Prospect Reports are starting to come out...

John Sickels at minorleagueball.com has his prospect report out on our boys, and for the first time in a LONG time the Padres system gets a pretty glowing review... Below are the first 14 on his list, follow the link above for the rest of his write up.

"by John Sickels on Jan 17, 2012 12:05 PM EST

1) Yonder Alonso, 1B, Grade B+: Acquire in the big Mat Latos deal with the Cincinnati Reds. His style of hitting should fit better in San Diego than Anthony Rizzo's. I expect Alonso will hit for average, post a strong OBP, and provide at least moderate power.

2) Yasmani Grandal, C, Grade B+: Also acquired in the Latos deal. Needs more polish on defense, although he has the tools to thrive and I'm optimistic about his glove. Like Alonso, he should provide a solid OBP with moderate power.

3) Rymer Liriano, OF, Grade B+: You can make a case to rank him above Rizzo, although they are very different players. Five Tool/Seven Skill potential is obvious, and he made strides with the strike zone last year. Scouts love him and the numbers are catching up.

4) Jedd Gyorko, 3B, Grade B+ : I believe in the bat and he can handle third base. Should hit for average, post solid OBP, with at least moderate power.

5) Robbie Erlin, LHP, Grade B+: Extremely close between Erlin and Wieland, but I'll go with Erlin due to lefty premium and nine month age edge. I know he doesn't have a blistering fastball, but the guy has superb command of deceptive stuff, plus pornographic statistics. Should do well in this ballpark.

6) Joe Wieland, RHP, Grade B+: Hard to believe they got Wieland and Erlin for Mike Adams. Like Robbie, Joe's fastball plays past it's velocity due to terrific command and impressive secondary pitches.

7) Keyvius Sampson, RHP, Grade B+: Baseball America seems oddly reserved about him, but he looks great to me, other Midwest League sources are very positive, he throws hard, his stat profile is strong, and he's athletic.

8) Casey Kelly, RHP, Grade B: Borderline B+. Kelly will rank ahead of Erlin and Wieland on most lists, and I might be undergrading him a notch, but there are some things here that hold me back from a higher grade. He didn't dominate Double-A despite repeating the league, his secondary stuff isn't as refined as Erlin/Wieland, his fastball isn't consistently faster, and he is a full year older than Erlin and almost two years older than Sampson. He still looks like a fine mid-rotation starter but I don't see him as a potential ace. I'm thinking about this grade and this one is far from final.

9) Cory Spangenberg, 2B, Grade B: Borderline B+: On-base machine with some gap power and 70-speed. Needs to polish defense but pure hitting skills are sharp. He was a slight overdraft at 10^th overall but not by a terrible amount.

10) James Darnell, OF-3B, Grade B-: I like the bat a lot, but age and positional questions preclude a higher grade. Should be a solid run producer.

11) Joe Ross, RHP, Grade B-: Could theoretically be the top pitching prospect in the system a year from now. More advanced than brother Tyson at the same age, and has a higher physical upside than the pitchers ahead of him, but let's get some data first.

12) Brad Boxberger, RHP, Grade B-: Another part of the Latos deal. Very live arm, took well to bullpen role last year. At worst he should be an effective middle reliever, and if his command holds up he has a chance to close.

13) Jaff Decker, OF, Grade B-: Seems to improve his physical conditioning every year, even stole 15 bases in '11, strong throwing arm. Patient to a fault, needs to find balance between aggression and passivity. Could put up huge numbers at Tucson.

14) Austin Hedges, C, Grade B-: Superior defensive catcher. Scouts have mixed opinions about his bat; some think he can hit for a decent average with touches of power, others don't think he'll hit enough to play regularly despite his glove. Not enough objective data yet to have a sabermetric opinion, although most catchers with a similar plus-glove/questionable-bat profile coming out of high school don't make it. If he hits, will rank much higher next year.

This was already a very deep farm system, but adding Erlin and Wieland in the Adams trade was a masterstroke. Erlin, Wieland, Kelly, and Sampson is an exciting quartet, Joe Ross could be the best of all once he gets some innings in, Bass and Oramas are not slouches, and there are a large group of solid bullpen arms ready in the near future. That doesn't even include live-armed pitchers in the "others" list like Castro, Cates, Lollis and Portillo who have high ceilings albeit with question-marks. Hernandez and Reyes could also help sooner than expected.

There is also the core of a strong offense here, with Rizzo, Darnell, Gyorko, the enigmatic Decker, broad-skilled Tekotte, and overlooked Belnome ready or almost ready for extensive major league trials. Tools hound Liriano has a high ceiling and put some things together in '11. If Donavan Tate stays on the field long enough to learn baseball, he still has star-caliber tools. Galvez, Peterson, and Rincon would all get a lot more attention in other farm systems.

All told, this is a very rich system with exciting players at all levels."

He seems to have done a fairly good job, and of course the order of the prospects is left up to opinion, but overall he seems to have them in pretty fair positioning. Good job John!

TPichierri - Planet Padres Writer

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Padres Unveil "new" uniform.....again.....

Padres unveil their latest version of uniform, and incorporate some things from their past, but did they go far enough or is this just another failure by the marketing department ?

On their site they discuss the reasons for why they chose these specific versions, but they might have missed the mark in a couple areas. I guess only time, and sales, will tell.

"SAN DIEGO -- The Padres tapped into their past on Wednesday, when they unveiled their updated uniforms and new logos at PETCO Park.

And from the looks of it, trendy has nothing on tradition.

"I think the most loved uniforms in baseball are the ones that have tradition and history. ... They stand the test of time," said Padres COO and president Tom Garfinkel. "They're not trendy colors or trendy design ... but they're a classic baseball style.

"That's why we've taken our current uniforms and [included] elements of our past that are unique to the Padres ... ones that have a traditional feel to it."

With a nod to the old uniforms the Padres wore during their Pacific Coast League days (1936-68), the updated look was the result of two years' worth of discussions that Garfinkel had with fans about what they wanted.

"We came up with some conclusions," Garfinkel said. "One, there was not a strong affinity for our current uniform design at all. Two, because we've had so many changes throughout our history, the idea of a big change wasn't well received."

Enter a stylistic twist on the uniforms the Padres wore last season.

"We wanted to take our current uniform design and improve on it. We thought the way to improve on it was to bring back classic elements from our history and bring in traditional baseball elements in the design," Garfinkel said. "We wanted to bring some consistency with the uniforms and celebrate civic pride here in San Diego.

"That's what we've tried to accomplish."

A look at the updated uniforms and logos:

• Starting this upcoming season, the team will wear updated home whites and road grays featuring classic block lettering and piping, along with a new blue alternate uniform that will show the Padres' "SD" on the chest.

• The team unveiled three new logos on Wednesday. The "SD" logo has been updated to a circular mark featuring the text "San Diego Padres Baseball Club." That will be used as the team's primary mark.

• The team's new secondary logo features the Padres script under skyline imagery of PETCO Park. The mark also includes the classic "SD" along with "Est. 1969" and will be featured in a patch on the sleeve of the club's blue and gray jerseys.

• The team has also modified the Swinging Friar logo by using the original classic Swinging Friar from the early days of Padres history, with updated colors to match the blue and white worn by the club. That logo will be featured in a patch on the sleeve of the Padres' white jerseys.

In addition, the Padres' military jerseys will still feature the digital camouflage pattern that debuted in 2011, one that was modeled after the U.S. Marines, but will have updated numbers and lettering on the back to remain consistent with the Padres' other uniforms.

As for the uniform colors, Garfinkel said he did speak to some fans who wanted the team to return to its roots and go brown, like the Padres did in the 1970s on several occasions and in 1984, when the team went to the World Series.

"What we discovered was there was a passionate, vocal minority that wants the brown but a much larger segment of the fan base that was adamantly opposed to the brown," Garfinkel said.

"The compromise is we'll still celebrate the brown uniforms on retro days throughout the year."

This is one of the "traditional" uniforms from yesteryear that probably should have made the final cut in place of the boring home white with the universally hated "P" script that was just a bad idea to create, and now wont seem to go away.

They also underestimated the desire to return to Padre unique colors. In the article Garfinkel says "What we discovered was there was a passionate, vocal minority that wants the brown but a much larger segment of the fan base that was adamantly opposed to the brown,". If you know Padre fans, have spoken to them, or visit pretty much any fan board out there, he's exactly backwards in his discovery. The majority out there have been requesting a return to the brown for years, and maintain that desire. The majority are not interested in the mustard yellow however, but the brown is what most would like to see. THAT is Padre colors and THAT is our tradition unless the idea is to take them all the way back to the PCL days, in which case they missed the boat by not using the old pinstripe look for Home games.

Either way they probably should have spent more time on the team, than what it will look like losing 90 games again.

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Dodgers are a complete fiasco....

While not news to many...I saw this posted in a forum and thought it was classic and market-able......I do hope I see them during the next Dodger/Padre match up.......I just hope no Padre fan finds himself beaten as a result.......We know how Dodger fan can act.

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Staff Ace for the Indians admits to using Roids

Charlie Sheen Admits to Juicing ???!!!???

Well it looks like The Wild Thing has more than Tiger Blood coursing through his veins. In an interview Charlie Sheen admitted to using PED's in order to prepare for his role in Major League. Not that anyone who saw that movie is suddenly going to care, as I doubt any of us thought for a second that he was blowing 100+ mph on the radar gun to begin with. This is however fantastic timing as the Roger Clemens trial is set to start.

"...Let's just say that I was enhancing my performance a little bit. It was the only time I ever did steroids,

...I did them for like six or eight weeks," he continued. "You can print this... my fastball went from 79 to like 85."

The former "Two and a Half Men" star also told the mag that character Ricky Vaughn's signature hairstyle combined with his steroid use was a dangerous combination...."

Link to article

Way to go Ricky........Forget about the Curveball Ricky....Give'm the Heater !!!

T.Pichierri
-Planet Padres Writer

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Special thanks to KIP & Steve Kozle

Planet Padres, myself specifically, would like to send out a personal thank you to Steve Kozle and KIP America. We were recently at a convention and were lucky enough to win the door prize of a new IPad2. This was a fantastic gift and we can't thank you enough. It will be utilized to the n-th degree and is something I've always wanted for business and play.

KIP is an award winning and leading innovator in the industry of wide format printing and image capture technology. KIP is environmentally conscious and committed to product designs that promote environmental health & sustainability. Their goal is improving and refining the technologies in KIP products that keep the planet green. If you have need for this kind of technology then KIP should be on your radar. Just click the link embedded in their logo and take a look at all they have to offer.

Once again thank you to KIP industries for their gift.

T.Pichierri
-Planet Padres Writer-

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The Streak ends at 8 games

Well for the sake of the baseball gods we didn't want to post anything about the Storm for fear of jinxing their streak, but it finally game to an end at 8 games....Great run boys put another one together.

The Streak Ends at Eight with Loss Against Inland Empire

By Steve Smaldone

The Storm were riding an eight-game winning streak going into Inland Empire on Wednesday night. After jumping out to an early 2-0 lead, it looked as if the Storm were going to pull off their ninth win in a row.

Storm starter Pedro Hernandez pitched five innings of shutout baseball to keep the 2-0 lead in tact. However, Inland Empire would get after the Storm bullpen, scoring nine runs between the sixth and seventh innings.

Just as it seemed all was lost, the Storm bats would wake up when LF Dean Anna led off the inning with a double. 66ers pitcher Kevin Nabors would then walk the next three batters in a row to help the Storm push across another run. SS Jeudy Valdez would strike out next for the first out. With the bases still loaded and the score 9-3 in favor of IE, Storm 3B Jedd Gyorko earned his first hit of the night, a two-RBI double bring the Storm within four runs.

Jedd Gyorko was also named Cal League Player of the Week. This hot hitting 3rd baseman has really made an impact on this league and team already. He's currently hitting .390ba with a .455obp and a monstrous .701 slg pct. He plays a very solid 3rd and is hot on the heels of James Darnell who is currently in AA. This kid has a very bright future and we will continue to keep our eyes on him while he's in LE.

California League - c/o MiLB
Jedd Gyorko, Lake Elsinore
.469/.897/1.365, 7 G, 12-for-29, 3 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 9 RS, 3 BB, 2 K, 4 SB, 0 CS
The Padres grabbed West Virginia product Jedd Gyorko in the second round of last year's Draft, and the 22-year-old infielder is already succeeding in Class A Advanced ball. After finishing the previous week with a two-homer Sunday, Gyorko went yard again Monday and had a double, a single, two stolen bases, an RBI and two runs scored Tuesday. He was a triple shy of the cycle on a five-RBI Wednesday and missed out on the feat by a double Friday. Although he chilled out by going 0-for-7 over Saturday and Sunday, he did manage a stolen base and a run scored between those games.

The Storm have surged back into relevance, but have a ways still to go to reel in Rancho Cucamonga. They are currently 8 games out and will play RC this weekend in RC. For now it's on to game two against Inland Empire, and hopeuflly the start of another 8 game winning streak. Good luck STORM !!!

T.Pichierri
-Planet Padres Writer-

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Non Baseball Related

But still needs to be celebrated. The FBI has updated their 10 most wanted list with some great news

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