Thursday, October 13, 2011
Prospects in the Arizona Fall League
Posted by Josh Shepardson at 6:03amThe Arizona Fall League (AFL) has historically attracted some of baseball's best prospects, and this year once again has a number of notable prospects playing on each of the six teams—the Mesa Solar Sox, Peoria Javelinas, Phoenix Desert Dogs, Salt City Rafters, Scottsdale Scorpions and Surprise Saguaros.
Each team has prospects from five Major League organizations. In all, 18 players who appeared on the Top-100 Fantasy Baseball Prospect List that I recently compiled are playing in the AFL. Of those, 16 are hitters, while the two pitchers are the first two picks in this year's Rule IV (Amateur) Draft.
The team featuring the most players from our fantasy top 100 is the Scorpions with six. No team has played in more than eight games, so I'll hold off on referencing player stats until next week, when I'll begin highlighting the top performers. Below is a list of the Top-100 Fantasy Baseball Prospects participating in the AFL.
Rank| Player| Team| Position| Organization
1| Bryce Harper| Scottsdale Scorpions| OF|Washington Nationals
2| Mike Trout| Scottsdale Scorpions| OF| Los Angeles Angels
20| Nolan Arenado| Salt River Rafters| 3B| Colorado Rockies
21| Jean Segura| Scottsdale Scorpions| SS| Los Angeles Angels
28| Gerrit Cole| Mesa Solar Sox| SP| Pittsburgh Pirates
33| Michael Choice| Phoenix Desert Dogs| OF| Oakland A's
35| Jedd Gyorko| Peoria Javelinas| 3B| San Diego Padres
36| Nick Franklin| Peoria Javelinas| SS| Seattle Mariners
39| Wil Myers| Surprise Saguaros| OF| Kansas City Royals
41| Yasmani Grandal| Phoenix Desert Dogs| C| Cincinnati Reds
44| Gary Brown| Scottsdale Scorpions| OF| San Francisco Giants
47| Oscar Taveras| Peoria Javelinas| OF| St. Louis Cardinals
49| Anthony Gose| Phoenix Desert Dogs| OF| Toronto Blue Jays
52| Danny Hultzen| Peoria Javelinas| SP| Seattle Mariners
64| Mike Olt| Surprise Saguaros| 3B| Texas Rangers
78| Will Middlebrooks| Scottsdale Scorpions| 3B| Boston Red Sox
90| Joe Panik| Scottsdale Scorpions| SS| San Francisco Giants
97| Tim Beckham| Surprise Saguaros| SS| Tampa Bay Rays
Feel free to reach me at my e-mail, JoshShep50 AT Yahoo DOT com with any questions, feedback, or any other general inquiries.
Gary Brown: “Projected 25-30 steals with good contact but few walks and a handful of homers.”
Why do people still persist with this misconception that he doesn’t take walks?
All the “experts” focused on his last college season’s walk rate without considering that when you hit that well, it is better to swing for a hit than take a walk, he was that good.
Also, nobody bothered to look at his first years in college, where when he wasn’t as good a hitter, he did what all good lead-off men does, he took a lot of walks, pushing his OBP to good levels. That was true playing college ball as well as in the Cape Cod league.
He also gets a lot of HBP.
All in all, if you look at his college, Cape Cod, and professional career, no matter how poorly he may hit or take a walk, the overall result is what matters, and the three (including HBP) together results in a very high OBP, which is what you want him to do.