Tony Santillan took the mound on Thursday night against the Great Lakes Loons. The 20-year-old had made four starts in April to that point. He had been solid, but unspectacular. Over 18.0 innings he had a 4.00 ERA with 18 strikeouts. On the flip side, he walked 12 batters in that span as he struggled to find consistency with the strikezone.
Taking on the Loons on Thursday night, Tony Santillan tossed 5.0 shutout innings. The righty allowed just two hits, walked two batters and he struck out six. Leading 9-0, it was a short outing for Santillan, who was removed after just 78 pitches.
Statistically, the game was good. Tony Santillan didn’t allow a run over 5.0 innings. He only allowed four base runners. Six outs were recorded on ground balls and two were in the air. All positive signs. But, what did he actually look like in the start? If you watched the video above, you’ve already got a good idea.
Tony Santillan Scouting Report
Fastball | On this particular night the righty was sitting 95-97 with his fastball, overmatching many of the hitters. He was able to work with the pitch at both the top and bottom of the zone.
Slider | His slider showed up as a plus pitch throughout the night, though at times it wasn’t quite as sharp. It worked in the mid-80’s, topping out at 87 MPH.
Change Up | The change up has always been his third offering, and it still was on the night. With that said, the pitch looked better than I’ve seen it before. You can see a very good example of the pitch at the 2:00 mark in the video above. It showed good sinking and arm-side running action to it.
The right hander is still working on finding his consistency from game-to-game. The team has worked on several things with him since last year. They have continued to work on cleaning up his delivery. They have tried to get him to slow things down a little bit (not his pitches).
I spoke with a scout over the weekend who had seen the start on Thursday and saw the Dragons a few times this season. He told me that he believed that Tony Santillan was the best prospect on the team. That’s high praise with a roster full of quality prospects.