« Is Trading Peavy a Part of Padres’ Offseason Plans? | Home | Wizards Where R They? – Eddie Pena »
Instructional League Update
By Chad Gramling | October 28, 2008
A few days ago, I reported on some of the performances of former Wizards in the Arizona Fall League. MiLB did the same today.
Padres’ vice president of scouting and player development, Grady Fuson had encouraging words for many of the recent Wizards. Selected, relevant portions of the article are below:
[Jeremy] Hefner was in Arizona to work on converting his slider to a curveball, a pitch the Padres think will prove a more than capable complement to his fastball.
Outfielder Brad Chalk, 22, was in Arizona to refine his swing. Chalk hit .275 in 104 games at Class A Fort Wayne last season with a .354 on-base percentage.
The most improved position players were outfielder Danny Payne…
The Padres also handed out a new award that recognized the player who exemplified leadership among his peers. The recipient was outfielder Brian Joynt, who hit .304 as a third baseman with Lake Elsinore but will likely end up in the outfield.
Pitcher Nick Schmidt, the Padres’ No. 1 Draft pick in 2007 who missed the 2008 season after having elbow surgery, is pitching in the Dominican instructional league.
Pitcher Matt Bush, the former No. 1 Draft pick who made the conversion from shortstop to pitcher in 2007, had a sore triceps and was shut down before the end of instructional league. He’ll be ready for Spring Training.
Some other players mentioned – such as Outfielder Blake Tekotte, infielder Edinson Rincon and pitcher Gary Pointer – are young talents who have not yet played above Low-A ball and may be on their way to Fort Wayne as part of the innagural TinCaps sqaud that begins play in April 2009.
