Baseball America recently unveiled their list of the top ten Padres prospects. Coming in at number one is outfielder Cedric Hunter, who was chosen in the third round of the 2006 draft. Hunter had a solid season playing rookie ball and he should take the next step and play at Low A in 2007.
Number two is Cesar Carrillo, who’s getting close to being major league ready. With the Padres solid rotation pretty much set, there’s not a lot of room for Carrillo. In addition, he’s coming off of elbow problems so how he does at Portland this year might determine whether we see Carrillo as a Padre in the second half of 2007.
Number three is last year’s first round draft pick, thirdbaseman Matt Antonelli. This is a guy who can play a lot of positions and he’ll get to show his stuff High A this year.
Kevin Kouzmanoff and Will Venable round out the top five. Overall though, this is a pretty solid crop of prospects and it should be interesting to see how they all do in the minors in 2007.