Usually Player Profiles are one person affairs. This time, I’m changing things up. With two of the better young, right-handed, California centered arms in baseball looking at making their debuts, and because I’m hard at work updating the rankings for their May 1st update, I’m just gonna put Griffin Canning and Cal Quantrill together.
GRIFFIN CANNING
22 years old
Bats/Throws: Right/Right
Height/Weight: 6’1”, 180 lbs.
Position: Starting Pitcher
THE NUMBERS
|
|
Level |
IP |
W-L |
ERA |
WHIP |
K/9 |
BB/9 |
HR/9 |
K/BB |
|
2018 |
A+ |
8.2 |
0-0 |
0.00 |
0.81 |
12.5 |
3.1 |
0.00 |
4.00 |
|
2018 |
AA |
45.2 |
1-0 |
1.97 |
1.01 |
9.7 |
3.7 |
0.4 |
2.58 |
|
2018 |
AAA |
59.0 |
3-3 |
5.49 |
1.53 |
9.8 |
3.4 |
0.9 |
2.91 |
|
2019 |
AAA |
16.0 |
1-0 |
0.56 |
0.94 |
9.6 |
1.1 |
0.00 |
8.50 |
|
Career |
|
129.1 |
5-3 |
3.27 |
1.22 |
9.9 |
3.2 |
0.6 |
3.09 |
Griffin was a 2nd round draft pick in 2017. With questions about his workload, the Angels didn’t have him throw a professional pitch after the draft.
|
|
Baseball America |
Baseball Prospectus |
MLB.com |
|
2019 |
63rd |
56th |
63rd |
PRESEASON WRITE UP: More of a control pitcher than the dominant type like others on this list. He has a feel for pitching, hardly surprising given that his changeup is his best pitch. Polished, and the owner of a 4-pitch arsenal, he wasn’t allowed to throw a big-league pitch in 2017, his draft year, to protect his arm. Just 6’1” and 180 lbs., Canning made 25 starts last season over three levels (High-A, Double-A and Triple-A) though he threw a mere 113.1 innings. He surprisingly struck out 125 batters, but the 3.5 BB/9 rate might have been more surprising. He’s more of a high floor, low ceiling guy than the other way around.
Canning knows how to pitch, has a feel for it, and repeats his delivery time after time. In his Triple-A work this season, albeit a tiny sample size, he dominated the opponent. The real issue isn’t his pitchability, it’s the Angels willingness to let him pitch.
PLAYING TIME
Canning will start for the Angels Tuesday against the Blue Jays. However, it’s unclear what his role will be with the club in 2019. There are obvious concerns about his workload. After not being allowed to throw a pitch in 2017, Canning tossed just 104.2 innings last season and began the current campaign with a very close eye on his workload as he wasn’t allowed to throw more than 83 pitches in any of his first three outings. In fact, his first outing of 90 pitches was in the controlled environment of a simulated game. After that effort he was deemed ready for his callup. As to how many innings he has in his arm this season or how many pitches he will be allowed to throw in an outing in the short run, or for that matter how long his current promotion will last, we are operating in the dark.
CONCLUSION
Canning profiles as a third starter type at the big-league level. His steady approach, pitch mix, and delivery all suggest that he could have success early in his Angels career. However, as noted above, there are some pretty substantial questions about his workload this season, so be cautious with the addition of Canning. Much like Quantrill below, the outlook for starts/pitches/innings in the big leagues this season for Canning is a magical mystery tour right now. Think somewhere on the Jake Odorizzi to Kyle Gibson range.
*Note: I purchased Griffin Canning in both the SiriusXM Dynasty League and the 15-team Tout Wars Mixed league. The cost in Tout was $131 of $1,000 though no one else bid more than $78.
CAL QUANTRILL
24 years old
Bats/Throws: Right/Right
Height/Weight: 6’3”, 210 lbs.
Position: Starting Pitcher
THE NUMBERS
|
|
Level |
IP |
W-L |
ERA |
WHIP |
K/9 |
BB/9 |
HR/9 |
K/BB |
|
2016 |
RK, A |
37.0 |
0-5 |
5.11 |
1.27 |
11.2 |
1.9 |
0.2 |
5.75 |
|
2017 |
A+, AA |
116.0 |
7-10 |
3.80 |
1.47 |
8.5 |
3.1 |
0.8 |
2.75 |
|
2018 |
AA, AAA |
148.0 |
9-6 |
4.80 |
1.47 |
7.5 |
2.6 |
1.0 |
2.86 |
|
2019 |
AAA |
25.0 |
3-1 |
4.68 |
1.36 |
8.6 |
2.9 |
0.7 |
3.00 |
|
Career |
|
326.0 |
19-22 |
4.47 |
1.44 |
8.4 |
2.7 |
0.8 |
3.06 |
Cal was a 1st round draft pick in 2016.
|
|
Baseball America |
Baseball Prospectus |
MLB.com |
|
2017 |
96th |
45th |
97th |
|
2018 |
52nd |
48th |
40th |
PRESEASON WRITE UP: The results were disappointing last season, which when coupled with Tommy John surgery in 2016, leaves his prospect status heading downward. Cal went 9-6, but he posted a 4.80 ERA, a 1.47 WHIP and a 7.5 K/9 rate over 148 innings. Cal owns a large arsenal of four pitches while his fastball impresses. Still, his changeup is borderline elite, one of the best in all of the minors at any level, and it brings with it the prospect of significant success in the bigs. Scouts believe that if he can harness his stuff, find that touch on either the slider or the curveball, that when coupled with his fastball/change combo, could allow Quantrill to emerge. He has pedigree (his father was Paul Quantrill), size (6’3”, 210 lbs.) and that dynamic changeup going for him.
The strikeout rate dropped the last two seasons, and that’s a bit of a concern. The strikeouts are up a bit this year in five starts allowing him to post a 3.00 K/BB ratio who is nearly an identical match to his career mark, so he’s basically been the same guy we’ve seen. Another concern is the consistently elevated BABIP marks. In fact, at eight different stops over his four-season professional career the lowest BABIP he’s ever posted is .324. That really shouldn’t be possible given his overall stuff, yet there it is (here is a link to him talking about his stuff). At the same time his homer rate has increased as well, though it’s also worth pointing out that his ground ball rate has increased, it’s 49 percent in his 11 starts at Triple-A as he’s burying that changeup forcing the ball to be hit downward. That really should mitigate concerns about the homer pace increasing. There’s the matter of his work against left-handed batters which includes a .327 average this season and a .286 mark last season at Triple-A, and that is certainly something that he will need to tighten up to have success at the next level.
PLAYING TIME
Cal will be starting for the Padres on Wednesday according to reports. However, we don’t know at this point if it’s a spot start, if the Padres are planning to demote someone from the rotation, or if they are going to go with a 6-man rotation to protect a lot of young arms that simply don’t have big innings built up. As the article notes, both Matt Strahm and Chris Paddack are on “strict innings limits” as the Padres keep one eye on today, and one on the future. There’s also the fact that Pedro Avila made a spot-start earlier this season and then was demoted after the outing. It could be one-and-done for Quantrill, or he could make making the first of 20 starts the rest of the way. It’s a wide-open situation that we’re merely guessing at currently.
CONCLUSION
Adding Quantrill could become a cautionary tale. With the uncertainty about his role it’s best to be cautious with the free agent spending and who you drop to add the righty to your staff. In a mixed league scenario, I would suggest extreme caution. He profiles like a Tyler Anderson type of producer at the moment, of course, throwing with the other arm, and he profiles as a 4th starter at the big-league level with the potential to become a third.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday-Friday, 8-10 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). Follow Ray’s work on Twitter (@baseballguys) and be sure to listen to his podcast work too.
