Hitting is all about rhythm, the adage states, and early this season Cedric Hunter didn’t have it.

The Padres center fielder, who led the minors with 186 hits last season, finished April with a meager .195/.253/.247 batting line for Double-A San Antonio.

"His rhythm wasn’t there. He wasn’t squaring up the ball as well as he normally does," Padres VP of scouting and player development Grady Fuson said. "He showed signs of coming out of it in spring training camp—for five or six games he was OK.

"But when the season started he just kind of crashed and burned."

No more. Hunter, 21, has collected a hit in nine of 11 games this month and has gone 9-for-21 during his active five-game hitting streak. He’s batting .341/.375/.432 in 44 May at-bats, as the lefthanded hitter continues to show incredible bat control. Hunter has just nine strikeouts in 121 at-bats this season, or just seven percent of the total.

Partner In Crime

Luis Durango, Hunter’s partner in crime atop the Missions’ lineup and in center field, is an easy player to overlook. If it’s not his diminutive stature (he’s listed at 5-foot-9 and 155 pounds), then it’s the career .397 slugging percentage he carried into this season. But as Durango continues to perform as he moves up the minor league ladder, he’s becoming more difficult to ignore.

The Padres agree. They added the 23-year-old to the 40-man roster in the offseason.

After going 3-for-5 as Team Panama’s starting left fielder in the World Baseball Classic this spring, Durango has hit the ground running in Double-A. Despite having just 17 game of experience in high Class A last year, the speedy switch-hitter is batting .366/.439/.390 for the Missions, ranking sixth in the Texas League in average and first with 17 stolen bases (in 22 attempts).

Durango has come a long way since signing in 2003 as a 17-year-old. He spent his first two seasons in the Venezuelan Summer League, but he’s performed since the day he started playing in the U.S. in 2006.

"He’s small, but he’s always been able to fly," Fuson said. "He never really had any power. And early in his career, his instincts were short on bases and defensively—but he always had that knack for putting the ball in play and running like hell."

Let’s review Durango’s credentials. He won batting titles in his first two seasons in the States, batting .378 in the Rookie-level Arizona League in ’06 and then .367 in the short-season Northwest League in ’07. For good measure, he won MVP honors in the NWL. In the low Class A Midwest League last year, Durango slumped all the way to fourth in the batting race at .305.

"He has made major strides on all instinctive parts of game," Fuson said." He gets better jumps and leads in the outfield and stealing bases. A year or two ago, he’d be 50-50 at best on the bases. He’s really figuring things out.

"He’s just a guy who makes things happen now that he’s a threat at getting on base and a threat on the bases. We make sure he sees plenty of time out in center field—even though Ced’s more of our everyday guy out there. Durango has to play center too because he has a much better profile when he does."

Big Arms Promoted To Big Leagues

Taken 28 picks apart in the 2006 draft, the Royals’ Luke Hochevar (first overall) and the Red Sox’s Daniel Bard (28th) both received callups Sunday. For Hochevar, it’s his third trip to big leagues, while Bard will be making his debut. Both had been dominating Triple-A competition prior to their promotions.

Bard, 23, wowed onlookers this spring with easy high-90s velocity, even hitting 100 mph on at least one spring training radar gun. Pitching for Pawtucket, he converted six of seven saves and posted a 1.13 ERA in 16 innings. Of the 58 batters to oppose Bard, 29 struck out (50 percent) and five walked (nine percent).

While Bard generates good movement on his heater and throws strikes with it, he doesn’t always have a reliable second pitch. His low-80s slider is effective mostly because it keeps batters off balance when looking for the fastball.

The 25-year-old Hochevar went 5-0, 0.90 for Omaha and leaves the Pacific Coast League as its leader in ERA, wins and innings (40). He’s went 6-13, 5.21 in 26 big league games (23 starts) in 2007-08, but he was showing strong command of his low-90s sinker and improved 74-78 mph curve and 83-86 mph slider this spring.

Smells Like Team Spirit

We focus most of our attention on individual performers during the minor league season, ignoring the fine (and not so fine) work done by minor league teams. So for a different perspective, we present the top seven and bottom seven minor league clubs through games of Monday, May 11.

Why seven teams? It may not be as comforting to us as numbers ending in five or 10, but this way we encompass all the teams playing at the extremes. That is, all the clubs with .700 (or better) winning percentages are included, as are all clubs at .300 (or worse). Each farm club’s top prospect is included to give character to the teams.