Logan Alum Makes Professional Baseball Debut This Week

Roberto Padilla knows he’s in for a challenge.

When the Union City native takes the mound later this week for his professional debut, there won’t be any easy outs. Everyone the 21-year-old will be playing with and against is just like him—stars of their former amateur baseball teams who have to prove themselves all over again in the minor leagues.

“It’s the same game, but everyone plays a lot better,” Padilla said, comparing college and minor league baseball. An opponent’s “no. 9 hitter is like a Division 1 (college team’s) no. 3 hitter. You can’t take it easy on any batter.”

On Thursday, the former and Ohlone College star is expected to be the starting pitcher for the Tri-City Dust Devils, the short-season minor league affiliate of the Colorado Rockies that plays in Pasco, Wash.

The Rockies, who are a National League West division rival of the San Francisco Giants, drafted Padilla in the eighth round of last month’s Major League Baseball draft.

Major league organizations have six levels of minor league teams, which they use to develop young players to play for the parent club. Short-season is the lowest of the six levels, and it is generally where newly drafted players such as Padilla get their feet wet in professional ball.

Padilla, a left-handed pitcher, starred at three different school levels in the Bay Area, including this past season at San Jose State University.

While the professional game is a greater challenge than what Padilla has ever faced, San Jose assistant coach Jeff Pritchard said Padilla has the drive and ability to transition well to the next level.

“He’s a relentless competitor,” Pritchard said. “You pretty much have to drag him off the mound to take him out of game.”

Padilla graduated from James Logan High School in 2008, after twice earning second-team all-Mission Valley Athletic League honors.

While he was a talented high school player, Padilla’s abilities blossomed at Ohlone College, where he led all California junior college pitchers with 15 wins in 2010 and was named the state’s pitcher of the year. He helped lead Ohlone to the state championship that year.

The Arizona Diamondbacks drafted Padilla in the 23rd round after his impressive junior college performance, but he decided to transfer to San Jose State instead of accepting the opportunity to play professionally.

“I was trying to get better as a player and try to play at the highest level before pro ball,” Padilla said.

Opting to play a season of division 1 college baseball proved to be a wise decision. Padilla continued to improve as a player while facing some of the best college baseball teams in the country. That included UCLA, which was ranked second in the nation at the time Padilla pitched San Jose State to victory over the Pac-10 powerhouse.

“It was one of the exciting parts of the season,” Padilla said of beating UCLA.

Padilla earned All-Western Athletic Conference during his one season with San Jose State, during which he led the Spartans with 9 wins, a 3.19 earned run average and 81 strikeouts in 98-2/3 innings.

And he improved his draft position by 15 rounds over the previous year’s draft.

Pritchard said Padilla has improved at every level so far. He expects that trend to continue now that Padilla is in the pros.

“He’s learned something from every level he’s been at, and I really expect him to take off at the pro level,” Pritchard said. “All the kid wants to do is play baseball. I really think the Colorado Rockies are going to benefit from this kid’s passion for the game.”