As most baseball fans know, the San Diego Padres haven’t made a serious run at the NL West title for a while. Now this most certainly isn’t because of lack of effort – not with guys like Chase Headley, Jedd Gyorko, Chris Denorfia and their most recent pain in the Dodgers neck Seth Smith in their line-up. But the reality is that, barring a miracle, the Padres are and will most likely always be a small market team – Gyroko’s recent six-year/$35 million contract extension notwithstanding. In fact, many baseball experts are already predicting that the Padres will be unable to re-sign Gold Glove and Silver Slugger third baseman Chase Headley, who becomes a free agent at the end of the season.

Of course being at the back of the pack does have one huge advantage – you get a low draft pick at the annual MLB First Year Player Draft held each year in June, and this year the Padres will draft out 13th (as compared to 22nd for the Dodgers).

Up until three nights ago I had never heard the name Hunter Renfroe before. But after seeing what the 22-year-old Crystal Springs, Mississippi native did to the best pitching that the Dodgers Advanced Single-A affiliate Rancho Cucamonga Quakes had to offer, I definitely know who Hunter Renfroe is now, and quite frankly, the Padres have a Joc Pederson-type prospect in the fold.

Dodger fans best remember the name Hunter Renfroe. He could be around to haunt the Dodgers for many years to come. (Photo courtesy of utsandiego.com)

Renfroe was initially selected by the Boston Red Sox in the 31st round of the 2010 First Year Player Draft but opted to attend Mississippi State University instead. While at MSU Renfroe absolutely soared, collecting Player of the Week honors in the highly competitive Southeastern Conference (SEC) and winning the prestigious 2013 C Spire Ferriss Trophy, awarded annually to the best college baseball player in Mississippi.

Renfroe was considered among the top prospects available in the 2013 First Year Player Draft. As such, he was snatched up by the Padres in the first round as the 13th overall selection, agreeing to a signing bonus of $2,678,000.

After signing with the Padres, Renfroe began his professional career with the Eugene Emeralds of the Class-A Short Season Northwest League. After collecting the game-winning hit in the Northwest League’s All-Star Game, Renfroe was promoted to the Fort Wayne TinCaps of the Low Single-A Midwest League in August of 2013.

Unfortunately for the Quakes, Renfroe began the 2014 season with the Advanced Single-A Lake Elsinore Storm and almost single-handedly helped his team sweep the Quakes in a three-game series this past week.

In the first game of the series on Monday night, Renfroe greeted 17-year-old left-handed Mexican phenom Julio Urias with a two run double in the first inning and a two-run home run in the fifth.

If 17-year-old Julio Urias was saying a little prayer before pitching to Hunter Renfroe, it didn’t work. Renfroe doubled, homered and had 4 RBIs on Monday night off of the Quakes young left-hander. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

In the second game on Tuesday night, Quakes right-handed workhorse Lindsey Caughel managed to strike Renfroe out on a nasty slider in the first inning but wasn’t quite so fortunate the next time he faced the right-handed power hitter. Renfroe took Caughel’s 90 MPH fastball over the left/center field wall at LoanMart Field for a two-run homer.

Although Caughel struck Renfroe out in the first inning of Tuesday night’s game…

…Renfroe homered off Caughel in the third inning, leading the Storm to a 6-3 win over the Quakes.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

In in the series finale on Wednesday night, Renfroe went 3 for 5 including a 2 RBI single off of Dodgers 2013 second-round draft pick Tom Windle, who lasted only 2.2 innings. For the series, Renfroe was 6 for 14 (.428) with a double, two home runs and 8 RBIs. In fact, the Quakes managed only 8 total runs in the three-games series (hence that single-handedly thing) compared to 20 runs scored by the Storm.

The silver lining to all of this is that Renfroe will most likely be promoted to the Padres Double-A affiliate San Antonio Missions of the Texas League – probably sometime around the All-Star break; and as far as the Quakes are concerned, it can’t happen soon enough.

That being said, Dodger fans best be advised that Hunter Renfroe is well on his way to making it to Petco Park – possibly as early as the 2015 season.

As they always say – Forewarned is forearmed.