FOB Top Prospects – #31 Johnny Barbato

Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Johnny Barbato (RHP)

6’2″ – 185 lbs.

DOB: 7/11/1992

2013 Stats: 5.01 ERA, 9.1 K/9, 3.38 BB/9, 3.69 FIP (A – Lake Elsinore)

Twitter: @johnny_barbato

The one word for Barbato is consistency. As in, Johnny Barbato needs to show some consistency if he is going to continue to be a top prospect in the Padres organization. Last season’s stats in the California League were not too impressive. He does strike out a lot of batters so, that’s a plus. In five starts for the Peoria Javelinas just last month, Barbato had a 5.79 ERA with 11 K’s and 6 BB’s in 14 IP. When you look back at Barbato’s 2013 season pitching for the Storm you can see the inconsistency in the game logs. Every three starts, Barbato would give up very few runs, usually none. Then he would have two or three starts giving up three or more. Usually the games with no runs would have 5-7 K’s. The other games would often have one or two. Barbato is only 21 years old. There is only one way to find consistency with your pitching and that is to pitch a lot. If Barbato continues to work on hitting the mitt with the fastball and having his big sweeping curve consistently drop across the plate, he has the potential to be a very good reliever for the Padres in a few years.

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