With the Padres' offensive woes, the fans are screaming for the promotion of Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo is tearing up AAA-Tucson. I thought it would be appropriate to look at other highly touted first base prospects, other than Anthony, who have been promoted -- including the situation each player was in before they were promoted to the highest level (MLB) and how they have faired since.

The Atlanta Braves' Freddie Freeman, another highly touted first base prospect, had 149 AB's at AA and 461 AB's at AAA for a total of 1580 Ab's. Freeman has yet to produce on an elite level with the big league club on a competitive team, as he did in the minors. He is showing signs of his prospect talent, but as one of the more highly regarded prospects comes the question brought on by his early struggles; is he being rushed? Over four minor league seasons his overall line was impressive (.319 .378 .521). This year at the MLB level, Freeman is batting (.238 .333 .417) 6 2B, 3 HR's, 8 RBI's in 84 AB's thus far.

The New York Mets' Ike Davis came up in 2011, and in contrast, only had 207 AB's in AA and 33 AB's in AAA before being called upon; contributing to his total of 677 AB's in the minors. However, Davis did not come up to New York in a push or in order to turn around the offense. He also had David Wright in the same lineup. Over three season in the minors, his overall line was (288 .371 .467). Last year after being promoted, he batted (.264 .351 .440) with 33 2B, 1 3B, 19 HR's 71 RBI's in 523 AB's. This year he is batting (.352 .427. 602) with 8 2B, 1 3B, 4 HR's 19 RBI's in 88 AB's.

The Seattle Mariners' Justin Smoak went through the minors very quickly as well. However, many of those AB's were on the higher levels. He had 380 AB's in AAA and 183 AB's in AA in his 625 total ABs; the rest coming between rookie and A ball. His overall minor league line was (.288 .404 .466) over three seasons. When Smoak came up last year, the Texas Rangers, a team who would eventually go on to the World Series, were in a much different situation. He had also shown signs of his star potential, however, he was traded to bring in former Cy Young award winner Cliff Lee. It should be noted that although he went from a bandbox in Arlington, to Seattle Safeceo field, he faired more favorably in the second half with a team that was nowhere near in contention, in a much more difficult park to hit the baseball in. Last year, Smoak batted (.209 .316 .353) with 8 HR's, 10 2B, 34 RBI's in 235 AB's before being dealt to Seattle. With Seattle he batted (.239 .287 .407) with 4 2B, 5 HR's 14 RBI's in 113 AB's. This year, with more time under his belt, he is flourishing thus far, batting (.303 .413 .576) with 6 2B, 4 HR's, 15 RBI's in 66 AB's.

The San Francisco Giants' Brandon Belt had 269 AB's at A, 175 at AA and only 48 AB's to close the year at AAA. Belt's overall line in just over a season in the minors is (.354 .459 .630). Upon promotion this year before being reassigned to AAA, he only batted (.192 .300 .269) with 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI's in only 52 AB's. Brandon Belt's hype steamrolled him through the minors, and accompanied by great Spring Training  actually landed him the starting first base job by default because of the injury to Cody Ross, although it has been said that some internally were strongly considering promoting him regardless. Obviously he did not fair as well as the Giants had hoped early on and was eventually demoted to get Aubry Huff out of the outfield and Ross off the DL. However, he had shown signs of All-Star potential. Belt had only one season of pro baseball before being called upon; we can expect that he will be back very soon.

Now to our own Padres' Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo is dominating with his first taste in AAA, hitting (.420 .495 .765) with 7 2B, 7 HR's, 28 RBI's in 81 Ab's. Rizzo has 414 AB's in AA, 81 in AAA and 1,161 total minor league AB's. His overall minor league line over 5 seasons, with very limited time in 07-08, is (.294 .364.489).

Many Padre fans are screaming for the prospect that came over in the Adrian Gonzalez trade, who was pegged (by most) as the successor to Adrian Gonzalez. While he has persevered beating cancer and shows great leadership qualities while not showing any signs of feeling the pressure, he has yet to show what he can do on the MLB level. Having said that, is it smart to promote him in hopes he can help improve the Padres current offensive woes regardless of how dominating he looks in the minors? The Padres did say that bringing him up, or as some would refer to as "starting his clock", will have nothing to do with money. Are the Padres one bat away from competing? If they did promote him, would that say that the Padres are conceding the season or truly pushing to turn things around?

Here is where I have a problem with it -- if you bring him up now, not only are you expecting him to help the team turn the proverbial corner offensively, which realistically is a long shot, but he would be in a similar situation to that of Adrian was, in the fact that he will have no protection. No protection for an unproven player, no less. Is that really a smart move to put on a player that is going to "replace" Adrian Gonzalez? Now, some of the other aforementioned players came up on teams that were not contending and produced favorably. I believe the safest way to protect the future of our players and their progression is to let them season. If the Padres fall far out of contention, they will be in a better situation to see how much he has seasoned and matured; and how their promising players fare in the minor league parks for a better evaluation... how do they fare against certain match-ups, against left handed pitching specifically. Rizzo, being a left handed hitter, will be another Padres' first baseman that once again will have to produce in the most extreme pitchers' park in baseball that hinders all offensive production. While I see a very bright future for the monstrous young man, let's let this kid keep swinging in and develop in time. Fans expect such prospects to come up and dominate they way they did in the minors, rarely does that happen right away, even with the most-hyped prospects.