Padres turn to colleges in draft.

Byline: From Register-Guard and News Service Reports

The San Diego Padres went for pitching early and entirely for college players in its 20 selections in the professional baseball draft Tuesday, making it likely that many of those choices will stock the roster of the Eugene Emeralds for this summer's Northwest League season.

`I think all of those main guys will be here, provided they're signed,' said Bob Beban, president of the Emeralds.

The parent Padres have `always sent us their top college players,' Beban added, and that's likely to be especially true of pitchers coming out of college.

`They'll want them to pitch in this league rather than Idaho Falls (of the Rookie League), and it's been San Diego's practice to not rush those guys' to a higher level.

The Padres' pick in the first round, the fourth selection overall, was right-handed pitcher Tim Stauffer of Richmond. The 6-foot-2 Stauffer was 9-5 with a 1.97 ERA and 146 strikeouts in 114 innings this season.

San Diego followed that selection with two players still competing in the NCAA tournament, North Carolina left-handed pitcher Daniel Moore in the second round and North Carolina State catcher Colt Morton in the third round. The 6-6 Moore was 7-2 with a 3.39 ERA this season while the 6-5, 225-pound Morton hit .267 with 19 home runs and was named most valuable player of last weekend's NCAA regional won by the Wolfpack, with Morton hitting three home runs.

Of San Diego's 20 selections Tuesday, half were pitchers. Among the position players taken by the Padres was Nevada-Las Vegas first baseman Fernando Valenzuela, the son of the former major-league pitcher of the same name. The younger Valenzuela batted .337 for UNLV this season, with 14 homers, 20 doubles and 75 RBIs in 63 games.

While any of the players drafted Tuesday - or today as the selection process continues - will be in Eugene only if signed by the Padres and assigned to the Class A team, the Emeralds could end up with one of San Diego's top selections last spring, first baseman Michael Johnson of Clemson.

Johnson was taken in the second round by the Padres last year, but didn't accept a contract offer from San Diego and returned for his senior season of college baseball. Johnson hit .341 with 11 homers and 48 RBIs this spring, numbers down from the .384 he batted in 2002 with 25 homers and 81 RBIs.

Johnson and the Padres came to a contract agreement over the weekend after Clemson's season was concluded, which kept Johnson from going back into the draft pool.

Delmon Young, a power-hitting high school outfielder from California, was taken by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays with the No. 1 pick in Tuesday's draft. The brother of Detroit Tigers infielder/outfielder Dmitri Young hit .544 with seven home runs and 28 RBIs this season for Camarillo High School.

With the second pick, Milwaukee selected Southern University second baseman Rickie Weeks. Detroit took Wake Forest right-handed pitcher Kyle Sleeth with the third pick. Three high school pitchers from the state of Oregon and two college outfielders with Oregon connections were also taken in Tuesday's 20 rounds of selections.

The prep pitchers chosen were Central's Jordan Pratt, in the fifth round by the Los Angeles Dodgers; Franklin's Jeff Pry in the 17th round by Cleveland; and Newberg's Dallas Buck in the 19th round by Pittsburgh.

University of Portland right fielder Kory Casto went to Montreal in the third round and Oregon State's Seth Pietsch was taken by the New York Mets in the eighth round.