Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Matt Latos’

• Former Wizard – the one who got away from the Padres – Joakim Soria finally showed signs of vulnerability. David Eckstein’s one-out single ended Soria’s streak of retiring 24 batters in a row. But he still has no ERA to accompany his six saves and 11 strikeouts.
• Matt Latos made his first start of the season for the Wizards and pitched very well. Some see him moving up to Lake Elsinore before the season is out. While I hope Latos pitches well (and I believe he will), I hope those folks are wrong.
• Wade LeBlanc picked up his first loss this year. He allowed seven earned runs on 10 hits and five walks over 3.1 innings. It was the worst outing of his career. It follows another bad start that saw him giving up six runs on eight hits. (hat tip to Denis Savage at MadFriars) Wonder what’s going on there. Speaking of LeBlanc, it appears that the Cubs had tried to get him in return for Matt Murton. As much as I would love to see Murton get a chance with a team willing to give him one, and as much as I would have loved to see LeBlanc with the Cubs, I don’t blame the Padres for turning that one down.
• Angel Mercado homered in his first game off the disabled list. Mercado had been out the last nine games but the hit extended his on-base streak to eight games. He also homered on Opening Night.
• It appears that Jake Peavy has pitched the idea of brining veteran outfielder, Kenny Loften, in to help shore up the Padres offense. But it seems that Padres’ GM, Kevin Towers would rather give some of the former Wizards now playing in Portland a shot.
  

  . . . some of the players Towers is most eager to promote would warrant demotion if judged solely on their Triple-A statistics. Chase Headley, the left fielder of tomorrow, is hitting a soft .236. Matt Antonelli, the heir to second base, has been hovering near the Mendoza line. Though Antonelli has drawn 12 walks in 16 games, his batting average is .212. Closest to a call-up, Towers said, is probably catcher Nick Hundley, who has hit four home runs in 11 games and whose arm would represent an improvement on Padres’ regular Josh Bard.

  “Hundley’s a guy I think our pitching staff felt fairly comfortable with in spring training,” Towers said. “He’s got a chance to be an offensive catcher and he’s somebody we feel comfortable enough to where we could put him back there (as much as 40 percent of the time) and not kill Bard.”

• Michael Cuddyer has returned to the Twins’ lineup.

You knew it was going to happen. You just didn’t know exactly when.

Fort Wayne, IN – Right-hander Mat Latos, one of the San Diego Padres top prospects in their minor league system, will join the Fort Wayne Wizards pitching staff today . . . Latos entered the 2008 season as the third-best minor league prospect in the Padres organization, as ranked by Baseball America. He spent the 2007 season with the Eugene Emeralds of the Northwest League, where he was ranked as the top prospect in the league, also by Baseball America.

Latos went 1-4 with a 3.83 earned run average last season after being drafted in 2006 by the Padres in the 11th round. In 16 games, including 13 starts, he allowed 58 hits, walked 22 and struck out 74 over the span of 56.1 innings. His 74 strikeouts were tied for third in the Northwest League.

source: OurSportsCentral

Matt Latos, who signed for $1.25 million with the Padres last May, has recovered from shoulder soreness. The Padres will keep him in extended spring training and then he is expected to report to the Wizards. “He threw a lot of pitches” in two innings Thursday, said Grady Fuson, vice president of scouting and development. [source: SignOnSanDiego]

Intentional Blog On Balls has a nice look at Justin Germano.

Michael Cuddyer looks to return on Sunday. He dislocated his finger on April 4 when he slid headfirst into third base and collided with Royals third baseman Alex Gordon.

Asdrubal Cabrera’s struggles have dropped him from the second spot in the order down to number seven. Josh Barfield is at Triple-A Buffalo and would love to take his job back. But after a hot start, he’s hitting just .175 in his last ten games, including an 0-13 streak in his last three games.

Former Wizards catcher, George Kottaras had a career game for Triple-A Pawtucket (Boston). “The former Olympian hit a pair of homers and drove in a season-high five runs as the Pawtucket Red Sox beat the Louisville Bats, 8-2, at Louisville Slugger Field to earn a split of Monday’s doubleheader.” Kottaras was selected by San Diego Padres in 20th Round (595 overall) of the 2002 draft and played in Fort Wayne in 2004 where he produced the highest batting average of his minor league career (.310) over 271 at-bats. He was traded to Boston in 2006 as the “player to be named later” to complete the David Wells trade.