This week in smoking hot Peoria, Ariz., Jaff Decker will bring a comparably hot bat into his professional debut for a Padres entry-level affiliate. Among the younger hitters recently chosen in the draft, few did more damage than Decker did for his high school team, which is based in Peoria, the spring training home of the Padres and their Arizona League club.
More than what Decker did against high school pitching prompted the Padres to draft him 42nd overall and guarantee him about $890,000. It was how he succeeded and what they expect his left-handed swing to produce.
“He might have had the best swing in the draft for high school players,” scouting director Bill Gayton said yesterday. “He's got a great swing, and he's strong, and he's shown the ability to make adjustments.”
Decker's success was exceptional, though, even for an outfielder drafted among the top 50.
“He put up insane numbers in a tough high school league – a .692 on-base percentage and a 1.472 slugging percentage,” Padres senior quantitative analyst Chris Long said. “These are numbers that are not normally looked at, but in this case they're difficult to ignore.”
Two years ago, the Padres gave a similar sum to another two-way prep star they'd chosen with a top 50 pick, Kyler Burke, a left-handed slugger and pitcher chosen 35th and given $950,000. Burke was the first high school player in Tennessee to hit 20 home runs since Jeremy Reed in 1998. Like Decker, he was a dominant pitcher.
But a year later, the Padres rated Burke a borderline bust and traded him along with major league catcher Rob Bowen, for catcher Michael Barrett last June.
Gayton said Decker's hitting skill far exceeds Burke's. Padres farm overseer Grady Fuson said Decker is more advanced as a hitter than Padres No. 3 hitter Brian Giles was at age 18 (though scouts rated Giles more athletic).
Decker has thrown fastballs clocked at 93 mph. But because he isn't a lean, quick athlete, the 5-foot-10, 190-pounder was available after the first round. Among some scouts, it's believed that a less athletic, stocky player can lose his athleticism and “life” faster. Fitness training – a key part of the Padres' program – might enable such a player to lessen that potential disadvantage.
“If he was even 6-foot, 200 pounds you would have been looking at him in the top level of the first round,” Gayton said.
Said another scouting director: “He's a kid we liked. If he's 6-foot, we'd probably like him more, but he's a good-looking hitter.”
Triple-A
The Padres are still eyeing
Clay Hensley as a candidate for their bullpen but want to see more from the right-hander, who has a 3.00 ERA, 19 strikeouts and 11 walks in 30 innings with Portland.
Double-A
In 20 games, left fielder
Chad Huffman's batting average dropped from .323 to .287 and the slugger had only one extra-base hit, perhaps delaying a promotion.
Single-A
Outfielder
Sawyer Carroll got off to the best start of players drafted by the Padres this month. In four games with Eugene, a short-season club, the University of Kentucky alum went 7-for-18 with a home run, a triple, a double and two walks.
Tom Krasovic: (619) 293-2207; tom.krasovic@uniontrib.com
