AAA Report: LeBlanc makes fools of Rivercats.

So here goes. I'll try to do some bad amateur reports from watching our AAA Beavers in Portland. Think of me (and madding and anyone else who posts these) as resident scouts...except without any of the fancy training.

Wade LeBlanc is considered the #4 prospect in the Padres system, and he showed his pedigree last night. He only allowed one run on four hits through six innings and he struck out 11. He looked good. Anyone know how many pitches he's supposed to have? I'll sit closer in his next start.

Now, there's a pretty good chance that the Rivercats (Oakland's AAA team) are gutted now that Billy Beane is running out an A's lineup of really young guys, but the PCL is also considered a hitter's league. So take the performance with a grain of salt, but not with a very large one.

The Beavers ended up winning 9-1, 5 of those runs came from a 10-batter 7th inning.

The only thing I found worrisome from the performance was Nick Hundley's catching. His throwing wasn't great (base runners went 1/1) and he was dropping a lot of pitches. Some of this could have been due to LeBlanc's breaking stuff if he has any, but wow. His worst mistakes were during warmup throws (ball right between the legs one time, a throw back to pitcher that goes over his head another). I'll definitely keep an eye on his defense, because I have a feeling after another year or two of Bard we're going to be wanting a catcher that can throw out a base stealer occasionally. Hundley was drafted in the second-round back in '05.

Headley is off to a slow start at AAA at the plate, but his fielding looked passable. However, I'd be crazy to equate PGE Park with Petco as far as the range a fielder needs in left. Antonelli is hitting leadoff and he looks very comfortable at the plate.

Fun fact: The Beavers' Edgar Gonzalez is Adrian's brother. He's almost 30, so the chances of the two taking the field together is pretty slim.