John Conniff is a senior writer for MadFriars.com, a webzine that covers the San Diego Padres minor league system, and a free-lance contributor to Baseball America and 619 Sports.net. As in the past, we caught up with him to get his impressions of the San Antonio missions on his trip to the Padres’ AA affiliate.

1) The first question has to be “Where is the offense?” The Missions are averaging 2.27 runs per game in May, and as a result are 2-9. This is an extremely talent laden lineup with more top prospects than any other Padre farm team, and yet they are posted next to nothing every day. Is there something in the water that could explain why Carroll, Clark, Kulbacki, Darnell, Canham, and Chalk are all hitting below .250?

John Conniff: I’ve written this before, but it is a really brutal park to hit in; even by PETCO standards. The wind comes in from either right-center or left and just swirls around effectively knocking anything back and keeping balls up long enough to be caught. The only guys who really have success offensively here are either players with line drive swings or that are just so big it doesn’t make a difference (Kyle Blanks).

Also more of these guys had big success at high-A and as well all know AA is the big separator; the pitching is just much better. Most of the pitchers can throw a couple pitches for strikes at any time in the count and you can’t always count on getting a fastball in a hitter’s count.
I think the jury is still out on Darnell and Logan Forsythe. People who watch the team on a regular basis liked what Darnell was doing before he injured his hand last week.

2) For the past few years we have heard about Luis Martinez as a great defensive catcher who has not produced offensively. Martinez has successfully knocked off Canham as the primary catcher, and is leading the Missions in most offensive categories. From what you have seen is Martinez someone who could be the future starting catcher for the Padres?

John Conniff: He had a nice season offensively in the Cal League last year and as you stated he is impressive defensively. At the plate he uses the whole field, especially going the opposite way and seems to have a good idea of what he is attempting to do every at-bat. Additionally this year he’s become a little more patient and has shown some potential. He has slowed down a little in May, but with his defensive skills as long as he can put the ball in play and keep getting on base he has a chance.

As for his chances in the future, it is still too early to tell; particularly in May. Catching is about surviving the season, particularly in the Texas League, and if he is still putting up the same numbers in August, I’ll be excited.

3) Is Cedric Hunter back? Being one of the only bright spots offensively, Hunter has been the catalyst and sadly only contributor for a lackluster offense. As sad as it is to say, with all the power hitters on the club, Hunter is leading the team in SLG (.425). While not great it is still nearly 100 points higher than last year. Are we finally seeing the “developing power” of Cedric Hunter?

John Conniff: I was surprised at how much Hunter had improved this year from the last. He is much shorter to the ball and more selective. Is he ready to go to San Diego now if someone gets hurt? No, but he is on the right path. This month his walks are up and his power numbers are about the same; he profiles more as a gap hitter than a power guy. He’s running a little more this year and he looked good out in center. His biggest challenge is to continue to refine what he is doing.

4) One of the reasons that the Padres were initially tentative about promoting Simon Castro to AA is they were afraid he would be overmatched by hitters. From what you saw, how did he look on the mound? Was he pitching inside?

John Conniff: Simon didn’t really have his best stuff on the day I saw him and still went seven innings and gave up only one unearned run in a no-decision; so he is pitching pretty well. He kind of has a unique delivery with a big sweeping three-quarter motion with a plus two-seam fastball to go along with a good slider.

At 6’5” and at least 225 lbs., he has good size and the day I saw him his velocity was sitting at around 88-93.

5) Aaron Poreda is putting up some nice numbers but is also allowing nearly two runners per inning. It doesn’t seem like the move to the pen has done much for him. What type of adjustments is the Missions staff trying to make to allow the pitcher with the stuff of an ace, be able to find home plate? What are the chances he eventually makes and becomes a mainstay in an MLB team’s rotation?

John Conniff: Mainly they are just trying to work on getting him to be consistent mechanically and trusting his plus fastball. He tries to be too fine with too many pitches, which they were really trying to hammer home in bullpen sessions. As for being a starter the Padres seem to believe he will have a better career out of the bullpen where he will only have rely on one or two pitches and won’t have to repeat his motion over longer periods of time.

6) The Missions have seven relievers that have the stuff to be a closer. Clearly the closers role went to Italiano, but the bigger question might be how does Doug Dascenzo determine who pitches the innings leading up to the 9th? Gomes, Scribner, DeMark, and Lara all have ERA’s below 2., and last year’s Storm closer, Bryan Oland, had a 1.80 ERA before getting roughed up his last start but still has an impressive 16 K in 9.1 IP. With such a dominating pen do they just draw names out of a hat?

John Conniff: Glenn Abbott, the Mission’s pitching coach, told me that coming into the season they looked upon it that they potentially had four closers; Italiano, Scribner, Oland and Gomes. Mike Saeger, the Missions play-by-play announcer, said that it is the best bullpen that he has seen in over twenty years of broadcasting minor league games. So it’s not just the park; all of them throw in the 90’s, throw strikes and have performed this year.

Right now Italiano is probably the top guy and might be able to really help San Diego with his velocity and three-quarter motion. It’s difficult to see right-handers having good at-bats against him.