Draft Day Not A Favorite Friar Memory

The San Diego Padres enter today's amateur draft with history on their side. But it's not good history. It's more like the kind that the phrase about learning or repeating was made up to address.If you need a reminder of exactly what I might be talking about, well... Matt Bush has a court date today. Remember Matt Bush? The first overall pick in the draft? A move that just about everyone not employed by the Padres believes was motivated by a desire to avoid anyone represented by Scott Boras? He was supposed to playing shortstop at Petco by now. Instead, he is entering a plea bargain. Meanwhile, one of the prospects that San Diego passed up on that year, Stephen Drew, just left San Diego with his Arizona Diamondback teammates.How about Mike Ivie? Of course, that's ancient history and at least he made the majors. Okay, how about Kevin Nicholson, Mark Phillips and Vince Faison? More recently, taking the "safe route" after college pitching even seems to be a Friar stumbling block.Sure, it would be nice to have SDSU's Stephen Strasburg, but even if the Nationals were that stupid, he would get snatched up at number two and the pads are number three. Too bad. It would have been great to see him stay in town.But the Padres are going to have a shot at some exciting players and all the talk out of the front office seems to indicate that it is time to take a bit of a risk again. Donovan Tate, considered by many to be the premier position player in this draft, is likely to be available. The problem is that the Padres don't want to waste a high pick on a guy likely to go to college and Tate has signed a letter of intent to play QB at North Carolina. If for some reason the Seattle mariners pass on Dustin Ackley, who is coming out of college and doesn't have that leverage, expect the padres to snatch him instead.If Strasburg and Ackley go 1-2, as most expect... then the question needs to be asked. Take a chance on a Boras client that can skip to college for a year or more? Or go for one that has already done the college thing? USC shortstop Grant Green fits an organizational need. It wouldn't be shocking to see them go in that direction.