MLB Prospect Watch: How Padres rookies C.J. Abrams and MacKenzie Gore are performing within the large leagues

MLB Prospect Watch: How Padres rookies C.J. Abrams and MacKenzie Gore are performing in the big leagues

The San Diego Padres haven’t got star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., however they do have a strong document after the primary three weeks of the Main League Baseball season. What’s extra is the Padres have two rookies with recognizable names, in lefty MacKenzie Gore and shortstop C.J. Abrams, who’re the themes of this week’s Prospect Watch. 

Gore, 23, has began 3 times and has compiled a 1.76 ERA (205 ERA+) and a 3.33 strikeout-to-walk ratio whereas averaging simply over 5 innings per pop. It is price noting that two of these three appearances got here towards the lowly Cincinnati Reds, so he hasn’t confronted steep competitors. Nonetheless, Gore has gone by way of the wringer lately, together with a rumored bout with the yips that delayed his arrival and impressed uncertainty that prompted him to be left off some prospect lists (ours included), so it has been heartening to see him take pleasure in some early success on the highest stage.

Gore has relied upon his fastball to this point, throwing it greater than 60 p.c of the time. He is sat within the mid-90s with it, touching as excessive as 98.5 mph. In actuality, his heater performs sooner than these numbers point out due to his almost seven ft of extension — that’s, the space from the rubber to his launch level. His launch level, or, not less than, his excessive arm slot, issues in one other sense, too, because it creates a flat airplane to the highest of the zone that disorients batters. Issue within the pitch’s pure rise (and slight arm-side motion), and Gore’s fastball is safely above common.

When Gore has required a change in speeds, he is turned to a pair of breaking balls, in his signature curveball and slider. (A few of his pitches have additionally deviated into a 3rd cluster that is in-between the 2.) We’ll begin with the curveball because it, alongside along with his supply, used to earn him comparisons to Clayton Kershaw.

Gore’s curve nonetheless bears some similarities to Kershaw’s. For our cash, although, essentially the most smart comparability is to Patrick Sandoval, a special Los Angeles-based lefty with a equally vertical-based curve. That is as a result of each Gore and Sandoval throw their curves about seven miles per hour tougher than Kershaw does nowadays. Anyway, you do not care about any of that; simply know that it is a fairly pitch.

For as aesthetically pleasing as Gore’s curveball is — and a 12-to-6 curveball is among the truest beauties of the game — his slider has been a more practical pitch in-games. We’re overgeneralizing right here, however the purpose of any given pitch is to get a strike or to get an out. Gore’s curve is not constantly getting strikes, both trying or swinging, and it is not attractive hitters to swing and put it into play. He is doing higher in these respects with the slider, so we now have no alternative however to present it the nod in the interim.

An idealized future model of Gore would have him dropping his curve within the zone extra constantly, thereby stealing strikes and organising plus counts for him to wreak havoc in by utilizing elevated fastballs or buried sliders. Whether or not or not he ascends to that stage anytime quickly is to be seen, however there isn’t any sense betting towards him after what he is prevailed towards during the last couple years.

Abrams’ preliminary publicity to The Present hasn’t been as type. He is struggled by way of his first 13 video games, batting .132/.233/.237 (44 OPS+) with too many chases and whiffs and too few well-struck balls for anybody’s consolation. (Heck, he entered Thursday with extra pop-ups than line drives.) Abrams’ woes, although irritating for Padres followers hoping for fast manufacturing to help a playoff chase, are comprehensible. He is solely 21 years outdated, and he missed most of final season after fracturing his leg and tearing his MCL in a collision with a teammate. Even now, together with his big-league stint, he has fewer than 60 profession video games at or above the Double-A stage. 

The Padres nonetheless felt adequate about Abrams — and/or unhealthy sufficient about Ha-Seong Kim — to roll the cube with him as a part of their try to switch Tatis. Regardless of the actual motivation and their confidence stage behind that transfer, his introduction to the majors has supplied the occasional brilliant spot.

Abrams has appeared the half at shortstop defensively, to the extent that you could perceive why scouts have speculated that when he was prepared San Diego would transfer Tatis to the outfield. He is additionally proven off his spectacular velocity right here and there, going one-for-two on steals (the caught stealing noticed him beat the throw simply solely to get tagged on an overslide) and turning this grounder right into a hustle double:

The bigger context behind Abrams’ scuffles makes it exhausting to learn an excessive amount of into his begin. In addition to, that is somebody who evaluators believed may develop right into a well-above-average hitter getting into the spring due to his really feel for the barrel and the zone and to his budding energy potential. It is tempting to overanalyze given the pattern measurement — and, frankly, the poor outcomes — however resist the urge, resist the urge.


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