Arizona Fall League Daily Notes (Part 3)
Check out our previous dispatches from the Arizona Fall League here and here.
DAY 4 (September 21st)
Victor Castaneda, a right handed pitcher with the Milwaukee Brewers, earned Week 1 pitcher of the week honors after tossing 4 shutout innings with 6 strikeouts on Day 4, but the buzz deservedly surrounded the highly-touted Forrest Whitley.
A right handed pitching prospect for the Houston Astros, Whitely made his Arizona Fall League debut and had arguably the top pitching performance of the day. His 4.2 shutout innings were backed by a very strong 6 strikeouts. Back in spring training, it looked like Whitely might have pitched for the Astros this season, but consistency and command in the minors was an issue, and he finished his season with a gargantuan 7.99 ERA over 59.2 innings.
Whitley throws 4 high quality pitches and has all the talent to be a great pitcher – as demonstrated by his 13.0 K/9 this season – but will need to master his command – as demonstrated by his 6.6 BB/9 – before he gets his shot.
Trouble repeating his delivery, a struggle for many taller pitchers (Whitley is 6’7″), seems to be the culprit for his inconsistency. To some degree, he is reminiscent of Randy Johnson and Max Scherzer when they were developing youngsters: all the stuff to dominate but lacking repeatable controll. Whitley may be farther along than they were at the same age, so it will be interesting to see where Whitely winds up on the annals of history.
DAY 5 (September 22nd)
Shane Baz dominated in a bounce back from his AFL debut, tossing 2 shutout innings with 5 strikeouts. Baz has electric stuff, but like Whitely will need to improve his control as he develops. We spoke with Shane recently and you can check that out here.
A few hitters stood out: Greg Deichmann of the Oakland A’s went 3 for 4 with a double and a home run; Royce Lewis, who started at 3rd base for Salt River, went 2 for 4 with a homerun; and Vidal Brujan, shortstop for Salt River, went 2 for 4, also with a homerun. Brujan is comparable to Ozzie Albies of the Atlanta Braves as they are both undersized second baseman, switch hitters, with sneaky pop and can really run. Brujan has started to show a little bit more of that power in the Arizona Fall League.
DAY 6 (September 24th)
Greg Deichmann continued his hot hitting for Mesa as he went 2 for 4 with a homerun. The top pitching performance of the night came from Nick Neidert, a right handed pitcher with the Miami Marlins, who threw 4 shutout innings with 6 strikeouts for Salt River. Jake McCarthy of the Arizona Diamondbacks led all hitters with 3 hits in 4 trips, adding 2 stolen bases for Salt River.
DAY 7 (September 25th)
The top hitting performance of the night came from the highest rated prospect in the AFL, Jo Adell. Adell went 4 for 5 with a homerun, snapping a 1 for 24 slump. Greg Deichmann tore it up for the third straight game, crushing a homerun and ended the day going 2 for 3, his third consecutive game with multiple hits.
DAY 8 (September 26th)
Majority of the games were canceled due to being rained out, however Glendale and Salt River were able to get a game in and Royce Lewis was the best player that day as he went 2 for 4 with a double and a stolen base.
