Jeff Chiu/AP Photo

San Diego Padres' San Francisco Giants' in the inning of a spring baseball game in Scottsdale, Ariz., Wednesday, March 12, 2008.

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Chase Headley is doing all he can to convince the San Diego Padres he is worthy of a roster spot when regular-season play opens.

The way the former Tennessee Vol is swinging a bat this spring, the only question remaining is whether the rookie will be the Padres' starting left fielder March 31 when San Diego opens against the Houston Astros at Petco Park in San Diego.

"All I can do is come out every day and work to try to get better and, hopefully, make it a tough decision for them at the end of the spring," Headley said.

Veterans Jim Edmonds and Brian Giles are locks in center field and right field, respectively, if they don't start the season on the disabled list. Edmonds has a strained right calf muscle and Giles missed most of the spring because of offseason surgery on his knee.

Manager Bud Black can choose among Headley, Scott Hairston and Paul McAnulty to play left. Jody Gerut, Jeff DaVanon and Chip Ambres are non-roster invitees in the mix.

Before the Padres left for China for a pair of exhibition games against the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend, Headley, who remained in Arizona, was hitting .412 with three home runs and a major league-high 12 RBIs.

The 23-year-old switch hitter from Fountain, Colo., who was drafted in the second round in 2005 by San Diego as a third baseman, put himself in position to challenge for a big league job by being chosen Texas League (Class AA) Player of the Year in 2007. He batted .330 with 38 doubles, 20 homers and 78 RBIs in 121 games with the San Antonio Missions.

Headley got his first taste of the majors last season. He batted .222 in eight games but seemed destined to be in the shadow of third baseman Kevin Kousmanoff.

The Padres, who are looking for more offense to support one of the National League's best pitching staff's headed by Cy Young winner Jake Peavy, decided to move Headley to the outfield.

"They let me know in November it was a possibility," he said. "I went out to San Diego for two weeks in January."

Headley shagged fly balls off a machine and then accepted a daily diet of fungoes. But the experiment wouldn't be complete until Black evaluated Headley's play in exhibition games.

"The biggest help obviously is just playing," he said. "You got to get out there and see live reps. That's the only way."

Headley has filled out his 6-foot-2 frame to a muscular 230 pounds. He is athletic and made the transition to the outfield a relatively smooth one.

"I'm comfortable considering I've only been out there a couple of weeks," he said. "Every single day I feel I'm getting better."

Bright sunny skies and 30 mph wind can make playing the outfield an adventure for anyone let alone the inexperienced Headley.

"Mistakes are going to happen," he said. "There haven't been any huge mistakes. There was a ball that would have been a tough play that I didn't get the best read on and it fell in for a hit."

Headley usually gets an acceptable jump on balls and routinely hits his cutoff man.

"Nothing that has been just outrageous," he said, smiling. "Balls I can get to I'll catch. That's pretty much all you can ask for right now."

Make no mistake, it's Headley's powerful bat that has put him in this position.

He crushed a couple of impressive 400-foot home runs this spring. He pinch hit against the Chicago Cubs last Thursday and drove a ball more than 400 feet that Chicago center field Sam Fuld ran down. That towering blast would have been a home run in most major league ballparks.

Headley can turn on the best of fastballs. Last week he teed off on a heater from hard-throwing San Francisco starter Tim Lincecum and ripped a three-run double in the first inning.

"You don't want to see too many pitches from him," Headley said. "You get one to hit, you have to hit it. You get deep in the count, you're in trouble."

Bass Sighting: Former Tennessee Smokies right-hander Adam Bass (2005), who spent last season in Japan, is trying to make the pitching staff.

The 6-foot-6 Bass was leading the Pacific Coast League (Class AAA) with a 2.16 earned-run average last season before he bolted.

"It was a huge blessing, a chance to make some money and go to a country I might never have gone to and experience another culture," he said.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.