Tagged: prospects

AFL 10.15.15 Salt River at Peoria

Notable Performances:

— Jason Garcia, the 16th ranked prospect in the Orioles organization, impressed with a strong start. The right-hander threw two scoreless innings, allowed one hit and struck out five.

Garcia got some good experience after making his Major League debut this season and is hoping to build on that in the Fall League.

— Rowdy Tellez is a bit of a free swinger – he struck out three times Thursday – but he’s still fun to watch hit. The Blue Jays’ prospect had both a two-run single and a two-run homer in Thursday’s game and has eight RBIs in his first two AFL games.

— Nationals prospect Chris Bostick was the star of the game with two go-ahead homers. The former 44th round pick got a lot of carry on the first home run, but the second was a no-doubter. Read more about him here.

— Reds No. 11 prospect Phillip Ervin came through with a game-tying RBI double in the seventh and showed good range in centerfield.

AFL Opening Day: Mesa Solar Sox at Glendale Desert Dogs 10/13/15

The 2015 Arizona Fall League is officially underway and in addition to the articles I will be writing for mlb.com and mlbpipeline.com, I’m going to be adding some additional tidbits to the blog. These will be trends/players/plays that stood out, but that didn’t make it into any articles for one reason or another. This will also be a spot where I answer questions sent to me that I don’t get to on Twitter.

Notable Performances:

– Chad Pinder, Athletics No. 7 prospect, hit a pair of homers and finished 3-for-5 with four RBIs. Oakland’s organizational hitting prospect of the year and the Texas League Player of the year hit 15 homers this season and neither of his homers were cheapies. Wednesday was a strong start to the Arizona Fall League for Pinder as he hit the ball hard all afternoon.

– Dodgers No. 24 prospect Kyle Farmer didn’t show a lot of power during the year, so it was a bit surprising to see him pop one over the 380’ sign in left-center. Farmer also had a walk-off single. You can read more about him here.

Best Play:

– Renato Nunez, the sixth ranked prospect in the A’s organization, is still developing as a defender, but showed some flash in the second inning. Nunez, playing third, dove to his left and made a great stop on a hard-hit ground ball, but then rushed and made an errant throw across the diamond.

Nunez redeemed himself a bit in the fifth as he had to back up to field a big hop behind the bag and made the long throw with ease.

Worth Mentioning:

– Phillies 16th ranked prospect Andrew Knapp was named Philadelphia’s organizational hitting prospect of the year and showed why with a booming double off the left-center field wall.

– Brian Holmes, selected in the 13th round of the 2012 Draft by the Astros, isn’t on the club’s top-prospect list, but flashed some potential in his two innings of work. The left-hander struck out 115 batters in 101.1 innings this year so he has strikeout stuff, but struggled a bit with command in his two scoreless innings Tuesday.

– Phillies top prospect J.P. Crawford went 1-for-4 and wasn’t all that impressive at the plate, but made a few athletics plays defensively. Pretty easy to see what all the hype is about.

– Corey Black, the No. 18 prospect in the Cubs organization had 101 strikeouts in 86 innings of AA this season so it’s obvious he has the stuff necessary to put hitters away. Black threw one inning Wednesday and struck out a pair.

What a year for top prospects

Admittedly in the past I haven’t paid much attention to prospects so I’m not going to try to compare those making their Major League debuts in the first half of 2015 to what may have happened in any previous years.

What I am going to do, is simply say, wow.

In regards to prospects and rookies, the first two and a half months of the baseball season have been spectacular.

Joc Pederson (he played 18 games in 2014, but is still considered a rookie) is on a tear in Los Angeles, Kris Bryant and Addison Russell have performed well in Chicago, Joey Gallo nearly hit for the cycle in his debut and that’s just the beginning.

Noah Syndergaard, Carlos Correa and Carlos Rondon have also debuted, while Byron Buxton and Francisco Lindor are set to get on the field Sunday.

While that’s already an impressive list of prospects, it doesn’t even include those that came to MLB internationally such as Jung Ho Kang, whom the Pirates signed from Korea and Yasmany Tomas, who the Arizona D-backs signed as a free agent out of Cuba.

Oh and don’t forget Giants right-hander Chris Heston who threw a no-hitter last week.

The amount of top prospects that have already been called up this season is remarkable and assuming they remain in the Majors and play at – or at least close to – expectations, it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch all these youngsters develop.