San Diego Padres: Fernando Tatis Jr Erupts Against Former Team

The San Diego Padres split up their squad and played in two games yesterday. Fernando Tatis Jr proved unstoppable against his former team and a few rookie pitchers dominated on the mound.

The San Diego Padres split their split-squad games today, defeating the Chicago White Sox 7-6 and falling to the Oakland Athletics 12-4.

Let’s first recap the positives and take a look at why the Chicago front office has to be kicking themselves after trading away Fernando Tatis Jr for James Shields.

Fernando Tatis has a perfect day for the San Diego Padres.

The Padres pounded 10 hits in today’s game, four of those coming from Tatis. Tatis ended the day going 4-4 with five RBI’s. In the process, he collected his third double of the spring while raising his batting average to .381. The young man truly is a pleasure to watch. You would never guess he’s only 19-years-old with no major league experience by the way he carries himself off the field and his approach at the plate.

If Tatis continues to hit like this in the minors, which he should, the Padres will have to make an extremely tough decision very soon (bye Headley?).

Two young prospects who are in contention for immediate playing time are Franchy Cordero and Christian Villanueva. Cordero chipped in his fourth double, bringing him to within one of the league lead (Luis Urias leads the league with five). More importantly, he worked two walks.

Villanueva one-upped Cordero, drawing three walks in four at-bats on the day. If Villanueva can show the same patience at the plate and ability to hit major league pitchers later in spring, does he deserve a shot to start at third base? Without a doubt.

On the mound, Joey Lucchesi and Eric Lauer combined for four scoreless innings, one baserunner allowed, and five strikeouts. While the #HotTalentLava has been flowing offensively, the young starting pitchers in camp have struggled, so far. With so many veteran pitchers fighting for a roster spot, don’t expect to see the prospect pitchers up too much longer before being reassigned to minor league camp.

San Diego Padres (ss) fall to Oakland Athletics.

While the final box score wasn’t pretty, this Eric Hosmer opposite-field home run sure was.

https://www.twitter.com/Padres/status/970406887236583424

There was also this defensive stop by Freddy Galvis. Last season, this would have been a hit off Clayton Richard.

Carter Capps, coming off Tommy John and shoulder injuries is full of potential. He’s full of major league talent and is in desperate need of a break to go his way. His return to the mound was one to forget. Capps pitched one inning, gave up four hits (two home runs), and three earned runs.

As a whole, the pitching staff gave up five home runs to the A’s. Clayton Richard also gave up two, running his total up to three in just five spring innings.

Next: Breaking Down The Top 30 Padres Prospects

Some good news to leave you all with, the Padres return to TV tomorrow! San Diego will take on the Arizona Diamondbacks at 5:40 pm PT and fans can watch on Fox Sports San Diego or MLB.tv.