Hoyer in; Fuson out

Jed Hoyer was officially announced as the GM of the Padres yesterday. I watched the press conference on Padres.com. I’d say it was a good start for Jed. He’s very focused on the draft and development, which can never be a bad thing.

Everything I’ve read and heard about Hoyer so far has been good. Tom Krasovic, who is clearly enjoying the freedoms of his new blog, mentioned how prepared Hoyer was for his interview:

Howser put himself “head and shoulders” above the other GM candidates, Moorad said, by compiling a detailed analysis of the Padres baseball talent, including a breakdown of how he envisioned the front office working. He needed a binder for the treatise, which runs some 50 pages.

He apparently took six months preparing for his interview with the Red Sox back in 2002.

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With new people running the show, it is not surprising that there are going to be some changes in the organization. Grady Fuson is the first to go, reports the UT’s Bill Center. Fuson was the VP of scouting and player development, and had been with the Padres for the past four years.

According to the NC Times, scouting director Bill “Chief” Gayton has been reassigned to another position in the organization. It is pretty clear that there is going to be a new direction in scouting and player development

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I apparently missed this during my hiatus, but Jeff Kingston, director of baseball operations, left the Padres in September to join the Mariners as an assistant GM. Kingston is only 32, having graduated from Dickinson University in 1999 with a degree in economics. Like Jed Hoyer, Kingston worked under Theo Epstein early in his career, back when Epstein was the director of baseball operations with the Padres. Kingston took over that position in 2002.

Kingston, as his title might imply, was a pretty integral part of the Padres. From an old Tom Krasovic profile:

Enters eighth year in baseball operations department. Heavily involved in all player contract negotiations including coordinating club’s salary arbitration efforts while also overseeing Padres statistical analysis and video scouting systems. Recommended getting pitcher Cla Meredith in trade from Boston. Spent 2000 working as a sports producer for an Internet company in downtown San Diego.

You may also remember, Chris Long mentioned Kingston as one of the three guys (along with Paul DePodesta and Josh Stein) that he interacted with most in the Padres front office. No idea who will fill Jeff’s position.

Williams and Sampson signed, Tate close

Today is the deadline to sign players from the 2009 amateur draft. According to Baseball America, the Padres have signed second round pick Everett Williams for $775,000 and fourth round pick Keyvius Sampson for $600,000 (not verified).

The Pads are also apparently getting close to signing top pick, Donavan Tate, for $6+ million, spread out over multiple years. If that happens, it’ll cap off a big day for the organization.

As I mentioned over at Friar Forecast (lots of good discussion in that post, too), drafting Tate, Williams, and Sampson was one thing, getting them signed is another.

Mark Prior experiment over

Mark Prior, who has been in the Padres’ organization for the last two seasons, has finally been cut loose, according to Corey Brock.

Amazingly, the once dominant Prior hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2006. The Padres’ investment in Prior was minimal, and probably not a terrible risk, but in the end it just didn’t work out.

Hopefully for Prior, he can find his way back onto the mound at some point in the future.

Peavy dealt to White Sox

Jake Peavy has apparently been traded to the Chicago White Sox. The Padres pick up righties Adam Russell and Dexter Carter, and lefthanders Aaron Poreda and Clayton Richard.

Obviously a big move and one that probably caught people off guard, as Peavy trade talks appeared to have settled down. Discuss in the comments if you’d like. My analysis coming at some point in the future.

Alvaro Aristy suspended

With a tip of the cap to Ben Badler’s Twitter, Padres shortstop prospect Alvaro Aristy has apparently been suspended for 50 games after testing positive for performance-enhancing substances. He tested positive for Nandrolone.

Aristy was one of the prospects signed last July 2nd, when he was ranked as the second best position player prospect out of the Dominican Republic. He was ranked 6th on the Padres shortstop depth chart by Baseball America in this year’s publication, though he has just turned 17 years old.

He’s struggled so far in the Dominican Summer League, hitting .183/.326/.279 in his first 130 professional plate appearances (with 13 errors in 30 games). This suspension could certainly be just a minor blip in this young player’s career, but  news like this is never good, especially with all of the turmoil in the Padres’ organization right now. Hopefully, Aristy will take this time off to reflect on things, and come back strong from his suspension.

Padres sign Russ Adams

Corey Brock, via Twitter, informs us that the Pads have signed Russ Adams and assigned him to AAA Portland.

Adams, the former Blue Jays shortstop, has a career .302 wOBA and –1 WAR. He’s a replacement level type player at best, and nothing more than organizational depth.

Hairston dealt to A’s

According to MLB Trade Rumors (and other sources), the Padres have traded Scott Hairston to the Oakland A’s for minor league pitchers Craig Italiano and Ryan Webb (and a PTBNL). Webb will join the Padres and Italiano will head to Class-A Lake Elsinore.

I’ll miss Hairston. He was solid in his time here, and he came up with some big hits.

More analysis on this trade later (if not tonight, later tomorrow).

Peavy’s injury

Daniel links to Will Carroll’s take on Peavy’s injury. Carroll thinks Peavy is essentially done for the year, although that assessment may be, as Will calls it, a bit provocative.

Still, if Carroll is right about the injury, a return in 3-4 weeks is out of question, and the injury is definitely more serious than the initial prognosis. Hopefully, the Padres will be extra-safe with Jake, considering the circumstances around this season (I don’t expect them to seriously compete down the stretch).

Here’s Peavy’s take on things.

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I’m having some computer issues, so things may be a bit slow for a while. I’m hoping I’ll get it fixed soon, but we’ll see. Can you tell I don’t have great luck with computers?

Peavy out

Corey Brock reports that Jake Peavy will miss at least a month with an ankle injury. Peavy suffered the injury May 22nd against the Cubs while running the bases.

Peavy’s ERA, sitting at 3.97, is somewhat high for Jake. His FIP, however, at 3.01, is well below his career mark. His strikeouts/9 is currently at 10.14, a career high level. All this is to say that Peavy is still clearly the Padres best pitcher, and one of the best in the game. Losing him for an extended period will be very costly for San Diego.

Day 2 picks

Admittedly, I know little about any of these guys. Heck, I only have a passing familiarity with most of the first round guys.

Anyway, in the 4th round the Padres took right handed pitcher Keyvius Sampson from Ocala Forest HS.

Goldstein: “The Padres are surprisingly the first team to take a signability guy in Keyvius Sampson, a projectable RHP and one of the better arms in Florida. He’ll take more than 4th round money to sign, and the Padres continue to change their ways.”

DePo: “Keyvius is a very athletic right-handed starter with a fastball that ranges from 90-96 mph and a very good changeup. This season he posted a 0.83 ERA, pitching 59 innings, giving up 19 hits and 14 walks while striking out 113. We believe he has big upside as a starting pitcher.”

5th round:

Jason Hagerty, a switch hitting catcher from the University of Miami. Numbers:

Year	Games	BA	OBP	SLG	Notes
2009	60	.315	.451	.630	Lead team in OBP, second in SLG
2008	41	.289	.360	.515	Sophomore season
2007	35	.195	.218	.278

 

DePo: “Jason is a strong switch-hitting catcher with some power. He has also spent time at 1B, but we see him as a catcher.”

Round 6:

Jason Needy, HS righty from Santana HS.

DePo: “A San Diegan, James is a 6’5″ starting pitcher with a FB in the low 90’s with feel for both a breaking ball and a changeup. It’s nice to get a local in the mix, but this one was all about talent.”

Round 7:

Miles Mikolas, a righty from Nova Southeastern U (D2). From the school’s site:

Mikolas (Jr., Jupiter, Fla.) led the Sharks with a 2.06 earned run average while going 7-2 in 83.0 innings pitched. He threw four complete games, including two shutouts, in 11 starts. Mikolas is among the national leaders with 80 strikeouts to just eight walks on the season.

DePo: “A 6’5″ 220 lb starting pitcher, Miles has a fastball up to 94 with a good curveball. Is anyone sensing a trend?”

Round 8:

Nathan Frieman, first basemen from Duke. Numbers:

Year	Games	BA	OBP	SLG	Notes
2009	59	.352	.463	.703	Hit 20 of Duke’s 53 HR
2008	38	.381	.447	.671	11 homers
2007	54	.369	.435	.553

 

Nice bat. This is the kind of guy we’re used to the Padres picking, and I don’t say that in a negative light.

DePo: “A 6’8″ first baseman, Nate has monster power. This year, his senior year, he had 19 homers and just 24 strikeouts. As you can imagine, he makes a nice target over at 1B.”

Round 9:

Chris Fetter, RHP  from Michigan. Numbers:

Year	Innings	Strikeouts	Walks	Homers	ERA
2009	97	103	17	4	3.26
2008	94.7	82	28	7	2.47
2007	70.7	48	21	5	4.71
2006	73	48	14	6	2.22

 

DePo: “A 6’8″, 230 lb starting pitcher, Chris had a huge spring after seeing a jump in his velocity up to 94 mph. In 94 innings this season he walked just 17 and struck out 103. At 6’8″ you could say he has good “downhill plane”.”

That’s a pretty good track record; a lot of innings.

Rapid fire:

Round	Player	School
10	Ryan Hinson (LHP)	Clemson
11	Andrew Madrigal (RHP)	Mt San Jacinto JC
12	Brayden Drake (3b)	Missouri State
13	Matt Vern (1b)	TCU
14	Nick Greenwood (LHP)	Rhode Island
15	Matt Lollis (RHP)	Riverside CC