San Diego Snippets

Here are a couple of odds and ends for you Padre fans out there. I spoke with Grady Fuson yesterday, the club's VP for scouting and player development and he had some encouraging news on former top pick Matt Bush, who underwent Tommy John surgery last fall. He isn't on a mound yet but he's long tossing from 130 feet and one third of the way through his throwing program. He could be back getting in serious work by Instructional League.

Fuson also admitted that he was disappointed in Matt Antonelli's performance this season at Triple-A Portland. The former first-round pick was hitting .191 heading into Saturday's action after hitting .319 and .294 at Lake Elsinore and San Antonio, respectively, last year. He did add, however, that Antonelli appears to be showing signs of coming out of his season-long funk.

And he had this to say about Erik Sogard, last year's second-round pick out of Arizona State who is currently sixth in the California League with a .315 batting average.

"He knows how to hit," Fuson said. "He's had a tremendous first half. We took him knowing that he'd be an offensive second baseman and a polished one. He's cooled off a little but a month ago he had ungodly numbers. He's a guy that we'd think about moving [up] in the second half."

Shane Spencer, Lake Elsinore's hitting coach, said that Sogard tries to keep everything simple and isn't up there looking to hit home runs.

"You couldn't ask for anything more from a guy in his first full season," Spencer said.