Short Shoves, Melendez Mashes, and Troy is Still Streaking
A pre-game 89 minute delay couldn’t stop Avery Short on Wednesday night. After only going .2 of an inning in his first crack at this Missions lineup, the Sod Poodles southpaw tossed 6.1 scoreless innings to set the tone for Amarillo, tying him with Roman Angelo for the deepest outing of the season for the team. Short struck out 4 Missions while giving up just 1 run/earned on 5 hits and 2 walks to pick up his first career Double-A victory. In a place that is usually a nightmare for flyball pitchers, Hodgetown has been kind to short so far with Short only allowing just 2 earned runs in 10.1 innnings at the hitter friendly park. Short outdueled Mission’s starter Henry Baez who would go 4.2 innings allowing 2 runs/earned, walking just 1 and striking out 7 Sod Poodles in the process.
Fresh off the injured-list Ivan Melendez wasted no time reminding the Hodgetown faithful exactly what he’s good at. He belted a solo shot to open the scoring off of Missions starter Baez. The former Texas Longhorn made his return to Amarillo after struggling last year with breaking balls last year. Melendez wasn’t the only Sod Poodle to get his first hit of the season on Wednesday, Manuel Pena collected his first 2 hits at Double-A with a single in the 3rd inning and crushing a triple off of Baez in the bottom of the 6th. Tommy Troy once again needed some late inning magic to extend his hitting streak, and he made his own luck by booming a fly ball to left field for his second home run of the season and pushing his streak to 13 games now.
While one streak was extended another one ended last night. Luke Albright had 6.2 innings of scoreless baseball, including keeping Short’s slate clean by ending the first inning that he saw without a run scoring. That ended when Fransisco Acuna took the Sod Poodle reliever deep to start the 8th inning. The solo shot was his 3rd of 2025 so far and cut the Amarillo lead to 4-2. The ninth wasn’t easy for Amarillo, Alfred Morillo replaced Albright following the latter’s 2 innings of 1-Run ball before giving the ball up. Morrillo would get back to back quick outs, but he would walk Joshua Mears and surrendering back-to-back singles to Kai Murphy and Fransisco Acuna. Morillo would eventually shut the door getting Brandon Valenzuela to ground out and ceal the victory for the home team and giving Morillo his first save of the season.
The Sod Poodles will be hunting for their third win in a row tomorrow against the Missions, throwing their best arm Spencer Giesting to attack that lineup. To quote the great fictional manager of the Cleveland Indians Lou Brown (Major League II) “OK, we won a game yesterday. If we win today, it’s called “two in a row”. And if we win again tomorrow, it’s called a ‘winning streak'”
EVT’s Diego Garcia on Braden Nett
0-2 / 1.64 ERA – 3.44 FIP / 11.0 IP / 17 K / 5 BB
Arguably the highest-upside pitching prospect in the entire Padres farm system, Braden Nett has made significant strides over the past season. Entering 2024, Nett was an arm with reliever risk written all over him. Now, Nett looks like an arm who could be a future ace. Nett has seen some of the largest season-to-season strides in development down on the farm. After struggling to put away left-handers in the AFL, Nett came back with an improved split-changeup and cutter, both of which sat in the mid-80s in terms of velocity. The changeup showed more arm side fade than in 2023, although it is still his least projectable offering, likely to be average at best. This may be rendered moot by the development of his cutter, which also sits in the mid-80s and has shown stronger swing-and-miss potential. Since its roots come from his already sharp slider, Nett’s cutter could be the offering to take his arsenal to the next level. The curveball is his secondary breaking pitch, and this offering showed an ability to confuse opposing batters. Coming from the same arm slot as his fastball and slider, there is plenty to like about the pitch. Even if the curve ends up as an average offering, it could be something that allows him to remain a starter. His bread and butter are the fastball and slider, both of which are some of the most electrifying in the San Diego system. Nett’s fastball sits in the mid-90s regularly, with the ability to top out at 99 mph, and yes, he was hitting high-90s in the later innings of his starts at times. The fastball carries an average of 18 inches of induced vertical break, which would rank as above-average to elite for an MLB starter. With plenty of sinking action from Nett’s three-quarter slot, Nett generates swings-and-misses at the top of the zone, which tunnels almost seamlessly with his mid-to-high 80s slider. The pitch has a hard version in the upper 80s and a more sweeping variation that averages 84 mph with significant horizontal movement. The slider has been the strongest pitch in his career, and seeing Nett flesh it out more in 2024 bodes well for his development. Nett faced Amarillo on Opening Weekend, throwing three innings and allowing two unearned runs. Sod Poodles batters struck out four times against him when both parties last met back on April 6.
Spencer Giesting
3-0 / 2.20 ERA – 2.94 FIP / 16.1 IP / 18 K / 6 BBÂ
The most impressive Sod Poodle so far this year, Giesting has lead the Sod Poodles to 3 victories in 3 starts this season. The southpaw has gone at least 5 innings in all of his outings this season, including 5 scoreless innings against the Missions on April 8. The Diamondbacks #18 prospect is just one strikeout behind the league leaders and that has been the result of great fastball placement and a really good slider that produced a 52% whiff rate in 2024. A good curveball, cutter, and a changeup finish up his arsenal with pinpoint control over all of them so far in 2025. Giesting has gotten himself in trouble at times this season, but has always worked his way out of it, including facing 7 batters with the bases loaded and getting every single one of them out. The Sod Poodles starter has allowed just 1 run before the sixth inning, and is holding opponent’s to just a single hit with runners in scoring position (.067). Giesting has consistently given Amarillo a shot to win against some of the best lineups in the Texas League, and will get another shot against the Missions tomorrow.
