Padres Report - August 20th

Padres’ Minor League Report – August 20, 2006

Nice to the Padres get another series win (the Padres have won 4 of their last 8 series – not surprising for a team with a 62-62 record). We need to get a few more of those.

Hitters:

AAA – Jon Knott --- 2-3; 2 2B (28), R
AA – Luis Cruz --- 2-3; RBI, BB
Hi-A – Sean Kazmar --- 2-4; HR (11), R, 4 RBI, SO
Lo-A – Will Venable --- 2-4; 2B (32), R
SS – Matt Antonelli --- 1-3; R, RBI, 2 BB
SS – Craig Cooper --- 4-5; 2 2B (16), 2 R, RBI
SS – Chad Huffman --- 2-4; R
R – Cedric Hunter --- 0-1; 2 R, 3 BB

Pitchers:

AA – Matt Ekstrom --- 9.0 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO, 0 HR
SS – Ernesto Fieri --- 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO, 0 HR

Commentary:

Craig Cooper had a night…

Cedric now has 35 BB to go with 19 SO in 187 AB…

Ernesto Fieri is an interesting prospect. Baseball America ranked the Columbian acquisition #17 in the 2006 Prospect Handbook. He’s 20 years old and listed as 6’2” 168 lbs., so he’s obviously not a big guy. BA also has a couple of interesting quotes on him:

1. “His fastball has no more than average velocity, but he features two quality breaking pitches.”
2. “…Most of his strikeouts came when inexperienced hitters chase pitches out of the zone.”

However, due to Ernesto’s size, I would guess he might have a bit of velocity left in him if/when he fills out. Secondly, I could see criticizing a pitcher’s strikeout total if had one season that was statistically flukish, or only had one season experience. Ernesto has 170 career strikeouts in 136 IP over three seasons (going into the season) and 30 SO in 29 IP this year. So he’s consistently striking out at least a hitter per inning pitched. I don’t consider Ernesto to be a top prospect by any means, but as I said, he is interesting…