Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Brett Dowdy’

This is the second in a three part series on former Fort Wayne Wizards that I think will debut in Major league Baseball during the 20009 season. In part one, I presented the “sure things” who I think will break camp with their parent clubs or get called up relatively early. Today, I present the “warning track” players who are knocking on the door. All it will take is some good play early in the season and an opportunity at the big league level:

Jon Link (White Sox)

The San Diego Padres drafted pitcher Jon Link in the 26th round of the 2005 draft. Link was traded to the White Sox for Rob Mackowiak in 2007. The 24 year-old spent last season at Double-A Birmingham, where he compiled a 3.02 ERA, struck out 66 batters and collected 35 saves. With the Wizards in 2006, Link appeared in 53 games with a 4.91 EAR while striking out 57 over 62.1 innings pitched to go with a 5-5 record. Link will undoubtedly be assigned to Triple-A to start the season, but I suspect he is being groomed as the closer of the future. While he’s a more sure bet for 2010, he’s knocking on the door and we may get to see him a bit this year.

For more on Link, see also:

• Prospects Could Be Late-Round Steals
• Link & Loman – 2 Longshots to Make the White Sox

Peter Ciofrone (Padres)

Peter Ciofrone started 2008 at AA and ended at Triple-A. During that stint in Portland, he impressed. He was named Pacific Coast League Batter of the Week for May 19-25. During that span, he batted .429 (12-for-28) with four homers, three doubles, 10 RBIs, 10 runs scored and a .964 slugging percentage in seven games.

With Fort Wayne in 2005, he hit .301 with 20 doubles, two triples, five home runs and 59 runs batted in over 104 games. He also drew 50 walks and compiled a .391 OBP.

As one BBIFW commenter suggested, Ciofrone should have been a September call-up last season. I’m not sure where he’ll start the year, though I suspect it will be Triple-A. He’ll get a shot this year as long as he stays healthy and continues to put on a show. Just don’t know when.

Says Geoff at Ducksnorts:

The 24-year-old Ciofrone has decent on-base skills and some pop (although probably not as much as he’s showing this year), and can play multiple positions. The latter skill may eventually get him to the big leagues. Ciofrone exhibits no appreciable platoon splits and has improved his numbers as the season has progressed, which is always a good sign. He’s not a future star, or even a future regular, but he could have a career.

For more on Ciofrone, see also:

• Prospect of the Month: Peter Ciofrone (25 Years of Baseball)

Kyle Blanks (Padres)

For Blanks, it is probably not a matter of “if” but “when”. The dude can flat out hit and was one of my favorites to watch at the Castle while he was there. He will start the year at Triple-A Portland after spending all of 2008 in Double-A.

With Fort Wayne in 2006, Blanks appeared in 86 games. He hit .292 with 10 home runs and 52 runs batted in while drawing 36 bases on balls. His production really took off in 2007 and continued to develop in 2008.

If he didn’t have Adrian Gonzalez blocking him cheaply at first base in San Diego, I’d say they would bring him up mid-season. But barring an out-of-the-ordinary trade or injury, that won’t happen. Probably a September call-up.

For more on Blanks, see also:

• Kyle Blanks the Hottest Prospect in Baseball
• Kyle Blanks 1b (Paddletales)

Greg Burke (Padres)

When it became apparent that Trevor Hoffman was not returning to San Diego, I boldly predicted that Greg Burk would take on the closer’s role. I’m probably a year or two ahead of things, but I still think he’ll get there.

He’s been used mostly as a middle relief guy except for last season, when he saved 23 games for Double-A San Antonio. With the Wizards in 2006, Burke appeared in 24 games where he compiled a 3.57 ERA with 87 strike out sin 121 innings pitched. He had an ERA above 5.00 over two combined stints with Lake Elsinore. But something must have clicked when he got into the closers role, where he drastically lowered that to 2.24 on the year.

“I felt this was do-or-die coming into last season,” Burke said. “I needed to show someone something, I needed to shock people to make the Double-A team and open eyes.”

I see him coming up sometime during the 2009 campaign to soak up some innings for injured middle relief Friars.

For more on Burke, see also:

• Batting Around with Greg Burke

Cesar Ramos (Padres)

In seven games with Fort Wayne in 2005, Cesar Ramos put together a 3-2 record with a 4.19 ERA and 32 strike outs. He progressed in each area during stops stop of Lake Elsinore and Double-A San Antonio over the next two years. Last year didn’t go so well. He posted a 9-11 record with a 5.15 ERA over 149.2 innings pitched at Triple-A Portland. To make the show, he’s going to have to come back big in 2009. He may get a spot start near the tail end of the season like Dirk Hayhurst did before getting the heave-ho out of the organization.

Brett Dowdy (Padres)

Brett Dowdy will be entering his seventh minor league season; having played in Fort Wayne in 2005. He’s hardly a prospect, but he’s progressed through the system, splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A each of the last two season. He’s got a career .269 batting average with 23 home runs and 168 runs batted in over more than 1,700 at-bats. 2009 is a make or break year for Dowdy. He’s probably a dark horse of this bunch, but you never know.

In part three, I’ll present the “outside shot” and more “dark horse” candidates.

With the news that the Padres will release second baseman Tadahito Iguchi and pitcher Brett Tomko to make room for Wade LeBlanc and Matt Antonelli, anyone can see that the Padres are already making plans for next year. This is the latest in a series of moves that have involved bringing minor league talent to the Padres, and many of them have included former Wizards.

I gotta think there will be many more moves in the remaining days of the 2008 season that could spell opportunities for other former Wizards, which should also make for an interesting Spring Training as the prevailing speculation is that the Padres will continue to slash payroll.

As part of a pitch to get Brian Giles to accept a trade to the Red Sox this past week, a Padres executive painted a stark fiscal picture for 2009, saying club owner John Moores might shrink the payroll to $40 million. [SignonSanDiego -August 9, 2008]

GM Kevin Towers denies this claim, but then again, he also hasn’t seen the budget for 2009 yet. Yet, the Padres already field one of the lowest salaried teams in Major League Baseball.

The Padres don’t have any large contracts on the books for ’09; Giles would be their most expensive player at $9MM unless they choose his $3MM buyout.  After that it’s Jake Peavy at $8MM, Khalil Greene at $6.5MM, Chris Young at $4.5MM, and Adrian Gonzalez at $3MM.  By my count they have six arbitration-eligible players, including Josh Bard, Heath Bell, Scott Hairston, and Jody Gerut [MLBTradeRumors.com].

There is also speculation that John Moores’ divorce is a factor that may adversely impact the team.

California is a community property state, which means Becky Moores — the soon-to-be-ex-Mrs.-John — is in play and there already are indications that player payroll will be cut significantly in 2009 (it’s just over $70 million this year). That’s why the Padres already have worked hard to trade Giles and pitcher Greg Maddux this season, positioning themselves for an early start on the payroll-shedding process [CBSSports.com].

So what does this mean for former Wizards who are trying to crack a big league roster? Certainly, the Padres are trying to add by subtracting. There’s the possibility that the Padres may try to move Khalil Greene and his $6.5MM salary, shich might provide a spot for Sean Kazmar, who made his debut just a couple weeks ago. But the rookie is now learning how to play outfield (a la Chase Headley) during this season’s Arizona Fall League. The move could merely be an attempt to get him more at-bats, or it could mean there is nowhere to play Kazmar in the infield.

Kazmar will join the Peoria Saguaros in the AFL with pitchers Greg Burke, Cesar Carillo, Mike Ekstrom, Wilton Lopez, first baseman Kyle Blanks and outfielders Mike Baxter and Chad Huffman. All of them except for Carillo are former Wizards. If Blanks keeps playing the way he has lately, San Diego may have to move him or Adrian Gonzalez or find a place elsewhere on the diamond for one of the two.

Like Kazmar, Brian Joynt, who played third this season with the Wizards before his promotion to Lake Elsinore will see time in the outfield.

Baxter will also get time at an unfamiliar position. The outfielder hit .270 with seven home runs and 47 RBIs at Double-A San Antonio and will get some looks at catcher. This season has seen three different former Wizards serve the backstop role. Luke Carlin and Nick Hundley have seen the most time between the three, which might suggest Colt Morton could be moved to another team during the offseason. the starting catcher, Josh Bard may not be around for 2009 either if the Friars think Carlin and Hundley can do the job.

Longtime closer, Trevor Hoffman has had some troubles while attempting to nail down games this year. There is divided opinion about whether it is time for a change or not. The Portland pitcher who produced the most saves this year, Jared Wells, is now in the Seattle organization (traded earlier this season). That may bring about an opportunity for Greg Burke, who will see action in the AFL and has collected 23 saves at Double-A San Antonio. Lake Elsinore doesn’t have anyone who is ready to fill that void. And while Jackson Quezada collected 27 saves on minimal opportunities in Fort Wayne, that is probably too big of a jump from Low-A to the MLB (but then again, it worked out well for the Royals and Joakim Soria).

All this should make for an interesting winter and 2009 Spring Training. There should be some names that are familiar to Fort Wayne fans on the San Diego Roster come opening day. The best part is that we have the whole month of September to see some of these great former Wizards make the most of their opportunities. Chase Headley, Will Venable, Wade LeBlanc, Sean Kazmar, Josh Geer, Dirk Hayhurst, Matt Antonelli, Nick Hundley have joined Jake Peavy on the parent club roster and maybe some others will soon follow.

When you factor in the former Wizards who are with other organizations, there have been nine former Wizards to debut at the MLB level. This ranks second only to 2002, which saw 11 prospects (including Jake Peavy and Oliver Perez) hit the big leagues. With about a month to go, I am sure we’ll see at least 3-4 more.

I’m predicting we’ll see Dale Thayer (P-Rays), Brett Dowdy (SS-Padres), David Freese (3B-Cardinals) this season.

It wouldn’t be too surprising to also see Jon Link who had 35 saves with the White Sox’s Double-A Birmingham Barons and was named the Southern League’s Top Reliever of 2009. He was one of 15 players, and the only reliever, named to the league’s post-season All-Star team and was the lone Baron selected. He was one save shy of the league saves record. But given the Sox’s playoff race, he’s probably a 2009 debut.

Anyone else have thoughts on the Padres prospective 2009 squad and/or which prospects we’ll see make their MLB debuts this season (whether they are in the Padres’ system any longer or not)?