Padres MiLB July 5, 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…

Minor League Hitter(s) of the Day

Jonathan Galvez (DSL): 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI, BB
Yefri Carvajal (Low-A): 2-2, R, 2 RBI, 2 BB
Kellen Kulbacki (High-A): 2-4, 2B, HR, R, 3 RBI
Will Venable (AAA): 3-4, 2 2B, HR, 3 R, 2 RBI, BB

Minor League Pitcher of the Day

Wynn Pelzer (Low-A): 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR

Other Commentary

This is Wynn Pelzer’s third straight start where he has notched my Pitcher of the Day award…

Pelzer is not the strikeout artist that I generally prefer. So far this season Pelzer has a 7.42 K/9 rate. As a collegian Pelzer had an 8.40 K/9 rate (I prefer collegian pitchers to have a K/9 rate greater than 9.00). Pelzer cannot be considered a top prospect (yet), but if he keeps up this level of success I am going to have to change how I think of him…

Kellen Kulbacki is a stud. He started the year injured so the Padres sent him to Low-A Fort Wayne to get things going. After 18 games and 61 at-bats, Kellen was hitting .164/.260/.295. Prime time for a promotion, don’t you think? Sure enough, Kellen was promoted to High-A Lake Elsinore and continued to struggle: .221/.361/.309 in 22 games and 68 AB in May. When the calendar turned to June, Kellen took off: .329/.451/.695… He’s hitting .300 so far in July. Just to make sure you do not think June is the fluke, Kellen hit .301/.382/.491 last year in the Northwest League and he posted .944, 1.511, and 1.323 OPS totals in his three collegiate seasons.