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| Photo Credit: Shari Sommerfeld-MiLB.com |
After taking Jesus Luzardo in round three, I wrote that before picking Luzardo, that I had three pitchers to decide from at that pick.
One of the three was selected a few picks later as Franklin Perez of the Tigers, formerly of the Astros, who traded him to Detroit in the Justin Verlander trade at the trade deadline.
However, the third pitcher was still available, so it didn't take me long to move in and select Adrian Morejon from the San Diego Padres system.
Morejon was signed by the Padres out of Cuba at 17 in July 2016 as the top international prospect available to an eleven million dollar bonus.
Morejon just turned 19 in February and last season at 18 split his season between short-season Tri-City and Low A Fort Wayne, which made him very young for the level.
Morejon's numbers weren't eye-popping in his 13 starts (Seven at Tri-City, Six at Fort Wayne) with a combined 3.86 ERA and 58 strikeouts in 63 innings, but considering he was just 18, they weren't that bad at all and showed promise against older competition.
Morejon throws the four-seam and two-seam fastball sits in the low 90's and can heat his best fastball to 95.
Again, with his age, he does have the potential to gain a little more hop on his fastball as he matures.
Morejon uses the curve and changeup as his choices to mix things up and the curve is considered to be a possible plus pitch in the future, so with four pitches, he could develop into a well-rounded pitcher and for now, doesn't have problems finding the strike zone with only 16 walks (Only three of those in the Northwest League) in 2017.
Watching the video at the bottom of the post, two things struck me- the first of which is the easy, effortless motion as the ball jumps out of his hand.
You always like to see a relaxed and refined delivery rather than an explosive one that takes more effort that looks violent visually.
The pitchers with composed mechanics tend to hold up better as far as durability and aren't as susceptible to shoulder or elbow injuries.
Morejon does have a few issues, some scouts think his body is a bit soft and that he'll need to work on conditioning a bit and some see him as more of a fourth or fifth starter in the big leagues.
However, I have seen some observers that believe Morejon could be a number two starter and maybe even a number one on a second-division squad, so with such a small sample size, who really knows what I and the Padres have in Morejon, but the upside seems pretty high, although he is far from a sure thing.
Morejon should return to Low A Fort Wayne to be part of what seems to be one of the more prospect-laden rotation in the country as the Padres are likely to send their first rounder from the 2017 draft MacKenzie Gore (First overall in our draft) there and could possibly return Michel Baez and Logan Allen there as well to start the season there, if not finish it there.
I'll be back soon with my final two picks of the draft as I couldn't decide which of the two players I wanted, so what do you do when you cannot decide?
You swing a trade and get them both!!!
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