SAN DIEGO -- The Padres drafted a Georgia peach Tuesday.

Here's hoping he's really an apple who does fall far from the tree.

The fruits of the Padres' bounty won't be realized for years. What we do know is Georgia prep star Donavan Tate was their first pick, going third overall in baseball's amateur draft.

Great move: the Padres went for the best player available with the biggest upside. And they did it knowing that uber agent Scott Boras is advising Tate.

Great move: the Padres went with a versatile athlete who can run the bases, hit with power and cover their vast center field like fertilizer.

But Tate comes with more red flags than a stormy day at Carlsbad State Beach.

Back, quickly, to the apple and the tree.

Tate's dad, Lars, was a running back at the University of Georgia and in the NFL.

Tate signed a letter of intent to be a University of North Carolina quarterback.

But his signature came before becoming a top three selection, which some speculate is worth an estimated $6 million.

Even for someone attending Cartersville High, that's a lot of peanuts.

So that makes the football/baseball dilemma a moot point?

"It doesn't," Tate said, and if you heard the Padres' brass swallow hard your hearing is keen. "It just makes it a bigger decision for me and my family to make as far as North Carolina or actually coming to get started with the Padres."

Tate notes that his father isn't a big part of his life. The verdict Tate reaches will come after consultation with his mother, other family members, and of course, big, bad Boras.

Boras is a name that sends shivers down the Padres' back. He was one of the reasons they selected Matt Bush with the No. 1 overall pick in 2004.

Unlike higher-regarded stars Stephen Drew and Jered Weaver, Bush wasn't represented by Boras. Five years later, Weaver and Drew are established major leaguers, while Bush is easily the biggest bust in Padres' draft history, sent to the Blue Jays last offseason after another run-in with the law. Now 23, he's out of the game.

So are the Padres out of their mind in tabbing someone who might as easily be wearing a Tar Heel logo as a Swinging Friar?

"We have done a lot of work; I hope the work we have done has been worth it," said Grady Fuson, the Padres' vice president of scouting and player development. "Everyone to a man up here believes this guy wants to be a baseball player. He certainly has gone high enough in the draft where just the money alone should be worth it to start his professional career."

The Padres have to know -- somehow, some way, through some backwater assurance -- that Tate is smitten with San Diego. And not because a steakhouse called Donovan's is a block from Petco Park.

The Padres, even more so than under outgoing owner John Moores, are hanging their competitive hat on player development and ignoring pricey free agents.

Incoming owner Jeff Moorad seems to be endorsing the model the Minnesota Twins and Oakland Athletics have used to build contending teams -- draft well, develop like mad and when players get good and want to be paid accordingly peddle them for cheaper prospects. See Jake Peavy.

But that template is weaker than the Padres' average with runners in scoring position if the team can't sign a top pick like Tate.

"You never know when you take a player," Padres general manager Kevin Towers said. "From everything we gathered, from an information standpoint, baseball is this guy's love, more so than football."

While it's not mentioned among Tate's five tools, he has something that might trump all his skills -- leverage.

This isn't a college kid whose eligibility is up, bluffing his way into a solid contract with few options.

While it doesn't pay as well for Tate -- immediately -- football is more than a passing fancy.

Tate sounds like someone with football running through his veins, if not his bloodlines.

"Playing quarterback," he responded when asked about his passion for the pigskin. "Just being out there in control of the team and kind of being a leader, being the example for everyone and just competing with my teammates."

He mentioned being wowed by a living-room conversation with North Carolina coach Butch Davis and his plans of transforming the Tar Heels into a smoking hot team. Tate was intrigued when Davistold him "what he was working toward up there, a national championship."

"It felt like something I really wanted t o be a part of," Tate said.

Uh-oh.

Tate considered North Carolina, USC and Alabama to play baseball and football.

He landed with North Carolina because of Davis.

"His visit made my decision," Tate said.

But the big one -- Padres, Tar Heels, Tar Heels, Padres -- fills the horizon.