Two of baseball’s most intriguing young teams will square off again on Wednesday night, as the Braves host the Padres for the third game of their four game series.
The first two games resulted in a split, with both clubs putting their bright futures on full display. After seeing rookies Mike Soroka and Nick Margevicius battle it out on Monday night, and watching Padres rookie Chris Paddack flash brilliance in San Diego’s victory last night, the theme will continue this evening. Max Fried, a former Padres farmhand who is starting to garner national accolades for his early performance, will face exciting Padres prospect Cal Quantrill, who will be called up to make his first big league start.
Per MLB Pipeline, Quantrill is the Padres’ 12th ranked prospect.
As you might have gleaned from the name, Quantrill is the son of long-time big leaguer Paul Quantrill. Like Margevicius and Paddack before him, Quantrill will be the third Padres starter of the series to make his Major League debut in the last five weeks. For all of the hullabaloo about the Padres future because of their top-tier farm system, the future certainly appears to be now.
Fried hasn’t been as dominant in his two most recent starts as he was during the initial part of the season, but he has still been a revelation and currently stands as one of the Braves’ most valuable pitchers. He is currently tied with Mike Soroka for first among Braves pitchers in fWAR, at 0.6 (though Soroka has accumulated his through approximately half the innings).
This will be the first time Fried has ever faced the Padres, after having been the lynchpin of the trade that sent Justin Upton to San Diego in December 2014. The only two Padres batters he has ever faced are Manny Machado (0-for-3 with two walks and a strikeout when he was a Dodger) and Greg Garcia (1-for-2 when he was a Cardinal).
With this being his debut, Quantrill obviously has zero experience against the Braves. Atlanta’s offense hasn’t quite been itself for the past week or so, but they could potentially take advantage of any nerves that might invariably come with Quantrill’s inaugural MLB outing.
The first two nights of this series have been pitching clinics - stay tuned to see whether this game falls into the same category.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Wednesday, May 1, 7:20 p.m. ET
Location: SunTrust Park, Atlanta, Georgia
TV: Fox Sports Southeast
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan, Rock 100.5, Braves Radio Network, La Mejor 1600 / 1460 / 1130 AM
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