Down on the Farm: August 18- Morejon, Quantrill & Lauer All Pitch
Cal Quantrill– RHP, Double-A, San Antonio Missions
3.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R (3 ER), 2 BB, 4 K
With just a few weeks left in the season, it appears the Padres are finally starting to more fully manage some of their top prospects’ innings. Coming off Tommy John surgery, which caused him to miss nearly two full seasons, right-hander Cal Quantrill is now just over 100 innings and the Padres look to be slowing his innings down a bit. He didn’t pitch particularly well on Friday night, although that didn’t seem to play into him being pulled in the fourth inning after just 70 pitches. Quantrill hasn’t been overly impressive since seeing a promotion to Double-A, although that could be due more to fatigue than any sort of mechanical issues. Even so, it has been an overall successful year for Quantrill in his first full professional season.
Eric Lauer– LHP, Double-A, San Antonio Missions
4 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Another guy that appears to be reaching his inning threshold is left-hander Eric Lauer, who is now at just over 110 innings split between High-A and Double-A. The Missions have been going with a six-man rotation for the last month or so, but now it appears they are piggybacking starters in order to limit both innings and pitches. For Lauer, it was one of his shorter outings of the season, as he threw just 69 pitches. Despite lacking the pedigree of Quantrill, Lauer has been on par with Quantrill since both were promoted to Double-A earlier in the summer. Lauer still has some work to do to be more than just a backend starter, but he seems to have the floor of a big league-caliber starter in the future.
Michael Gettys– CF, High-A, Lake Elsinore Storm
2-4, 1 2B, 1 SB, 2 K
I will forever be the conductor of the Michael Gettys train. No matter how much he struggles, or how much he strikes out, I will always root wholeheartedly for Gettys, who may just be the toolsiest player in the entire Padres’ organization. When Gettys is on, he is on. With power, contact, speed, defense, throwing arm, Gettys truly has the makings of a five-tool player. However, the 21-year-old is still hitting just .259 with a 36 percent strikeout in his second season in the California League. The potential is certainly still there, and he will be given every chance to succeed, but there’s just so much work to do for Gettys to even be a viable big league player in any capacity.
Fernando Tatis Jr.- SS, Low-A, Fort Wayne TinCaps
1-3, 1 2B, 3 BB, 1 SB, 3 R, 2 RBI
Have I mentioned that Fernando Tatis Jr. is impressive? It’s even more impressive that he’s an 18-year-old doing this in Low-A ball. Going into Friday night’s game, Tatis not only had a walk rate just shy of 14 percent, which puts Tatis all by himself at the top of the Midwest League, but he has also cut his strikeout rate into the low 20s on the season. On top of that, Tatis has rated as one of the faster players in the Midwest League by Fangraphs’ speed metric, and also on top of the league with a .240 ISO. So not only is Tatis walking a lot, but he’s also running the bases well, as evidenced by his 28 stolen bases, and hitting for a lot of power (he sits second in the league with 21 home runs). At this point, it appears there isn’t anything Tatis can’t do, as his defense and arm are just icing on the cake at the end of the day.
Hudson Potts– 3B, Low-A, Fort Wayne TinCaps
3-3, 1 HR, 1 BB, 3 RBI, 4 R,
It must be really hard to be Hudson Potts. It’s already hard enough that he’s an 18-year-old trying to adjust to a life in professional baseball. But on top of that, Potts is living in the shadow of the likes of Tatis, Jorge Ona, Michel Baez, Adrian Morejon, Pedro Avila, and others. However, Potts has been fairly impressive in his own right as of late. Over the last 10 days, Potts is slashing .324/.359/.568 with two long balls. Those numbers aren’t off the charts, but those numbers are quite a step above Potts’ rest of season numbers, as he has been sitting at a batting average just above .200 for most of the year. He’s no Tatis, but Potts could be a heck of a ball player in his own right if he continues to make important strides at the plate.
Adrian Morejon- LHP, Low-A, Fort Wayne TinCaps
2 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 2 K
This was probably the worst start of Morejon’s career. After coming into the game with a 48/8 K/BB rate in just over 50 innings between short season ball and Low-A, Morejon increased his walk total for the season by a full 50 percent in one night. It was pretty clear from early on that Morejon lacked the command of his pitches that he has had throughout his short professional career so far. This type of outing is obviously not fun to watch, but Morejon still has all the talent in the world to be a big league starter someday.
Andres Munoz– RHP, Short Season, Tri-City Dust Devils
1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Listed at 6’2” with a fastball that reaches over 100 mph, it’s hard to complain about right-hander Andres Munoz. However, no matter how hard Munoz may throw, the command is nowhere near where it needs to be for the righty to make it into a big league bullpen someday. He has made some progress as the season has gone on, but his 17 percent walk rate sort of takes away from his impressive 31 percent strikeout rate. All this means that if Munoz can cut his walk rate in half, he could end up being a very formidable bullpen piece long-term for the Padres.
Sam Keating- RHP, AZL Padres
3 IP, 6 H, 4 R (3 ER), 0 BB, 2 K
Sure, it’s been just over 11 innings for Sam Keating so far since joining the Padres following his fourth round selection in the 2017 MLB Draft. But those innings have been a disaster, as Keating has given up 25 hits and 17 runs, 14 of those earned, with a fairly unimpressive strikeout to walk ratio. At this point, it’s impossible to write off a high school kid playing professional baseball for the first time, but it’s certainly frustrating.
Dulio Ochoa- RHP, AZL Padres 2
6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Yordi Francisco– RF, DSL Padres
2-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 R
Editorial and Prospect Writer for East Village Times. Twenty-five years young, Patrick has lived in San Diego for his entire life and has been a Padres fan nearly as long. Patrick lives for baseball and is always looking to learn new things about the game he loves through advanced stats.