Padres Organizational Lineup

As a mini-preview of the Padre prospect rankings through June that I will run tomorrow and Thursday, it occurred to me today that putting together a Padre Organizational Lineup might be an interesting exercise in looking at which players throughout the Padre system are truly performing this season.

What is a "Padre Organizational Lineup," you ask? Simply put, it's a starting lineup, position-by-position, of the Padres who have most dominated their position so far this season. What makes it interesting is that the lineup is determined based on performance measured against one's league peers. In other words, Kevin Kouzmanoff's performance is measured against other Major League third basemen, while Logan Forsythe's performance is measured against other Cal League (now Texas League) third basemen. So even though Kevin is farther along and (probably) a better big league third basemen than Logan, Logan's likely going to be the one to make this team at the Hot Corner.

So without further ado:

1. CF - Brad Chalk .305 1 37 .359 (20 bags) - Probably should go Scotty Bombs here but I wanted a prototypical leadoff man and I'm not putting Ced Hunter or Tony Gwynn, Jr. in this lineup.

2. 2B - Lance Zawadzki .316 13 55 .402 - I'm moving Lance to 2B because of the dismal performance by Padres 2B this season. Actually, Eckstein and Sogard have been okay, but I'm looking for some pop here.

3. 3B - Logan Forsythe .332 8 32 .480 - This is the toughest call in the entire system because you have Darnell in High A and Kouz has started to hit. I should probably put Darnell at third, move Logan to second and put Lance at short, but I really want the SS I have here (see below).

4. 1B - Adrian Gonzalez .269 24 47 .414 - The Franchise. Craig "Craigers" Cooper is having a season, but no way Adrian doesn't make this squad.

5. LF - Kyle Blanks .283 12 38 .393 - I feel like I'm selling out putting Kyle here because he hasn't dominated this season, but he looked good last week with the Padres and his numbers are pretty solid for AAA. If Luis Durango was still hitting in the .340s he'd probably have left field locked down.

6. RF - Mike Baxter .352 5 54 .424 - Very excited to see what Mike is going to do this September in San Diego.

7. SS - Beamer Weems .301 2 26 .476 - Go ahead, you make the case to keep him off this team. I just couldn't. He reportedly has the best glove of any SS in the Padres system and, for Heaven's sake, his OBP is out of this world. Until Beamer somehow shows me he can't hit higher level pitching, he's on my team.

8. C - Mitch Canham .271 2 31 .353 - Finding a catcher must be difficult because the Padres don't have one at any level this season who is dominating. Canham is holding his own at AA and that is respectable.

9. SP - Mat Latos 7-1 1.28 38/9 K/BB ratio - A few candidates here but Latos gets the call. I'd probably go Anthony Bass as my #2 and Cory Luebke as my #3, with Peavy and Nick Schmidt rounding out the starting five.

Closer - Heath Bell 3-1 1.39 36/12 22 saves - What a beast. Bryan Oland made it marginally interesting.

And there you have it.

Disagree? Let me know in the comments.