome numbers.

Cedric. Four hits. Four! …And a 2B. He’s now batting .384. – I’ve told a few friends about this, but Tony Gwynn showed up and my former place of work and made a large purchase (despite being paid to advertise for a competitor -hmm…). Anyway, during a waiting period, he and I chatted baseball for over 30 minutes. One complaint he had about the Padres minor league organization is that we didn’t have enough athletes. We had lumbering mid-to-late 20 year-old, first-basemen masquerading as shortstops and CFers (ok, those were my words not Tony’s but that’s essentially his point). Well Tony, here’s your high-upside athlete. I present to you, Cedric Hunter.