Padres Press Clips Tuesday, October 20, 2015

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Instructional league gives Padres jump on ‘16 MLB.com Brock 2

Tony Gwynn Memorial Freeway a reality UT Jones 4

Padres free agent profile: Brandon Morrow UT San Diego Sanders 6

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Instructional league gives Padres jump on '16 By Corey Brock / MLB.com | @FollowThePadres | October 19th, 2015

SAN DIEGO -- The Padres' recently-completed instructional league in Arizona for 59 players wasn't viewed by general manager A.J. Preller as a postscript for the regular season.

Instead, the team's nearly month long program, which finished on Oct. 10, was viewed as a way to get a jump on 2016.

"We looked at it as the start of the 2016 season instead of the end of the 2015 year," Preller said.

The instructional league, presided over by director of player development, Sam Geaney, played 13 games -- with two coming against the Rangers' instructional league team at -- though the emphasis was on instruction.

"I think we set out to use it as a chance for a majority of our top prospects and many members of 2015 Draft class to feel solid going into their offseason," said Geaney.

The organization had all of its Minor League coordinators in Arizona, including Luis Ortiz (hitting/field), Mark Prior (pitching), Ryley Westman (coordinator of instruction), Gorman Heimueller (roving pitching), Eric Junge (Minor League pitching instructor), Eddie Rodriguez (infield), Tarrik Brock (base running and outfield) and several Minor League coaches.

"As a group, we were very happy. I think we've all taken a year to evaluate where we are," said Geaney. "We had a good discussion with people who have seen the organization, scouts, and people like [special assistants] Moises Alou, Trevor Hoffman and Mark Loretta.

"Over the last year, I think we've focused in on some things that we're going to be about as a staff, how players are going to work. This was the first opportunity for our staff to put it into action."

Geaney said several players stood out during practice and games, including third baseman Carlos Belen. Belen, 19, hit .218 with short-season Tri-City last summer but showed growth and development in Arizona.

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"Carlos had a very strong program. He had an up-and-down [regular] season but made a lot of contact [in Arizona], and the quality of his at-bats improved. He's one who stood out," Geaney said.

Geaney cited outfielder Nick Torres as someone who stood out as well. Torres, 22, just completed his first full professional season, hitting .305/.352/.439 between Class A Fort Wayne and Class A Advanced Lake Elsinore. He's currently playing in the Arizona Fall League. Two other players Geaney said that made big leaps in Arizona were infielder Tyler Moore, a 29th-round pick in June, and fifth-round pick, outfielder Josh Magee, a two-sport athlete in high school who Geaney said "has really benefited from professional instruction."

Other top prospects who were in Arizona included shortstop Ruddy Giron, pitcher Ryan Butler, outfielder Michael Gettys and the team's top pick from the June Draft, pitcher Austin Smith, who was selected in the second round.

Several players from the program in Arizona have headed to the team's complex in the Dominican Republic for the organization's winter program, including a handful of American players, many of whom hadn't traveled beyond the United States before.

"I think it will be a really cool life experience for them," Geaney said.

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Tony Gwynn Memorial Freeway a reality By J. Harry Jones | 2:42 p.m. Oct. 19, 2015 | Updated, 7:11 p.m. SABRE SPRINGS — Two freeway signs went up Monday on a 4-1/2-mile stretch of Interstate 15 between Scripps Poway Parkway and Camino del Norte that will be forever known as Tony Gwynn Memorial Freeway. During a short ceremony, San Diego’s greatest baseball player, outfielder No. 19, was honored on Oct.19 at a news conference just off Exit 19 atop the MTS parking structure at Parkway.

“This is a tremendous honor for our family,” said Tony Gwynn Jr., a ballplayer in his own right. He said whenever he would go to San Diego with his Dad from their home in Poway they would always travel along that part of the freeway.

“I know he’s looking down probably cackling about having his own piece of highway,” Gwynn Jr. said. “I know he would thoroughly enjoy it.”

The first 3-by-10-foot sign was erected Monday morning just north of the Camino del Norte exit along southbound I-15. The second, about a half-mile south of Scripps Poway Parkway on northbound I-15, was put up Monday afternoon after the unveiling at the news conference.

“The Gwynn family thanks you very, very much,” said Alicia Gwynn, Tony’s widow. “Poway is our home. The North County is where we live and where our kids grew up. It’s a route we take every day so its very fitting for the cause.”

The Ted Williams Parkway exit is in the middle of the Gwynn freeway segment. Tony Gwynn Jr. said that ever since that exit opened, his father would take it on their drive home, even though it probably wasn’t the fastest route to the north Poway house where they lived for nearly 30 years.

“Maybe because it was named after Ted Williams,” he said. Williams, the great slugger and San Diego native, was good friends with Gwynn.

Gwynn played as a Padre for 20 years, retiring with a .338 batting average and 3,141 hits in 2,400 games. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007

4 and was the head coach of the San Diego State baseball team after his playing days were over. He died on June 16, 2014, after a long battle with cancer. He was 54.

Tony Gwynn Memorial Freeway joins many other freeway and highway segments named after people and groups in the region. To the north of the Gwynn segment is the Chelsea King Memorial Bridge over Lake Hodges. The I-15 bridge is named for the Poway teen murdered on a trail near Lake Hodges in 2010. Just south of the Gwynn segment is a three-mile stretch known as the Tuskegee Airmen Highway.

When the Gwynn freeway project was first proposed, it was intended to stretch from Poway to Escondido, but recent changes in state law now require that no memorial segment be longer than 5 miles.

Shortly after Gwynn’s death, officials first began working toward renaming a section of Ted Williams Parkway, from I-15 to the Poway city limits. But the cost of having to change numerous road signs — estimated at more than $400,000 — proved to be too great.

Assemblyman Brian Maienschein, R-San Diego, championed the freeway naming resolution, which won unanimous support in the Assembly and state Senate earlier this year.

“It’s a fitting tribute to a San Diego legend,” Maienschein said Monday, “and Tony Gwynn will forever be a San Diego baseball legend... Tony had a passion for the Padres, for San Diego, and for the sport of baseball.”

Funding for the signs, nearly $8,000, was approved by the County Board of Supervisors.

Supervisor Ron Roberts got emotional when he spoke Monday.

“Tony was an important part of our community for so many years,” he said. “He exemplified what a professional athlete should be. You didn’t hear about Tony getting in trouble. You didn’t hear about Tony wanting to jump from this team to another team. Tony was committed to San Diego and we feel really honored to be able to do something to really recognize him.” 5

Padres free agent profile: Brandon Morrow Morrow pitched Padres to victory in each of first five starts and then didn't pitch again in in 2015 By Jeff Sanders | 10 a.m. Oct. 20, 2015 Reviewing the Padres' pending free agents, one-by-one, as we prepare for General Manager A.J. Preller's second offseason in San Diego. RHP BRANDON MORROW

 Age: 31  Last contract: One-year, $2.5 million (career earnings: $27 million*)  2015 WAR: 0.5 (career: 10.8)+ LAST SEASON

 Through five starts, signing Morrow looked like a low-cost boon for the Padres, a winner in each of them as the 6-foot-3 Cal product turned in quality starts in four of Morrow's five trips to the mound to the mound. He allowed two earned runs or fewer in five of them, posted a 2.73 ERA, a 1.09 WHIP and 23 strikeouts in 33 innings. Then shoulder soreness sent Morrow to the DL – for good. Though he made attempts to return, Morrow was shut down for good in early August with a shoulder impingement. The ensuing debridement procedure ended his season, though Morrow is expected to be ready for the start of spring training. CAREER

 In a lot of ways, an abbreviated 2015 was par for the course for Morrow, who has made 30 starts just once in his career and hadn't made more than 20 since 2012. Originally drafted by the Mariners (5th overall in 2006), Morrow turned in his best season in 2010 in Toronto (3.6 of 10.8 career WAR), with his a one- hitter in which he struck out 17 and came within one out of a no-no serving as his career highlight to date. He fashioned a career-best 2.96 ERA in 2012, but various forearm, oblique and hand injuries dogged him the final legs of his three-year, $21 million extension. The Blue Jays declined a $10 million option on 2015 after Morrow posted a 5.65 ERA in 87 2/3 innings between 2013-2014.

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MOVING FORWARD

 For Morrow: Like Josh Johnson before him, Morrow arrived in San Diego looking to rebuild his value on a one-year deal. Because having surgery end his season after five starts hardly accomplished that goal, he could again look for a similar contract for 2016 to give himself one last crack at a significant contract for his Age 33 season and beyond. Both Morrow and the Padres have even said they are open to a reunion next season.  For the Padres: As bogged down by oversized contracts as they are, the Padres will have to find bargains in a place or two if their finances are going to work for 2016. That could lead the Padres to further conversations with Morrow, who could come at an even bigger discount after pitching in just five games in 2015. With James Shields due an $11 million raise per the terms of his contract, Ian Kennedy potentially departing as a free agent and the Padres short on organizational pitching depth after last year's trading spree (they might even consider trading Andrew Cashner or Tyson Ross in their quest to land a shortstop), A.J. Preller may actually need more than one Morrow-type signing to fill out his rotation.

Sources: * – baseball-reference.com; + – fangraphs.com

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