San Diego Padres: Logan Allen Matches Up With Baseball’s Best

While the focus in San Antonio has been on Fernando Tatis, Jr and Austin Allen, there’s a San Diego Padres pitching prospect demanding your attention with his performance.

The San Diego Padres have found an early hit with Joey Lucchesi. Eric Lauer has flashed an ability to stick in the San Diego rotation, however, he is clearly still figuring things out. Unfortunately, Walker Lockett didn’t work out too well in his major league debut. Point being, the Padres are still searching for pitching help from within the organization.

San Antonio Missions’ LHP Logan Allen has clearly become the one pitching prospect who is on the doorsteps of making his major league debut. This is a lot easier said than done, considering the roster adjustments that would have to be made if the Padres wanted to bring him up this season. Regardless, the purpose of this piece isn’t to plea for a Logan Allen callup but to simply highlight his brilliant dominance in the Texas League.

Allen may be the top piece of the 2015 trade that sent Craig Kimbrel to Boston in exchange for Manuel Margot, Allen, Carlos Asuaje, and Javy Guerra.

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On Wednesday night, Allen and the Missions took on the Midland RockHounds, who sent the 31st ranked prospect in all of baseball, Jesus Luzardo to the mound.

Luzardo did as he always does, striking out eight hitters over five innings. He gave up just three hits against a lineup featuring Austin Allen and Tatis, among other hot-hitting Missions.

However, Logan Allen went toe-to-toe with his opponent. Allen tossed seven shutout innings, allowing only four hits and one walk while striking out four. Of his 100 pitches, 70 were strikes. That is now back-to-back performances in which Allen has pitched seven shutout innings.

For the year, Allen is 8-2 with a 2.93 ERA. He’s logged 80 strikeouts (27%) in 73.2 innings, working a 1.17 WHIP along the way. Since making the jump from Lake Elsinore to San Antonio, Allen has increased his strikeout rate and done a tremendous job of keeping hitters off the bases, allowing opponents to hit just .211 against him.

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Some evaluators believe Allen is a better pro-prospect than Joey Lucchesi or Eric Lauer. If that’s the case, enjoy the rest of the season in San Antonio, Allen. We’ll see you in the starting rotation next season.