The San Diego Padres' primary prospect entering the season was Kruz Schookraft, but Kash Mayfield is turning heads.
The San Diego Padres went into the season without a lot of promising pitching prospects, with most of the attention focused on Kruz Schoolcraft as he starts his pro career. Schoolcraft has been struggling with his control, however, and now the Padres have a new pitching prospect who’s been getting attention, according to a report from Clark Fahrenhold of MLB com.
Left-hander Kash Mayfield has been tearing it up in High-A, and based the way he’s been pitching he’s not far from earning a promotion. His latest outing for Fort Wayne lowered his ERA this season to just 1.30 and his WHIP to 0.72, both of which lead the High-A Midwest League, according to Fahrenholt.
Feel good, play good is he operative mantra here based on Mayfield’s comments.
“We worked on a lot of stuff this offseason," Mayfield said, "and I’ve been feeling really good so far."
He’s also been striking out a lot of hitters. Mayfield has 43 K’s so far, and he’s fanned eight or more hitters in four outings this year, the writer added. His changeup has become a strikeout pitch that plays, mostly because he’s been able to throw it for strikes.
“I think the big key this season is keeping the changeup in zone," said Mayfield. "Last year in [Single-A] Lake Elsinore, I had a lot of chases on it, but I couldn’t get ahead with it. It was always a two-strike pitch. But now, I’m showing it early and letting everything else play off of it.”
Mayfield has also shown an uptick in velocity so far. He was in the low 90s, but know he’s getting up to 95 mph, which bodes well for his potential to be a future Padre.
“The fastball always plays well up in the zone,” said Mayfield. “I’ve been trying to go inside with it and play it off the changeup below the zone. I’ve added some body weight -- a lot of it in my lower half -- made some mechanical corrections and have started to see my velo jump up a little bit too.”
Strikeouts and velocity are only part of the story, however. Mayfield has held opposing hitters to a batting average of just .103, and he’s yielded just one home run.
Mayfield is just 21, and while his future isn’t now, it’s starting to look like it could be on the near horizon. Right now there are just five pitchers in the Double-A Texas League who are age 21 or under, according to the writer, and it’s starting to look like Mayfield could bring that number to an even half dozen.
