Future Padres on display!  Now that the padres have concluded the first year player draft…who are these guys? 

If you want a sneak peak at some of these guys, they are playing in the Super Regionals of College Baseball right now!  You can tune in and take a sneak peak at these guys; here is a list of the players and the teams that they are playing on.  I have also included a brief overview of the player courtesy of Paul DePodesta.  (http://itmightbedangerous.blogspot.com/)

LSU

- Matt Clark, 1B, Louisiana St U - At 6′5″ and 230 lbs, one would expect that Clark has big power, and he doesn’t disappoint. Matt hits tape measure home runs and is a threat every time he steps in the box. I don’t have all of the updated stats after regional play last weekend, but Matt was in the top five in the country in home runs.

Miami

-Blake Tekotte, is a true leadoff hitting centerfielder who is an above average runner and defender. The best part is that he’s also a hitter. Going into the regionals last weekend, Blake was hitting .374 with a .487 obp and a .598 slg to go along with 25 stolen bases. Blake is an exciting top of the lineup guy who sets the tone for that Miami team. He always seems to be in the middle of the action.

Stanford

- Erik Davis, RHP, Stanford U - The Friday night starter for Stanford, Erik matched up against all of the other top starters in the Pac 10 this year. His fastball ranges from 86-90, but what separates him is his changeup. He can throw the changeup for strikes any time in the count, and he does a great job of keeping hitters off balance.

Texas A&M

- Kyle Thebeau, RHP, Texas A&M -A strong RHP, Kyle’s fastball normally sits around 92 mph. Used primarily as a reliever, Kyle features a fastball/slider combination, and both pitches grade out as above average at times.

- Omar Gutierrez, RHP, Texas A&M, Corpus Christi - Omar throws his fastball right around 90 mph, though it can go as high as 93. He also throws a curveball, slider, and changeup. We feel that Omar has a nice, loose arm that may have room for even more as a pro.

Rice

- Adam Zornes, C, Rice U - A red-shirt junior, Adam is a strong defensive catcher with a plus arm that holds down the running game. Offensively, he’s not a high average hitter, but he has power and can do damage.

Wichita State

- Rob Musgrave, LHP, Wichita St U - Rob is another pitcher with very good command and an excellent changeup, which is a true plus offering. Over the past two years Rob has allowed just 35 walks in 200 innings while also striking out 173.

Arizona State 

- Jason Kipnis, has played both CF and LF for ASU, though he has become the primary CF as the season has continued. He is a left-handed hitter who hits at the top of their lineup and has had a monster year, hitting .363 with a .484 obp and .677 slg. He’s a pesky player who is a very tough out, hitting the ball to all fields and running the bases aggressively (24 bases so far this year). Over the summer last year, Jason hit .318 with a .505 obp and a .591 slg while stealing 24 bases. Despite a limited projection in terms of physical size, he plays very hard and is surprisingly strong - 13 homers this year and 9 over the summer.

The San Diego Padres beat the New York Mets in the ninth inning on a play that you rarely ever see end a game.  The Padres had the bases loaded and Paul McAnulty was hit by a Scott Schoeneweis to score Scott Hairtson for the winning run.  No problem with that if you’re a Padres fan, a win is a win!

Trevor Hoffman picked up the win as he pitched the top of the ninth inning.  Hoffman is now 1-4 on the season.  Josh Banks got the start on the mound for the Padres and tossed six innings, allowing five hits and only one run.  Very good outing for Mr. Banks.  Justin Hampson and Heath Bell both threw scoreless innings in relief of Banks.

Even though the Padres had 12 hits in the game, they were only able to push across two runs.  Tha is what happens when you don’t string two or three hits together and leave 19 runners on base.  Besides the bases loaded hit by pitch run in the ninth inning, the other Padres run came in the third inning when Tadahito Iguchi had a rbi double to score Banks.

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Pitchers duel at Petco helps Padres avoid sweep.  Greg Maddux was vintage this evening working his was through seven innings on 69 pitches.  Retiring the Cubs first nine batters in a row before allowing a hit in the 4^th inning. 

Ted Lilly had a solid showing allowing only two runs over 7 and 1/3 innings.  Lilly was using the spacious outfield at Petco to his advantage.  After allowing a solo HR to Scott Hairston (8) to lead off the game the Padres hit numerous deep drives that simply died in the outfield.  The Padres wouldn’t regain the lead until the bottom of the eight off of reliever Carlos Marmol (run was charged to Lilly). 

The Padres couldn’t seem to provide Maddux with enough run support again tonight.  On three occasions men were left standing at third waiting for a clutch hit to drive them in. 

Brian Giles reached base three times on this evening, hitting three deep drives to center, two which dropped in for doubles.  Giles did lead off the 8^th inning with one of those such drives.  Adrian Gonzalez was able to hit a deep fly ball to left center that was flagged down by Alfonso Soriano; Giles was able to tag up from second to third.  Kevin Kouzmanoff then hit a sacrifice fly to deep center scoring Giles from third and giving the Padres a 2-1 lead.

Trevor Hoffman came in to start off the 9^th sending Mike Fontenot and Soriano down on strikes before allowing a base hit to Ryan Theriot.  The go ahead run in Derrek Lee came up to bat however on this evening the Padres would not be denied as Trevor struck out Lee on that famous change up; giving Hoffman his 12^th save of the year and snapping the Cubs win steak at 9.

Josh Banks will try to cool off a hot New York Mets team that has won seven of it’s last 10.  The Padres will host the Mets in a four game series starting tonight.

 The MLB 2008 First-Year player draft will take place in Florida this afternoon.  The Padres will select 23^rd in the first round.  They also hold picks #42, #46, #69, #101 and #111 in the first three rounds. 

The machine known as the Chicago Cubs steam rolled the padres for a second straight night.  The padres jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 3^rd. The first on an errant pick off throw by Jason Marquis, which allowed starting pitcher Wilfredo Ledezma to score from 3^rd base.  The second run coming on a two out single by NL RBI leader Adrian Gonzalez (55). 

The Cubs bounced right back in the 4^th as Alfonso Soriano led off with a double to deep left.  He would score on a fielders choice hit by Aramis Ramirez to cut the lead in half 2-1. 

The friars weren’t going down easy tonight though.  Paul McAnulty led off with a walk, followed by a single by Michael Barrett moving McAnulty to third.  Khalil Greene hit a sacrifice fly to center to score McAnulty to give Ledezma a two run lead to work with.

Ledezma was not able to follow up his impressive outing last week.  He walked five batters today including three in the 5^th inning.  Reed Johnson led off with a double, Ledezma then walked Mark DeRosa and Johnson stole 3^rd on ball four.  Ledezma was able to induce a ground out from Ronny Cedeno and struck out Jason Marquis.  It appeared that Wil would be able to escape the inning.  However, Ledezma threw a pitch that got by Barrett, the ball took a lucky bounce straight back to the catcher.  Barrett threw to Ledezma covering, Johnson stayed at third, however DeRosa assumed Johnson would break home and he was almost to third.  What appeared to be a gift of an out turned into nothing when Ledezma elected to fake a throw to second allowing both runners to get back into position.  That non throw would come back to hurt Ledezma, he walked the next batter Alfonso Soriano to load the bases and walked Ryan Theriot to allow a run and make it a 3-2 game.  Derrek Lee then hit a hard shot toward left to score DeRosa and would have also knocked in Soriano if it wasn’t for Khalil Greene’s diving save to limit Lee’s drive to one run tying the game 3-3.

The Cubbies struck again in the 6^th with two home runs of reliever off Brian Corey.  The first a solo shot from Geovany Soto (10) and the was followed by a two run shot by Mark DeRosa (6) making it a 6-3 Cubs lead.

In the 8^th the Cubs bats got hot again Ronny Cedeno singled, Mike Fontenot walked and Alfonso Soriano hit a monster three run homerun (14) onto the upper deck in left center to give the Cubs a 9-3 lead.

The Padres did show some heart in the 8^th Kevin Kouzmanoff led off with a walk followed by a single from Paul McAnulty, Greene then singled to load the bases for pinch hitter Tony Clark; he was able to draw bases loaded walk.  Bud Black then called in Edgar Gonzalez to pinch-hit, Edgar responded with a single to left scoring McAnulty and brining up the trying run in Tadahito Iguchi.  Iguchi was able to knock in Khalil Greene with on a fielders choice.  With two out and men on first and third, Brian Giles came up to bat.  With a full count and RBI leader Adrian Gonzalez on deck, Bob Howry was able to freeze Giles with a fastball for strike three to end the rally.

In the Padres ninth Adrian Gonzalez was able to hit a lead off double for his third hit of the evening, and the only extra base hit the Pads had all night.  That was all Cub closer Kerry Wood would allow as he retired the next three padres in a row for his 16^th save and the Cubs 9^th win in a row. 

The Padres will send future Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux to the mound tomorrow to Face Ted Lilly in the series finale. 

Adrian Gonzalez made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth inning when he hit a three run home run off of Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Carlos Marmol.  Too bad for the Padres, that only got them to within one run, and Michael Barrett flew out to deep left field to end the game.  The Padres ended up losing to the Cubs by the score of 7-6.

Gonzalez led the Padres as he went 3-4 with four rbi in the game.  Gonzalez now has 17 home runs and 54 rbi on the season.  Kevin Kouzmanoff also had two rbi in the game for the Padres.  The Padres had jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning, but the middle inning all belonged to the Cubs.

Cha Seung Baek fell to 1-1 on the season as he took the loss on against the Cubs.  Baek pitched 4 1/3 innings while giving up nine hits and four runs.  He was hit pretty hard, and in another ballpark, I’m sure the Cubs would have hit a couple of home runs off of him.  Justin Hampson pitched an inning of relief after Baek left the game and he gave up two quick runs.  After Hampson left, Mike Adams gave up one run while pitching 2 2/3 innings.  Carlos Guevara was finally able to pitch a scoreless ninth inning for the bullpen.

The Padres will try to slow down the Cubs who will be going for their ninth win in a row on Tuesday night.  It will be Wilfredo Ledezma and Jason Marquis taking the mound.

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