Padres MiLB April 9, 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 of the Day

Cedric Hunter (AA): 2-4, 2 R, RBI, SB

Minor League Pitcher of the Day

Anthony Bass (Low-A): 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO, 0 HR

Other Commentary

Wow! I was more excited about today’s Minor League opening day than Monday’s Major League opening day. Fun stuff!

There weren’t too many candidates for Hitter of the Day but Cedric did what he usually does, got multiple hits, didn’t strike out, scored a couple runs… Some experts say Cedric doesn’t cover CF well enough to be considered an above-average CF prospect – I disagree. Furthermore, I think his bat is special enough that even if he isn’t a sublime defender, he’ll be good enough defensively that the Padres will want his bat in the lineup.

Welcome back to the world of starting pitching, Anthony Bass. Anthony, a starter in college, relieved in Eugene last year (2-2,2.10 ERA, 34.1 IP, 25 H, 14/41 BB/SO ratio). I’ve seen multiple comments talking about the Lake Elsinore rotation (headed by Padres 2008 organizational Pitcher of the Year, Jeremy Hefner), but the Low-A team has at least four legitimate MLB starting pitching prospects in Mat Latos, Simon Castro, Nicholas Schmidt, and Anthony Bass… I had Bass ranked higher than virtually anyone coming into this season. We can’t go overboard on one start but if Bass isn’t on your “watch list” put him on it now.