This morning, the Arizona Fall League announced the rosters of its annual Fall Stars Game, and Padres prospects led the way, with four young players representing the West, the most of any team in baseball. 2013 first round draft pick Hunter Renfroe is the most notable of the group. Although he's struggled at the plate since his midseason promotion to the AA San Antonio Missions, he's still just 22 years old with plenty of promise. He's joined by another first round pick: Jace Peterson was the 58th overall selection in the 2011 draft. Jace had a few cups of coffee with the big league club this season, but spent the bulk of his time with the El Paso Chihuahuas, where he hit an impressive .306 over 248 at bats.
The other two prospects going to the Fall Stars Game are pitchers Tayron Guerrero and Burch Smith. After a short, rough stint with the Padres in 2013, Smith was sent to AAA midway through spring training, but only tossed 5.1 innings for the Chihuahuas. He spent the rest of the season recovering from a forearm injury. While his stats with the Surprise Saguaros are nothing to write home about, it's nice to see Burch throwing the ball again. Guerrero is the one prospect among the bunch I wasn't familiar with. The 23 year old righty from Colombia was signed in 2009 and can hit triple digits with his fastball. He's still learning to control that power, but showed considerable improvement this year, with an ERA of just 1.45 over nearly 50 innings split between the Fort Wayne Tincaps and the Lake Elsinore Storm.
The Fall Stars Game starts at 5:08 PM this Saturday. It'll be carried by MLB Network and MLB.com, so tune in and cheer on the youngsters.