Padres MiLB June 25 Players of the Day

Ground-rules: you won’t see a too-old-for-his-league non-prospect get an award. The award may not go to the best performance of the previous night, but what I deem the most significant performance of the night…

Silver lining: With the Padres recent struggles, they will pick higher in next year’s draft.

Minor League Hitter of the Day

Jaff Decker: 2-3, 2B, RBI, BB, SO, SB

Minor League Pitcher of the Day

Wynn Pelzer: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO, 0 HR

Other Commentary

Jaff Decker is one of the youngest hitters on the AZL Padres roster; among hitters, only 17 year-old, Edinson Rincon (currently on the DL) is younger. And yet, Decker bats in the three hole. On July 22, Tom Krasovic quoted Grady Fuson, “If he was even 6-foot, 200 pounds you would have been looking at him in the top level of the first round.” If you watched Decker's YouTube video, to which I linked yesterday, you saw a repeatable, smooth, powerful stroke. And while he was hitting in a controlled environment (hitting off a pitching machine) he hit at least two out to straight-away CF and 2 the other way to LF… While we can only speculate about his athleticism, his two stolen bases in two games can only be encouraging. Decker may have the highest upside of any hitter in the Padres’ system.