Andrew Painter K’s 13 Consecutive Hitters In Another Dominant Performance
Phillies #3 prospect and 2021 1st round pick Andrew Painter, continued his dominance with A-Clearwater this weekend striking out 13 straight hitters.
At this point, we are sort of becoming obsessed with Andrew Painter at TheLibertyLine.com. If you haven’t been keeping up with Low-A baseball the Phillies —and I don’t blame you— the 19-year-old pitcher had been outstanding through his first two starts.
In his professional debut, Painter struck out nine batters in only three innings of work. A week later he was equally as impressive, striking out another seven batters and allowing no runs against the Port St. Lucie Mets.
So when the news broke yesterday that Painter had fanned fourteen Tampa Tarpons over 5 innings including thirteen consecutive hitters, I was once again astonished.
5.0 IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 14K
Even more impressive considering Andrew Painter is doing this with only two pitches. Using only his fastball, which averaged 97.8 mph and a slider in the mid-80’s, Painter threw 50 of his 70 pitches for strikes, including 20 swing and misses.
Andrew Painter has now struck out an impressive 30 hitters in only 12 innings of work over three starts in Clearwater.
Once again, finding any video of Painter pitching is extremely difficult. Last week the video from Clearwater was full of buffering and almost impossible to watch. This week, it appears like the Thresher’s media department just gave up.
What are you doing Thresher’s? You have a guy making headline news! You should have multiple cameras ready for people to digest each of his starts.
At least we were able to get a post-game interview with the budding star.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but have the Phillies drafted the next Kerry Wood?
Teams are generally extremely conservative with young pitchers. One could reasonably expect the Phillies to cap Andrew Painter’s innings at around 100 this season.
Keep in mind, that Phillies #1 prospect Mick Abel has only thrown 55 innings in his professional career since being drafted in the first round in the 2020 MLB Draft. Admittedly, Abel dealt with injuries last season that limited his availability, but development outside of competition is just as big of a part of the overall process in getting a teenager prepared for the major leagues.
Speaking of Mick Abel, he was also excellent this weekend for the High-A Jersey Shore BlueClaws in a 4-2 victory.
5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K
We’re at least a few years away from Painter and Abel sharing the mound at Citizens Bank Park, but for a team that has failed to develop high level prospects over the last decade, watching the last first round draft picks is extremely promising.
Mandatory Credit: Clearwater Thresher's
