Thompson Develops His Game With Quakes

Playing for a struggling organization that’s looking to cut costs and has an unsettled first-base situation on the major league level figures to be a good spot for a young upwardly mobile first baseman.

But you might not want to use Rancho Cucamonga first baseman Jason Thompson as a case in point. Thompson is holding up his part of the equation: he’s hitting .361 with 13 homers and 62 runs batted in for the Quakes, the San Diego Padres’ Class A affiliate.

The Padres sent down opening-day first baseman Dave Staton and are going with rookie Tim Hyers, but this is an organization desperate for some kind of winner . . . even if it’s in Rancho Cucamonga. So their motto this spring has been “Don’t Break Up the Quakes.”

“I think they put this team together for a reason and there was no question that they were going to leave it together for awhile,” Thompson said. “I think I’ve done my job and I can’t control what they’re going to do, but if they keep me here all year, that’s fine.

“There’s a big emphasis here. This is the only team in the Padres’ organization that’s winning. They want to win this championship, and so do I.”

The Quakes finished second behind the Riverside Pilots for the first-half championship of the California League’s Southern Division with a 43-25 record.

“I don’t know how we’ve kept him here this long, but I sure like having him around,” Manager Tim Flannery said. “Jason Thompson can play. He’s a guy we’re going to be watching on TV a few years from now.

“He’s got something you can’t teach. He really likes coming up with the game on the line. That’s when he does his best work, when the tying or winning runs are on base. And you’d be surprised how rare that is.”

But then Thompson’s is a unique case. His circuitous route to professional baseball was littered with more cul-de-sacs and apparent dead ends than a suburban housing tract.

He didn’t start for the Laguna Hills High varsity until he was a senior; he was cut from the USC team after a two-day tryout; he played well enough at Saddleback College to earn a partial scholarship at Pepperdine, but was told after one season he didn’t figure in the team’s plans, and finally, as a walk-on at Arizona, he hit .353 and was a Baseball Coaches Assn. second-team All-American in 1993.

He played in the outfield at Saddleback and Pepperdine and was a designated hitter at Arizona. At Spokane, the Padres’ Class A short-season team, Thompson became a first baseman.

“There’s nothing wrong with his abilities,” said Flannery, who also managed Thompson in Spokane, “he just hadn’t played there and it takes time. But he’s worked very, very hard.”

With Flannery’s help, Thompson has been able to apply the same approach to his fielding that has made him so successful with the bat.

“At first I really struggled,” he said. “I made a lot of mistakes. But during the off-season and early mini-camp, I did so much work there that I don’t really have to think about it anymore and I’ve developed an all-or-nothing attitude.

“You’re either going to do it, or you’re not. You can’t be afraid to make mistakes. I figure if I miss the ball, I miss the ball, but I’m going with my first instinct and hope all that hard works pays off. Do that and you start making fewer mistakes.”

Thompson, who once let a couple of bad days turn into an 0-for-31 slump in college, no longer can be shaken by a streak of bad hitting, or good pitching, or even bad luck.

“He’s got the perfect makeup,” Flannery said, “and he can hit left-handers as well as right-handers.”

Actually, the left-handed-hitting Thompson is batting .382 against left-handers.

“It never really made any difference to me,” Thompson said. “It’s just a confidence thing and I know I can hit. Last week, I struck out four times in one game, twice with the bases loaded and twice with guys on third, all with less than two outs. Four fly balls would have meant four RBIs.

“But the next day, I was over it and went three for four with a home run.”

Thompson, who passed over a couple of other young first basemen in the organization with a strong performance in spring training, says he felt a bit of pressure at the beginning of the year.

But six home runs in the first 15 games quickly took the edge off.

“I think Tim wanted me here but I’m not sure everyone did,” Thompson said. “But I started off so hot, that took all the pressure off and allowed me to just come out and play.”

He suffered from a slight case of long-ball-itis, but has since recovered.

“I thought the homers would just keep coming,” he said, smiling, “but after the first time around the league, they started pitching me differently. I started chasing balls out of the zone and wasn’t helping my cause. I’ve always had the ability to go the other way and I got away from it a little.”

“I think I’ll get my 20 homers a year, but the key for me is that I think I can hit .300 and still drive in 100 guys.”

If he reaches those goals, he figures to ascend through the minor league ranks on the express elevator. But Thompson says he’s learning from Flannery that there is more to success than inflated statistics.

“If it takes me to carry a team, I want to be in that situation,” he said, “but the key is to do whatever it takes to win. I’ve learned to take a key walk, to never give up an at-bat.

“Personal success looks so much better when it’s coupled with team success. If you play on a winner, you look like a winner.”

And the Padres can sure use one.

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Shake and bake: Thompson sat in the dugout of the Epicenter, the Quakes’ 6,100-seat, state-of-the-minor-league-art stadium and marveled at his luck. Sure, the temperature was in the 90s and hurt your lungs to take a real deep breath, but he’s seen the alternatives.

“Look at this, it’s so beautiful,” he said. “We just made a trip up to Stockton and Bakersfield, I guess that’s what A ball is supposed to be like. We’re really spoiled here. I mean this whole facility is like a triple-A or major-league ballpark.”

And it goes beyond grass that is green and showers that work. The Quakes set a California League attendance record last year with 331,005 fans, bettering the old mark by more than 110,000. This season, they’re on the pace to draw more than 400,000.

“It doesn’t take any effort to get ready to play hard for nine innings here,” Thompson said. “The other day in Bakersfield, I could hear guys talking all the way across the field. Here, you can’t even hear yourself think.

“Even the guys on the other teams can’t wait to come here and play.”