Minor League Ball Gameday, Oct 17: Arizona Fall League

Good day prospecters. Let's dive right into all the action from last night.

Standings

Game Recaps

The early game was between powerhouse Mesa and Peoria, with Mesa coming out on top for their sixth win by the score of 3-1. The scoring started in the first, with Japhet Amador singling in Chris Taylor for a 1-0 lead. Mesa did their damage in the 6th inning with Steven Souza hitting a two run single followed by a Max Muncy sacrifice fly to make it 3-1 in favor of Mesa. Peoria starter Matt Heidenreich barely topped 90 but still managed to keep Mesa to just one hit in three innings, with three walks and four strike outs. Malcom Culver took the loss after getting hit around in his second inning of work. He finished with two hits and two walks allowed, three earned runs and no strike outs. Tommy Collier took the bump for Mesa and gave them three innings with a run allowed, four hits, and three strike outs without a walk. Jeff Urlaub came in after and gave them two scoreless innings, allowing a pair of hits, a walk and two punch outs for the win. Mike Morin, Richie Mirowski, and RJ Alvarez all pitched perfect innings with a strike out, while Lendy Castillo threw the 9th inning, allowing two hits and a strike out getting the save.

Game two was between Scottsdale and Surprise, with the Scorpions taking it home 2-1. Surprise struck first, starting the game off with three consecutive singles by Tyler Naquin, Joe Wendle, and the RBI single from Garin Cecchini off Kyle Crick. Crick would settle down, only allowing one more hit, two walks and he struck out five in three innings of work. Scottsdale came back to tie it in the 3rd inning with a run scoring fielder's choice to second base by Tommy La Stella off starter Eduardo Rodriguez. Fellow Braves farmhand Kyle Kubitza came into score after leading off the inning with a single up the middle. They went ahead for good in the 6th inning with Kevin Shackelford in to pitch. Jarret Parker singled to left with one out then advanced to second base on a balk with Andrew Susac at the plate. Susac struck out and with Parker on second, Aderlin Rodriguez singled to left, driving in Parker with the go ahead run. The Saguaros were shut down by the Scottsdale pen with Tyler Waldron coming in after Crick and throwing three near perfect innings with one strike out, no hits, runs or walks and a hit batsmen. James Pazos shined in his one inning of work, striking out two of the three batters he faced. Surprise did have a few solid bullpen performances as well, with Noe Ramirez throwing a scoreless 8th with a hit allowed and a strike out, and David Goforth getting two of three batters faced to strike out in the 9th.

In game 3, Glendale outslugged Salt River by a score of 8-6. Salt River drew first blood, scoring a pair in the top of the 4th inning. A run scoring ground out by Todd Glaesmann, and a sacrifice fly from Richie Shaffer put them up 2-0. Glendale responded with a two-run double off the bat of Max Kepler, a run scoring ground out from Pratt Maynard, and an error by Mike Freeman allowed Kepler to score, bringing it to 4-2 in favor of Glendale. All of the scoring was off starter Grayson Garvin. Garvin was pulled in favor of Merrill Kelly in the 5th when Brian Cavazos-Galvez singled in a run. Now down by three, Salt River came back in the top half of the next inning and came back with a run scoring double play ball hit by Freeman and a home run off the bat of Dustin Garneau to bring it within one. The Desert Dogs got a pair of insurance runs from a two-run home run from Maynard, putting the score at 7-4 and the Rafters in a hole they couldn't escape. Glendale tacked on another run that inning when Byron Buxton walked, stole second and advanced to third on a bad throw. This set up fellow Twin Eddie Rosario for a sacrifice fly. Back to back triples by Kyle Parker and Stephen Piscotty added a run for Salt River and a sac fly from James Ramsey added another but that would be all the scoring. Grayson Garvin went four innings, allowing four hits, four runs (3 earned), three walks and four strike outs. Opposing starter Andrew Heaney wasn't as sharp this time around, surrendering two runs on four hits in 3.2 innings with a pair of walks and strike outs. Southpaw Lee Stoppelman threw 1.1 scoreless innings for Salt River with a hit and walk allowed to go with a strike out and righty Marcus Stroman threw a scoreless 9th with a strike out. Drew Hayes got the win for Glendale by going 1.1 innings, allowing a pair of walks and strike outs with no hits or runs scoring. Edgar Olmos and Nick Wittgren also threw scoreless innings. Olmos allowed a walk and struck a batter out while Wittgren got the save and struck out two of the three batters he faced.

Probable Starters

Scottsdale (RHP Hansel Robles - NYM) at Surprise (RHP Will Roberts - CLE) - 3:35 PM EST

Glendale (RHP Stephen McCray - CWS) at Salt River (RHP Aaron Sanchez - TOR) - 9:35 PM EST

Peoria (RHP Johnny Barbato - SD) at Mesa (LHP Matt Purke - WAS) - 9:35 PM EST

Links

****Over at Baseball America, Josh Norris looked at the starters from the Glendale-Salt River game and the Scottsdale-Surprise match up, with video on each of the four starters.

****For those with the secret password to get behind the paywall, they also debuted a series titled AFL Scout's View. They profiled Garin Cecchini of the Red Sox, including grades and write ups on all tools.

****Back to the free stuff, Carson Cistulli from FanGraphs is back with another SCOUT leaderboard. He also looks at projections of what would happen if Kris Bryant's strikeout rate took a nose dive but with the same walk rate and home run rate on contact.

****Larry Granillo from BaseballNation looked at the worst twitter handles for MLB players. The list ranges from Jason Grilli (@GrillCheese49) to Derek Holland (@dutch_oven45). If you're not familiar with Holland's handle, do not look it up. Trust me on this one.