NWL notes: Timing is right for Padlo

It takes something special to make a name for yourself in professional sports, something more than skill alone. In the case of Boise third baseman Kevin Padlo, the 14th-rated prospect in the Colorado Rockies organization, that logic was no exception.

For Padlo, it wasn't just his ability that took him from baseball's shadows and put him in the spotlight. It was timing.

Through his first 25 games in the Northwest League, it's been Padlo's offensive production that has drawn the attention of scouts, coaches and fans alike. But despite what his gaudy .315 batting average might suggest, his 2015 season didn't have a promising start.

Padlo opened the season at the Class A level with the Asheville Tourists after batting .300 over 48 games in rookie ball last year. After amassing just 12 hits in 83 at-bats through his first 27 games, he was sent back to extended spring training.

"It was good competition and I felt like my swing wasn't all the way there, and my timing was a little bit off the entire time," Padlo said.

Once at extended, Padlo spent nearly a month dissecting his swing. The one thing he put the most emphasis on? His timing at the plate.

"The coaches told me that my mechanics were fine and that I've gotten to where I am for a reason, I just needed to get on time with the ball," Padlo said. "That's pretty much what I kept in the back of my brain. I just tried really hard to focus on the timing."

That emphasis paid off; Padlo was back on time in no time.

After a 3-for-15 start at the plate with Boise, Padlo broke out in a big way against Tri-City on June 20. He finished that game 2-for-4 with a walk and three runs batted in.

"Whenever you can get two hits in a ballgame, it's always huge and is always a big confidence booster," Padlo said. "Being able to do that really helped me out."

Since that night, Padlo has had his way in the NWL. He recorded a hit in 17 of his next 22 games, eight of which were multi-hit efforts.

Padlo, who turned 19 on July 15, has plenty to feel good about. Through his birthday (25 games), he ranks sixth in the NWL in average and is tied for second with 13 stolen bases.

"I feel really locked in at the plate and my timing feels on, so things are going well right now," Padlo said.

Ironically enough, it was timing that placed him on baseball's radar in the first place. And though the name "Kevin Padlo" currently gets the baseball world talking, it was virtually unknown just two years ago.

"I didn't have very many college offers and wasn't committed anywhere the summer going into my senior year," Padlo recalled.

That changed in no time at all. During the Area Code games that summer, Padlo performed, and the scouts began to take notice.

"I squared up a bunch of balls and hit a couple of them hard, which is what [scouts] were looking for," he said. "Then, my senior year, there were a bunch of scouts at every game. It all happened really fast."

All of that attention culminated in the Rockies selecting Padlo in the fifth round of the 2014 Draft. But for Padlo, it wasn't that he suddenly got better prior to his senior year of high school but that he was finally seen.

"Honestly it was a lot of timing because nobody was coming out to watch me when I'd been hitting over .300 [his first two seasons on varsity]," the Murrieta Valley High School standout from Southern California said. "Then all of the sudden I had a couple of good [Area Code] games in front of a couple of important people and then everybody was there."

It's uncertain how Padlo was so irrelevant for so long, but one thing is clear: he's undergoing a substantial transition and having a great time doing so.

"It's a lot seeing that you can be at a place where not many people in baseball know you, to all of a sudden being all over newspaper articles and the internet," Padlo said. "I'm not going to lie -- it's cool to see, and obviously you always dream of that kind of stuff. Things are working out."

In brief

Difficult to Reed: Hillsboro pitcher Cody Reed has carved up the Northwest League to the tune of a 3-1 record and a 1.65 ERA. But for Reed, it's looking beyond those numbers that puts the 2014 second-round Draft pick in a league of his own. Reed has notched at least eight strikeouts in three different starts this season, compiling a 33-to-8 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 27 1/3 innings. The 19-year-old southpaw has yielded just six hits and struck out 18 batters in 12 scoreless innings over his last two starts. He ranks second in the NWL in strikeouts, fifth in ERA, tied for fifth in wins and third in WHIP (0.91).

Frandy just dandy: July has been a month to remember thus far for Eugene shortstop Frandy Delarosa, as the 19-year-old has produced at least one hit in all but one of his 14 contests through June 15. Delarosa, who ranks ninth in the Northwest League with a .309 batting average, has seen his average rise 53 points from .256 to .309 since the start of July. Delarosa has gone 14-for-37 (.378) with five doubles and six runs scored over his past nine games (July 6-15). He also rolled off a 15-game hitting streak from June 26 to July 11.

Hot as lava: There is hot and then there is volcano hot, and right now, Salem-Keizer is latter. The Volcanoes (16-11) have won eight of their last 10 games -- including a current six-game winning streak (through July 15) -- to move into first place in the Northwest League South Division. During this strand of six consecutive victories, Salem-Keizer has averaged 7.2 runs per contest and outscored the opposition 43 to 19. The Volcanoes also traveled across the border and secured a five-game sweep of the Vancouver Canadians, marking their first five-game sweep over any opponent on the road since 2007.