Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Will Venable’

• MaFriars’ John Conniff has post two more Wizards interviews. This time around, it’s Yefri Carvajal and pitching coach, Tom Bradley (subscription required for both).
• Packet Online(New Jersey) has posted a great article about former Wizards outfielder, Will Venable. I’ve said it before and I’m sticking to it: He’s gonna come up soon and he’s gonna be a keeper.

At the plate, Venable has been the model of consistency, a trait that makes his progress hard to prevent. He is at or near the top of most of the Beavers’ hitting categories. Through Saturday’s 5-1 win over Tucson in which he was 1-for-5, Venable was second on the team in at bats and led the team with 120 hits. His 14 home runs, 24 doubles and 66 runs scored all are second best on the Beavers as are his 57 runs batted in. Venable also has 42 walks, third best on the team.

• The 2008 season has seen the Padresuse three different former Wizards catchers; Luke Carlin, Colt Morton and Nick Hundley. Temecula Valley News discusses Hundley’s ambition to stay in the majors during his current stint.

• Geoff spotlights San Antonio at Ducksnorts. Lots of former Wizards here, including; Kyle Blanks, Chad Huffman, Sean Kazman and others.
• John Conniff interviews current Wizard Lance Zawadzki for Mad Friars. Even though he was a late round pick, he still has a rather high ceiling. Subscription required.
• Paul Depodesta talks about Luis Durango’s recent promotion to Lake Elsinore and also talks about former Wizards, Manny Ayala and Jon Ellis.
• Michael Cuddyer still hopes to return from injuries this season, despite dealing with a freak injury on top of the rash of other injuries that have plagued him this season.
• Former Wizards skipper and current Portland Beavers manager, Randy Ready, was named the Pacific Coast League’s “Best Manager Prospect” in Baseball America’s annual “Best Tools” survey that was featured in the publication’s Aug. 25-Sept. 7 issue. Former Wizard, Wade LeBlanc was said to have the “Best Control” among league pitchers and former Wizard, Will Venable, earned “Best Strike Zone Judgment” honors. Chase Headley was chosen as the “Best Batting Prospect” in the PCL this season – though he has been playing at the MLB level for quite a while now.

• Padres Prospect Interview: Drew Cumberland (subscription required) – MadFirar’s Jon Conniff sits down with the Wizards infielder to discuss his DL stint, playing in the Midwest League, playing the game the right way and what it’s like to have a brother (Shaun Cumberland) who also plays professionally (in the Reds’ farm system).
• Baseball proves therapeutic for beleaguered Storm catcher – In a season that has seen the Padres use five different catchers (three of them are former Wizards), the one drawing the most attention is one at Lake Elsinore. Mitch Canham, who i n 75 games for the Storm this season, is hitting .291 with five homers, 52 RBIs, 19 doubles and a .404 on-base percentage. Plus, he’s a perfect 9-for-9 in steal attempts. but success has not been one of luck for the former Wizard who has worked hard to overcome many struggles of various types in recent years.
• Q & A With Nick Hundley – SignOnSanDiego sits down with Nick Hundley, who let’s us know that he is not related to Nick or Todd, how much he loves being a catcher, honing his skills at Portland in the beginning of the season and more.
• Top 5 with Chase Headley – The Padres outfielder/third baseman runs down the top five things he’s learned about living in San Diego.
• Soria fitting right in with All-Star idols – Kansas city Royals closer, Joakim Soria‘s short list of influences as Mariano Rivera, Joe Nathan, Francisco Rodriguez. And now, he shared midseason honors with them at the All-Star Game. Great article that talks about the “business” Soria and the “funny guy” Soria in light of a season that has seen him prove that last season was just the beginning to a great career for the Rule-5 pick.
• Blanks hitting his stride in Double-A (subscription required) – The former Wizards first baseman and DH, Kyle Blanks is enjoying a solid season at Double-A San Antonio (despite rumors that he may be on the trade market). Great plate discipline and the tremendous bat speed has gotten the 21-year-old slugger promoted after every year of professional baseball since being taken in the 42nd-round of the 2005 amateur draft.
• Patient eye paying off for Venable -Will Venable is showing signs of becoming the type of hitter the Padres want him to be: a “patiently aggressive” hitter who gets a good pitch to hit and unloads on it, but also is willing to fall behind in the count rather than chase iffy pitches. The Triple-A center fielder has batted better than .300 in every month this season. Of greater significance to the Padres, he has started hitting home runs and drawing walks since April, when he had one walk and no homers. My money says we see him with the Padres before the end of the season.

If you’re looking to keep up with some of your favorite former Wizards, here’s some links you’ll enjoy, courtesy of SignOnSanDiego.

• Chase Headley: “The jewel of the Padres’ minor-league system, the player that every other major league team mentions first when San Diego’s looking to make a trade, Headley’s a big-time ballplayer in the making and likely not much longer for Triple-A.” [See Also: "Headley's Portland apprenticeship is a matter of dollars and sense" by Tim Sullivan]
• Will Venable: “Desperate for a center fielder who can handle the spaciousness of Petco Park, the Padres think that guy could very well be Venable, whose gait is built more for chasing down fly balls and legging out triples than stealing bases.”
• Matt Antonelli: “Even with his batting average under .200, Antonelli is among the PCL leaders in walks (28). His patience at the plate belies the belief that Antonelli put way too much pressure on himself the first several weeks of the season.”
• Luke Carlin: “I wanted to call my dad (to tell him about the call-up), but he’s a civilian contractor in Iraq. The funny thing was we were in Omaha when I was promoted. We were headed for Iowa and my wife and daughter were coming down from Wisconsin. I called Kim and when I said `There’s a change in plans,’ she was silent for a moment.”
• Paul McAnulty: Fun short Q/A where McAnulty, an American retro car buff, reveals his five favorite machines.

After being released by the Indians in Spring Training, former Wizards pitcher Aaron Fultz quickly caught on with the Detroit Tigers and was assigned to Triple-A Toledo. However things haven’t transpired exactly the way he had hoped (or thought they would). It’s no secret that th eTigers have pitching issues. Following the Tigers’ decision to promote Clay Rapada to the Major League level, Fultz requested his release from Detroit. It was granted.

On the other hand, the good news continues for Josh Barfield. At Triple-A Buffalo, Barfield is batting .344 through his first 32 at-bats. However, he does have eight strikeouts, an attribute that has plagued him in the past. However, the fact that he has drawn 4 walks is a step in the right direction. His on base percentage had been hovering a little over .400.

Cedric Hunter is off to a great start in Lake Elsinore. In 9 games, he’s hitting .378 with 14 hits, 5 walks and a stolen base. His on base percentage is .465. Wonder how long it will take those who wrote him off following his Wizards performance last season to hop back on the bandwagon.

Will Venable is putting up similar numbers at Triple-A Portland.

Finally, Tim Williams lists his Prospect Watch at AccuScore. He lists Chase Headley as one of the “Situations to Watch”:

There was talk that the Padres were going to keep Headley around in the majors as an outfielder, but that ended when Headley became one of the final cuts. The solid performance of Kevin Kouzmanoff and Scott Hairston right now is enough to keep Headley down, but don’t expect this to be a permanent situation. Headley hit for a .330 average with 20 homers in 121 games at AAA last year. Headley will be up at some point early in the season.