Andrew Painter dominates in 3rd start at Double-A Reading
On Saturday, Phillies top-prospect Andrew Painter continued his dominant season in the minors by striking out 9 hitters over 7 innings and allowing only 1 earned run in the Fightin Phils 3-1 win over the Hartford Yard Goats.
Probably the most important detail to take away from this game is that Painter is now pitching extremely deep into games for a teenager. The 7 innings from Painter, tied a career high for his longest start. Impressive considering he was doing it against a playoff caliber Yard Goats (71-53) team that includes 2020 1st round pick and #24 overall prospect Zac Veen.
It is also important to consider that Veen, who is considered young for AA ball, is actually more than a year older than Painter. On average, Painter’s teammates and opponents are 3 to 4 years older than him.
Painter, who issued no walks while striking out 9 hitters, had his fastball buzzing consistently in the mid-90s and as high as 98mph. The tall right hander also featured a number of effective off-speed pitches including a slider, curveball and changeup. Of his 92 total pitches Painter threw 69 strikes and forced 11 Yard Goats into ground ball outs.
As you are probably aware of by now, Painter is the best Phillies pitching prospect since Aaron Nola and in the age of social media will most likely end up as the most anticipated prospect in team history. The exciting part is that none of the buzz surrounding the Phillies 2021 1st round pick is manufactured hype. He is actually going out there and dominating guys who are much older and have a ton more professional experience.
Altogether over 3 levels of baseball in 2022, Painter has logged 94.2 innings over 20 starts while putting up an elite 1.24 ERA. He has been so dominant of late that people are actually comparing him to Nolan Ryan.
Now, I never actually saw Nolan Ryan pitch, but from everything I hear he was a pretty good pitcher who also liked to fight and smoke cigarettes.
With the Phillies recent rash of injuries, and a number of terrible starting pitching performances, would it be crazy to think about calling up Andrew Painter? Probably, but everyone is at least thinking about it right now. I know I cant be the only one..
Mandatory Photo Credit: MLB.com
