FanPost

Prospect Michael Kelly Impressive for Emeralds

Michael Kelly pitched 6 shutout innings Wednesday night in a start for the Eugene Emeralds, the Padres Single A Short Season affiliate. He allowed 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 6. He was locked in a pitchers duel with Giants prospect Jose Reyes. Kelly pitched one more inning than Reyes and Kelly gave up one fewer hit, but the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes broke through for 2 runs against Wilson Santos in the 7th inning and the Emeralds fell to the Volcanoes 2-1.

Kelly was the Padres' 3rd draft choice in the 2011 draft class. This is the same class that brought the Padres Joe Ross, Kevin Quackenbush, and Matt Wisler. Kelly turns 22 next month.

Kelly’s fastball was impressive, touching 94 mph on the stadium radar gun, and it showed late movement missing many a batter’s swing. He showed an excellent secondary pitch in a curve ball around 79-80 mph. His best inning was the 4th when he showed some real moxy. Kelly walked the first batter of the inning, and then K’d the Volcanoes' 3, 4, and 5 hitters. 43 of Kelly’s 61 pitches were strikes (60.6%), a percentage that needs to improve.

Kelly needs to develop a better cadence to his delivery because when he gets too fast he works under the baseball which causes his pitches to elevate in the strike zone. This produced some deep fly ball outs on Wednesday night and would probably be hit even harder at higher levels of competition. Kelly’s stuff is excellent, and Padres fans should expect great things from Kelly once he develops more consistency in his delivery.

Austin Bousfield, the Padres’ 5th pick from the 2014 draft, led off the bottom of the ninth with a bloop hit and took second when the ball was misplayed by the Volcanoes. But the Emeralds could not get that tying run across. Nick Torres (4th pick 2014) left the tying run 90 feet away with a fly ball to second base.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Gaslamp Ball community and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Gaslamp Ball staff or SB Nation.