Albert Pujols signing with the Los Angeles Angels slightly overshadowed the always entertaining Rule 5 draft this morning.
For the most part, the Rule 5 draft has become rather insignificant over the last number of years, though the San Diego Padres did pick up Everth Cabrera a few years back.
This year the Padres lost a couple of pitchers in the minor league phase. Lefty Aaron Poreda was once the key piece coming from the Chicago White Sox in the Jake Peavy trade, and he was selected by the Pirates today. The main issue with Poreda was his control. Despite converting to a reliever in the Padres organization, Poreda wasn’t able to harness his control. And that’s being nice.
In the last two season, split between Double-A and Triple-A, Poreda walked a whopping 127 batters in 123.7 innings. He has strikeout ability and rarely allows a home run, but those walk numbers are ridiculously high. While he still may have talent, it’d be hard to classify him as a prospect at this point, and the Padres likely won’t miss him.
It’s a little disappointing because the package received for Jake Peavy, outside of Clayton Richard, hasn’t been overly good. Then again, Peavy has not been good himself in Chicago.
The Padres also lost right-handed pitcher Matt Buschmann to the Washington Nationals. I once ranked Bushmann as the Padres 26th best prospect way back in 2007. He had another solid year in Double-A after that, but could never succeed in Triple-A. He’ll be 28 in February and is obviously not looked at as a prospect at this point.
The Padres picked up shortstop Michael Wing from the Angels in the Triple-A phase. Wing is 23 and was ranked as the 38th best Angels prospect by an Angels forum early in 2011. If anything, Wing is at least a fringe prospect.
Though he’s listed as a shortstop, Wing has spent more time at second base and third base over the last few seasons. He hasn’t risen past High-A ball, but he’s put up a pretty good offensive track record, hitting .300/.363/.465 in his minor league career. Perhaps Wing can stick as a utility player on the big club, though it would take a Cabrera-like jump for him to succeed in the majors.
I can’t help but feel the Padres did something wrong with Poreda. The team has a track record of developing good pitching, but Poreda’s walk rate was decent UNTIL he came to the Padres.
I’m one of those who thinks Tony LaRussa ruined Rick Ankiel by demanding he throw strikes. I remember seeing Nolan Ryan pitch for the Angels. Typical line: 8IP, 3 hits, 2 runs, NINE walks, 11Ks. And that was pitching for Dick Williams! Randy Johnson was nearly 30 before he got his walk rate down under 5/IP. Even Koufax had a rather high walk rate early in his career.
I wonder if Poreda suffered from Padres coaches tinkering with his delivery to reduce walks, something that happened with Ankiel. The Pirates must see something, but I think they’ll do well to tinker with his head, not his delivery. It’s got to be mental at this point.
Yeah, like you mentioned, his walk rate wasn’t that terrible when coming to the Padres. Perhaps the combination of moving to AAA and some mechanical tweaks/mental problems really did him in.