Padres Report - August 29th

Padres’ Minor League Report – August 29, 2006

I fully endorse an automated ball/strike system. You need humans to watch tags, make decisions on rules, etc. I do not endorse eliminating umpires. But MLB spends money on QuestTec (or whatever’s called) to help train umpires on where the strike zone should be, all to enforce conformity and reduce errors. If we want one strike zone instead of dozens and fewer errors, why not go automated? I wonder if Chris Young agrees with me?

On to the report…

Hitters:

AAA – Ben Johnson --- 3-5; 2B (9), 2 R, BB, SO
AAA – Terrmel Sledge --- 1-4; HR (24), 2 R, 3 RBI, BB
AAA – Jon Knott --- 2-3; 2 2B (31), 2 R, 2 RBI, BB, SO
Hi-A – Nic Crosta --- 2-5; 2B (21), 2 RBI, SO
Lo-A – Will Venable --- 2-4; HR (10), R, 2 RBI, BB – G1
Lo-A – Will Venable --- 1-2; 2 RBI – G2
Lo-A – David Freese --- 0-3; 2 R, BB – G1
Lo-A – Seth Johnston --- 3-4; 2 R, SO – G1
Lo-A – Chad Huffman --- 2-4; 3B (1), 2 R, 2 RBI – G1
Lo-A – Matt Antonelli --- 0-3; SO – G2

Pitchers:

AA – Jonathon Ellis --- 4.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO, 0 HR
Lo-A – Nathanial Culp --- 3.2 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO, 1 HR – G1
Lo-A – John Madden --- 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 SO, 0 HR – G1
R – Geoff Vandel --- 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO, 0 HR

Commentary:

Terrmel Sledge is some kind of hot this month. In April Terrmel went homerless. In May he hit 3 HR. in June he hit 4. In July he hit 6 HR. With 2 games left this month, Terrmel has jacked 11 balls out this month. When I looked, MinorLeagueSplits.com only had the Terrmel's stats updated through the 25th, but he was hitting .394/.482/.901 for the month. Those numbers are likely even better now. Wow!

“Say hey, let’s play two!” Will Venable had himself a day.

Chad Huffman had nice Lo-A debut. Matt Antonelli; not so much…

In his last three starts, Geoff Vandel has 16 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 23 SO. I like this kid.