Padres Farm Report (15 May 08)
Thu, May 15, 2008
by Geoff Young
Triple-A
No games scheduled in the Pacific Coast League.
After a slow start, Chase Headley has picked things up a bit. He hit .242/.317/.396 in April, but is at .358/.424/.528 so far in May. The Padres’ other top prospect at Portland, Matt Antonelli, is headed in the opposite direction. He’s batting .146/.294/.220 this month…
Starting pitching has been awful: Wade LeBlanc (8.35 ERA, 6.96 K/9, .333 BAA), Cesar Ramos (7.36 ERA, 8.59 K/9, .316 BAA), and Josh Geer (5.09 ERA, 5.28 K/9, .283 BAA) have combined to allow 19 home runs in just 107 2/3 innings. Ramos’ strikeout rate is nice (and way above his career average), but he still can’t get hitters out on a consistent basis…
That the Beavers are 17-18 despite a team 6.05 ERA speaks to the quality of hitting at Portland. Brian Myrow (.325/.450/.542) is crushing the ball, as was Jody Gerut (.308/.382/.570) before he was recalled. Chip Ambres (.276/.375/.500) is playing well…
Of course, Ambres is the youngest of the lot at age 28. Still, Gerut is showing that he’s got some life left, and regular readers know I’m a pretty big Myrow fan.
Double-A — San Antonio 4, Corpus Christi 1
Drew Macias: 0-for-4
Chad Huffman: 1-for-4
Kyle Blanks: 1-for-4
Colt Morton: 0-for-4
Craig Cooper: 1-for-1, HR, 2 BB
Seth Johnston: 1-for-3, HR
Steve Garrison: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 0 BB, 4 SO (82 pitches, 61 strikes)
Jonathan Ellis: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 HR, 1 BB, 0 SO
I had a request to get Johnston in these reports, so there he is. Don’t get too excited — he’s 25 years old… The Missions came within an inning of recording their fourth consecutive shutout.
High-A — Lake Elsinore 3, Stockton 2
Javis Diaz: 0-for-5
Cedric Hunter: 1-for-4, BB
Eric Sogard: 2-for-4
Mitch Canham: 0-for-2, 2 BB
Kellen Kulbacki: 0-for-3, BB
Rayner Contreras: 0-for-4
Nathan Culp: 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 0 HR, 0 BB, 2 SO
Nice comeback win for the Storm at home. Down 2-0 headed to the bottom of the eighth, they scored twice in that inning and once more in the ninth to improve their record to 19-21 on the young season (good enough for first place in the Cal League’s Southern Division)… Kulbacki is scuffling…
Low-A — Fort Wayne 7, West Michigan 5
Bradley Chalk: 0-for-3, 2 BB, SB
Andrew Cumberland (SS): 0-for-4, BB
Justin Baum: 0-for-1, 2 BB, HBP
Shane Buschini: 1-for-4, 2B
Yefri Carvajal: 1-for-4
Felix Carrasco: 1-for-2, HR, 2 BB
Robert Woodard: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 HR, 2 BB, 3 SO, WP
Wynn Pelzer: 3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 BB, 4 SO
LaMond Pope of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports that the Wizards will abandon the “piggyback style” rotation they employed during the season’s first month in favor of a more traditional five-man rotation.
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May 15, 2008 at 7:59 am
Thanks for the pointer about the Wizard rotation … interesting concept … I’ve posted this comment for LaMond Pope …
Can you ask the Wizard’s pitching coach why they tried this … and then why they have decided to stop doing this?
I would imagine that part of the reason is that developing major league pitchers is best done in the context of minor league pitchers being “starters” … and the piggy-back system allows for twice as many pitchers to get “starter”-like experience and number of innings pitched.
Which makes me wonder why they have changed their mind …
… perhaps I’ll also ask it to the MadFriars community.
May 15, 2008 at 8:39 am
#1@LynchMob: I don’t know the answer, but they might use it to limit innings in the early going and to see which pitchers seem to be best suited for starting duty.
May 15, 2008 at 11:36 am
#1@LynchMob: That might be a good question for DePo’s blog.
May 15, 2008 at 3:05 pm
In regards to Antonelli, any chance he’s just real tired? He played fine in A & AA, didn’t play in the AFL or whatnot the winter before. Then he played in the AFL and then to spring training then to AAA, might that be a bit too much for him?