Future Friars: Vince Faison

Vince Faison, the Padres' first-round pick in 1999, is slowly learning to put his tremendous athletic ability to use on the baseball field. However, he still is very raw and needs a lot of polishing in most areas of his game. He could be Ray Lankford, he could be Todd Dunwoody. Most likely he'll end up somewhere between the two.

The left-handed-hitting Faison, courted away from a football scholarship at the University of Georgia, is extremely aggressive at the plate, swinging early and often. When he connects, he can hit the ball a long way. Unfortunately he doesn't connect very often. Offensively, the big leaguers he most reminds me of are guys like Terrance Long, Al Martin, and Michael Tucker. But he's got a lot of work to do before he reaches their levels.

Faison has excellent speed, though obviously his poor on-base skills hinder his ability to use it. Defensively he covers a fair amount of ground and possesses an average arm. Faison, returned to Class-A Ft. Wayne after a miserable 2000 season with the Midwest League club, started the season slowly, hitting just .200/.302/.257. Despite his struggles, the Padres promoted Faison to Lake Elsinore, where he got off to a 6-for-57 start. Since then, he's hit .298 to raise his overall numbers to .220/.284/.426: still not great, but at least approaching respectability.

The good news is, he's driving the ball again. The bad news is, his strikeout-to-walk ratio is 54-to-12 in just 141 at-bats. Faison's talent is obvious from watching him play. Just as obvious from the numbers is the need for him to learn how to use that talent. Bear in mind that he's only 20 years old. With a kid like Sean Burroughs in the organization, it's sometimes hard to remember that this is how most prospects develop.

Faison will be moved along slowly, and I expect to see him competing for a big-league job sometime toward the end of 2004. If he can tighten up his plate discipline, there's no reason he can't become a productive #6 type hitter in the Long/Martin/Tucker mold. He's got a lot of work to do but there's plenty of time, and he's playing for an organization that can afford to be patient with him.

For more on Faison, check out this article from the Savannah Morning News.