San Diego Padres: Down On The Farm With Patino And Quantrill

The San Diego Padres have a number of pitching prospects who are dominating down on the farm.

Earlier this week, we highlighted the outstanding pitching performances of San Antonio Missions LHP Logan Allen after he outdueled Jesus Luzardo, one of the top pitching prospects in all of Major League Baseball. Allen isn’t the only San Diego Padres prospect currently dominating on the mound.

Before the 2018 season launched, a number of national writers believed that Cal Quantrill would become the first major Padres’ prospect to reach Petco Park. Quantrill, currently with the San Antonio Missions, came out of the gates hot to start his 2018 campaign.

Through his first three starts, Quantrill had worked 14.2 innings and had only given up one earned run. Outside of some shaky command (nine walks), Quantrill was doing a fantastic job of limited base hits (.180 opponent’s average) and showing the Padres’ front office that he was fully recovered from Tommy John surgery and ready to be unleashed.

Then, his next six starts happened. In three of his next six starts, Quantrill failed to pitch past the fifth inning, giving up five or more runs in each start.

Serious doubt began to creep in the minds of fans across social media. Were we watching the demise of one of our top #HotTalentLava prospects?

Quantrill answered that question with a resounding, no. After back-to-back five-plus inning, one run efforts against the Tulsa Drillers, Quantrill settled in for the best start of his season.

On the road against the Springfield Cardinals, Quantrill tossed seven shutout innings, giving up just three hits in the process. He struck out a season-high 10 hitters and walked only one.

Luis Patino is on quite the streak in Fort Wayne.

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After spending last season in the Dominican Summer League and the Arizona League, 18-year-old Luis Patino is quickly making a name for himself with the Fort Wayne TinCaps. Since giving up seven earned runs in three-plus innings on May 22nd, Patino has yet to surrender a run in his last three starts.

Here’s how his previous three starts stack up:

• 5 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
• 4 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K
• 5 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K

Tremendous work out of the young man from Colombia. I asked a fellow MiLB-crazed writer who watched Patino in his last start about how he looked and received an initial response of “these Padres arms just keep growing like weeds.” She later told me that Patino repeated to throw his fastball at 95 mph, well into his final inning.

Next: Five Most Intriguing Padres Draft Picks In 2018

In what is hopefully more encouraging news for the San Diego Padres, top prospect MacKenzie Gore is set to return to action. He has missed most of the 2018 season with blisters.