We've already caught up on the American League West teams today. Now let's check out the latest news from their counterparts in the Senior Circuit…
- The Padres are in on Jorge Cantu, but would prefer to sign the infielder to a minor league deal, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (on Twitter). San Diego may be a leading suitor for Cantu, as the Braves are not pursuing him.
- Three of the top four Padres prospects on Baseball America's top ten list arrived in the San Diego organization in the Adrian Gonzalez trade. Casey Kelly (1), Anthony Rizzo (2) and Reymond Fuentes (4) figure prominently into the list of promising young Padres.
- Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle writes that Giants GM Brian Sabean enters the season in wait-and-see mode. That approach worked out for San Francisco in 2010, when the Giants made key in-season acquisitions and won the World Series.
- Steve Foster of Inside the Rockies expects Mike McKenry, Jose Morales and Matt Pagnozzi to compete to back up Chris Iannetta behind the plate.
Of course the Padres would “prefer” to sign Jorge Cantu to a minor league deal. However, I believe he [Jorge Cantu] will receive a guaranteed MLB roster spot somewhere. Jed Hoyer better “lock it up”. The Padres need to guarantee him some Ab’s and pay the man.
Guaranteeing Georgie some ABs would be easy.
Once a week at 1B
Once a week at 2B
Once a week at 3B
A couple PH ABs and we’re up to 13-15 or more ABs in one week.
Taking over at 3B about June 1st when the Padres realize that Chase Headley will NEVER be a MLB run producer will put Cantu at about 400-450 plate appearances for 2011
The Padres have 39 on the roster, room for 1 more..
Getting robbed and a Red Sox spy would of been the Padres getting Lars Anderson and Michael Bowden along with Josh Reddick….remember Sox fans pushing those names down our throat? Hoyer got maximum value for Gonzalez considering if he would of hit FA they would of received 2 picks that are question marks, and I didnt even talk about Fuentes who I believe could develop into a Carl Crawford type player.
Would you rather have a All Star First Baseman- Or three good minor league prospects the have only seen high A- AA …… I will miss Rizzo, because he could have took over for Ortiz in 2012. Fuentes still has to prove a lot. Kelly was dominante in A ball, but still needs to show power at double A.
I would take the three prospects mentioned because Rizzo is very talented, Casey has explosive breaking pitches and Fuentes will develop into a Carl Crawford type player, I would take three good players over one any day.
“I would take the three prospects mentioned because Rizzo is very talented, Casey has explosive breaking pitches and Fuentes will develop into a Carl Crawford type player, I would take three good players over one any day.” Oh so you can see the future? Fuentes “WILL” develop into a Carl Crawford type player? And they are prospects, not proven players.
Why no love for Eric Patterson?
I still want to see Kelly produce above A ball before we bestow a crown on his head. I think Fuentes is going to suprise ppl.
If I’m a Padres fan, I’d rather have those 3 prospects and I wouldn’t even have to think twice about it. Gonzalez was set to be a FA after the 2011 season and those 3 prospects are much surer bets than 2 potential draft picks……
Exactly and the difference between Rizzo and Gonzalez is going to be about 10 HRs and about 20 million less.
Your kind of high on Rizzo. He has not proven he can bat in MLB yet. Not even AAA. He might be the next Lars Anderson, when he is 28 we can see if he panned out what he was supposed to be.
So you think Rizzos gonna hit 40 bombs as a rookie…IN PETCO!
All star First Baseman Or 3 Unproven prospects. But because your a Pads fan, and I’m a Red Sox fan, we have totally different opinions.
You’re exactly right. I am a Padres fan, and knowing that we couldn’t re-sign Gonzalez, I would rather have the 3 prospects as well. You being a Red Sox fan, and the Sox being able to pay him, you be crazy not to rather have Gonzalez. The Sox system is always spoken highly of and the Padres got 3 of their best prospects, so in the end, I think both teams did all right on this deal.
Agreed.
Hoyer explained his logic after the trade on XX1090. He knew the character and all the make up of each of the three prospects. Jed stated that did not guarantee “can’t miss” but he did say it was the lowest risk with all things considered. In addition Jed thought two draft picks, figuring the best case scenario would take longer to pay dividends than the players they got for Adrian. You can go back to Jed Hoyer interviews after the trade on XX1090. I am parapharsing a 15 min. interview. It was the first public statement Jed made with Darren Smith.
Yeah I think I heard that interview. Hoyer was between a rock and a hard place and I think made quite a good deal under the circumstances. GO PADRES.
The Sox would rather have the All-Star First Baseman with 1 year left and a pending extension. The Padres would rather have the three good minor league prospects they can control at a low cost for 6 years.
I don’t recall any single person ever including Bowden, Lars, or Reddick as anything more than throw ins on that deal. It was always Rizzo, Kelly, Ellsbury (Even though it made no sense), Britton ect.
I don’t think the Padres wanted Ellsbury.
They have 1 Scott Boras client in their system ( Quiroz )
That’s plenty
No…I can easily remember deals put forth by crazy Sox fans (not the J.Silvers, RSD, Green Monster, Start wearing purp) types but fans none the less, who were offering packages like Bowden, Masterson, Anderson, Kalish/Reddick
Sabes should wait and see…
A full season of Posey
A full season of Bumgarner
A full season of Ross
Pablo finally serious about working out
muscle weighs more than fat.. just saying
I’m not too familiar with the Padres system
But someone explain to me how a team like the Red Sox who have been far more competitive in the last decade, compared to the Padres (therefore worse picks). End up with prospects that already skyrocketed to the top of the Padres system…
What the eff are they doing in San Diego with their scouting and player development?
MLB draft is a broken system + Theo is very good with drafts.
The system may not be perfect (few are) but let’s place blame where it belongs…. with the Padres FO. They spend little on their mlb players, they receive subsidies from larger market teams and the mlb. They can afford to spend $10mil on a draft and come away with some talent.
Just in looking at what they spent from 2008-2010 they ranked 14th overall and were outspent by other small market teams like the Pirates ($11 mil+), Rays ($3 mil+) and Royals ($6 mil+).
Since 2003 they have had 36 picks in rounds 1-5 and so far they’ve seen Wade Leblanc, Nicholas Hundley, Chase Headley and Timothy Stauffer. That’s a FAIL when you consider that they’ve had 12 1st rnd or comp picks in the 03-07 drafts.
In comparison, Rizzo signed for around $350k, Fuentes around $1.15 and Kelly around $3mil. Hardly breaking the banks.
In contrast, the Royals, a team with a smaller market, less attendance, have BLOWN away all mlb teams in their drafting. There are so many examples of great drafts by small market teams and then there’s the Padres and Astros of the world.
Not broken system……bad front office/scouting.
Some Padres fans that know the farm well, would disagree with ranking them the way Baseball America did. Personally, I think Castro and Kelly are close… Jaff Decker and Rizzo are close, and Tate and Fuentes are close. The list could have easily gone:
1)Castro, 2)Kelly, 3)Tate, 4)Decker, 5)Rizzo, 6)Darnell, 7)Lollis, 8) Fuentes, 9) Cumberland, and 10) Luebke
The entire top 10 I put forth are all close in my opinion. None of the prospects are cant miss possible HOF’ers but all are easily projectible solid everyday players.
I meant to reply to your post, but accidentally posted a new one, but I really wanted to discuss the system with you so I had to double post this.
I too agree that Castro and Kelly are closer in talent than BA does, hopefully they can team with Latos and Richard to form one hell of a rotation for years to come. The one problem with Decker is that I think he is going to end up as more of a John Kruk type player, which isn’t the end of the World by no means, but is not prototypical of a 1st baseman nowadays, which is where he will probably end up. Rizzo has more of a natural 1st basemans’ skill set, thats why he gets the love. Tate and Fuentes are pretty much a wash in my books too. Fuentes will have a better avg., while Tate will have better power numbers, if only he could stay healthy and on the field for any length of time.
I’m really hoping that Sampson can comeback strong this year, as he was tearing it up last season, until his injury.
This farm system has come along way in the last couple of years and hopefully it can be the pipeline of talent that Hoyer invisions. GO PADRES.
Much of the rankings go on tools and ceiling.
I think the Gonzalez trade will inevitably be considered a solid deal for both sides. If the Sox make some deep playoff runs or even win a WS it wont matter at all what those three develope into. That is unless Gonzalez falls off a cliff. As for the Padres haul, its good and possibly great. Rizzo is probably the best piece for now simply because Kelly did have some issues, and Fuentes hasn’t exactly been tested as much as he will need to be to be considered close to a sure thing. Fuentes has 144 A ball games under his belt, thats it.
I too agree that Castro and Kelly are closer in talent than BA does, hopefully they can team with Latos and Richard to form one hell of a rotation for years to come. The one problem with Decker is that I think he is going to end up as more of a John Kruk type player, which isn’t the end of the World by no means, but is not prototypical of a 1st baseman nowadays, which is where he will probably end up. Rizzo has more of a natural 1st basemans’ skill set, thats why he gets the love. Tate and Fuentes are pretty much a wash in my books too. Fuentes will have a better avg., while Tate will have better power numbers, if only he could stay healthy and on the field for any length of time.
I’m really hoping that Sampson can comeback strong this year, as he was tearing it up last season, until his injury.
This farm system has come along way in the last couple of years and hopefully it can be the pipeline of talent that Hoyer invisions. GO PADRES.
To add to some of the discussion about the Padres farm system, according to Matt Eddy of Baseball America, the Padres farm system is now ranked 9th in all of baseball.