CINCINNATI -- Jose Pirela insists power has always been part of his game. Thing is, power isn't worth much when he's pounding the ball into the ground. So Pirela -- once a notorious ground-ball hitter -- needed to make a change.
At the start of the Triple-A season, he did just that. Pirela began to tweak his swing, with the help of El Paso manager Rod Barajas and hitting coach Morgan Burkhart. Two months later, he received a big league callup. And two months after that, he's anchoring the Padres' lineup, slugging better than he has at any level in the past.