2023 Arizona Fall League Thread

[Joseph Zarr]

5 combined walks tonight between EBJ and Clarke in 5 official AB's between the two. Surprise has now won 4 straight and scored double digit runs for the third time in four games beating Mesa 10-2. No Brewers pitched. Mendez was on the pines.

[Playing Catch]

I think I mused on this mid-season, but I could definitely see a Black/Clarke 1B platoon coming to Milwaukee sooner than later.

[Joseph Zarr]

4 hours ago, Playing Catch said:

I think I mused on this mid-season, but I could definitely see a Black/Clarke 1B platoon coming to Milwaukee sooner than later.

[Ro Mueller]

Pretty solid day in Surprise’s 5-2, seven inning win over Mesa. Box score.

2B Eric Brown Jr. pulled off an EBJ special: walk, SB, SB inducing an error to score. Also doubled.

1B Wes Clarke walked in the game’s first run. Also drew another walk later.

RHP Justin Yeager struck out 2 of 4 batters faced in a scoreless inning. 11 of his 12 pitches registered as strikes.

RF Hendry Mendez also went 1-for-3.

[Joseph Zarr]

That's now 5 in a row for Surprise. They move to 8-4 as they continue to come into form stating their case as a contender for the AFL title. You love to see it.

[jay87shot]

13 hours ago, Playing Catch said:

I think I mused on this mid-season, but I could definitely see a Black/Clarke 1B platoon coming to Milwaukee sooner than later.

Love this idea, maybe not to start 2024.

[Joseph Zarr]

7 hours ago, damuelle said:

RHP Justin Yeager struck out 2 of 4 batters faced in a scoreless inning. 11 of his 12 pitches registered as strikes.

This is great - Yeager's ongoing emphasis and results pummeling the zone for strikes. Walks have been a mild issue early in his Minor League career. He's 25. What do you mean 'early' ? Well, lost COVID year.

Let's remember: he earned the very early 2023 Shuckers role as RHP Abner Uribe's set-up man. He has absolute stuff:

(From late January of this year)

 

[nate82]

20 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

This is great - Yeager's ongoing emphasis and results pummeling the zone for strikes. Walks have been a mild issue early in his Minor League career. He's 25. What do you mean 'early' ? Well, lost COVID year.

I wonder if he could be on the same track as Abner Uribe was last year?

[Joseph Zarr]

Surprise @ Mesa will be Live Streaming tonight for those interested. LHP Adam Seminaris will get the starting nod looking to build off what was potentially his best outing as a Minor League pitcher his last trip to the hill.

As game time approaches (9:30 EST) check out the AFL main page for live game feeds. HERE.

The Saguaros, winners of 5 straight, are a mere 1/2 GB of League leaders Peoria. They will also be live streaming tonight at Glendale.

[Ro Mueller]

The Brewers' contingent have been clutch contributors for several victories, but Monday was unfortunately the reverse, as the Saguaros blew a 7-2 lead, ultimately falling 10-8 in extra innings to Mesa. Box score.

LHP Adam Seminaris got the start, but only lasted two innings: 2 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks.

RHP Joseph Hernandez will unfortunately be pointed to as the main culprit in the collapse, conceding 5 runs in the 6th inning: 1.2 IP, 5 ER, 6 H (including 2 HR), 1 BB, 1 K.

Down to their final strike in the bottom of the 9th inning, Mesa tied the game on an RBI single. Then LHP Justin King entered for the bottom of the 10th inning, getting ahead of Cubs' prospect Kevin Alcantara 0-and-2 before conceding a walk-off 2-run homer to end it. Yes, King only threw 3 pitches in the game.

Offensively, SS Eric Brown Jr. got another start, contributing 2 singles and a stolen base: 2-for-4. He's now batting .333 with a .905 OPS in a solid AFL campaign thus far.

[Ro Mueller]

 

[Joseph Zarr]

9 hours ago, damuelle said:

The Brewers' contingent have been clutch contributors for several victories, but Monday was unfortunately the reverse, as the Saguaros blew a 7-2 lead, ultimately falling 10-8 in extra innings to Mesa. Box score.

LHP Adam Seminaris got the start, but only lasted two innings: 2 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks.

RHP Joseph Hernandez will unfortunately be pointed to as the main culprit in the collapse, conceding 5 runs in the 6th inning: 1.2 IP, 5 ER, 6 H (including 2 HR), 1 BB, 1 K.

Down to their final strike in the bottom of the 9th inning, Mesa tied the game on an RBI single. Then LHP Justin King entered for the bottom of the 10th inning, getting ahead of Cubs' prospect Kevin Alcantara 0-and-2 before conceding a walk-off 2-run homer to end it. Yes, King only threw 3 pitches in the game.

Offensively, SS Eric Brown Jr. got another start, contributing 2 singles and a stolen base: 2-for-4. He's now batting .333 with a .905 OPS in a solid AFL campaign thus far.

Ugh. That's rough. I watched Hernandez's first inning of work and it was classic 2023 Hernandez so I shut the game off 😅. I see it got worse. He really took an unfortunate step back this season or was simply shown how his stuff plays at a higher level of competition. I continue to point to: he has too many moving parts in his arm slot/release point tool kit. He has legitimately three different arm slots and, hence, different release packages. It leads to walks, HBP, WP's and then all too many hittable pitches. In other words, he finds himself with too many men on base. It's a strange pitcher-type fetish I see the Brewers having on the fringes. For example, both RHP's Israel Puello and Ryne Moore have been released. Both of these young men had very very similar moving pitches with comparable release points and arm actions. Hernandez currently has an uphill battle on his hands and will really need to evolve his approach if he wants to last within the organization and advance. Let's hope it happens!

[Joseph Zarr]

Here's a behind-the-plate look at Alcántara's game winner:

Oppo thunder...

[Ro Mueller]

Surprise lost a second straight game, this one 5-1 to Salt River, thus catapulting Salt River (now 9-5) to first place and dropping Surprise (now 8-6) to 4th place in the 6-team league, though they're actually just one game apart in the tight standings. Box score.

Three Brewers' position players and one relief pitcher all had respectable efforts, although the Saguaros could have really used some extra base hits (Salt River 4 XBHs, Surprise 0):

• 1B Wes Clarke - 1-for-3 - single, walk
• SS Eric Brown Jr. - 1-for-4 - single, 6th stolen base of the season
• RF Hendry Mendez - 1-for-4 - single
• RHP Justin Yeager - 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks - threw 19 pitches (12 strikes) in the top of the 9th inning. The walk came on a full count and the hit was a single

[Ro Mueller]

Sam Dykstra has a nice write-up on the Brewers' AFL contingent: 

 

[Joseph Zarr]

29 minutes ago, damuelle said:

Sam Dykstra has a nice write-up on the Brewers' AFL contingent: 

 

Quote

One of the strongest points of Brown's game away from the plate is his 55-grade speed and aggressiveness on the basepaths. He went 39-for-44 on steal attempts during the regular season, putting him in fourth in the organization for thefts behind Black (55), Chourio (44) and Dylan O'Rae (44), and he hasn’t stopped in the Fall League either with five steals through his first six games with the Saguaros.

If I'm not mistaken, he successfully swiped his 6th SB last night. He's an absolute problem on the basepaths. It's really key to remember here: EBJ swiped all those bags in 41 less games than Brewers leader Tyler Black. Pretty wild. If you do some basic extrapolating math, it's fair to presume that's a 60 steal full season.

[Joseph Zarr]

Quote

Shane Smith, RHP: The 6-foot-4 righty was one of the most dominant bullpen arms in the system this summer as he earned two promotions as he climbed from Single-A to Double-A. His 1.96 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 37. 1 percent K rate were all tops among the 47 Brewers Minor Leaguers with at least 50 innings pitched in 2023. Smith can fire a fastball in the mid-90s, drop in a low-80s curveball and mix in a cutter to keep hitters off-balance.

Dykstra misses the boat here, imho. Smith's real focus (in the AFL, at least) is continuing to develop and advance his slider. The cutter has taken a little bit of a back seat. Previous to affiliated ball, his goal was to become a starting pitcher. To that end, he used a change up to keep hitters from both sides of the plate 'honest' when he came aboard. 

Which brings me to: it would be a high quality deep dive question if someone would ask him "So, in the past you've used a cutter sprinkled in to keep hitters off your rising heater. It seems you have shaped that pitch now into an off-speed slider. What's the plan for the cutter moving forward?"

[Joseph Zarr]

The Clarke man cometh:

4th dinger.

1-1 game headed to the bottom of the 2nd as Surprise left the bases dripping.

 

[markedman5]

425 to right center……….nice

[Joseph Zarr]

Top of the 7th, Surprise trailing 7-2, they walked the bases full. No outs. Wes Clarke to the dish. He works the count 2-2. He takes a ball low and outside. The count is full. He walks in a run. 7-3 the Saguaros trail. Still juiced. Nobody down. No other Brewers are in the lineup tonight, unfortunately.

[Joseph Zarr]

It turned into a 6 run lead-taking 7th for Surprise. They cling to an 8-7 lead in the bottom of the 9th. EBJ was brought on as a pinch runner in the top of the frame after a lead-off double. He was gunned down at home on a failed double steal attempt. The Saguaros will look to close it out.

[Ro Mueller]

On 10/19/2023 at 5:37 AM, Joseph Zarr said:

It turned into a 6 run lead-taking 7th for Surprise. They cling to an 8-7 lead in the bottom of the 9th. EBJ was brought on as a pinch runner in the top of the frame after a lead-off double. He was gunned down at home on a failed double steal attempt. The Saguaros will look to close it out.

Unfortunately, all of that effort ultimately went for naught in rather excruciating fashion: the Saguaros' 9th inning pitcher (Jacob Wallace - Royals) faced 7 batters, none of whom hit the ball out of the infield, yet the tying and game-winning runs both scored: infield single, 4 walks, 2 ground ball outs. Scottsdale 9, Surprise 8. Box score. 

• DH Wes Clarke - 1-for-4, HR, walk, 2 RBIs
• PR Eric Brown Jr. - pinch ran, thrown out on the double steal, didn't play the field

[Joseph Zarr]

7 hours ago, damuelle said:

Unfortunately, all of that effort ultimately went for naught in rather excruciating fashion: the Saguaros' 9th inning pitcher (Jacob Wallace - Royals) faced 7 batters, none of whom hit the ball out of the infield, yet the tying and game-winning runs both scored: infield single, 4 walks, 2 ground ball outs. Salt River 9, Surprise 8. Box score. 

• DH Wes Clarke - 1-for-4, HR, walk, 2 RBIs
• PR Eric Brown Jr. - pinch ran, thrown out on the double steal, didn't play the field

It's amazing how universal giving multiple batters free passes negatively impacts an inning. Those infield batted balls were damaging because Wallace walked all those guys. He started it with a basic groundout and then put three men on base and then walked in the tying run. Every level. Everywhere. If you can't control your stuff your journey is going to have many bumps in the road. It was the same for the Saguaros in their 6-run 7th: walks, walks, walks. This just in: pitching is hard!

[Joseph Zarr]

EBJ and Clarke continue their fantastic AFL campaigns. Each 2-for-4 in the late innings. EBJ hit his 5th dub and stole his 7th base. Surprise now leads 5-0 after INF Cameron Cauley finally woke up his bat hitting his second long ball of his evening. And the score is final: 5-0 victory for the Saguaros who move to 9-7 overall.

Mendez was once again left out of the lineup and no Brewers prospects pitched, unfortunately.

 

[Joseph Zarr]

This is another streaming reminder:

The Surprise Saguaros will indeed be streaming again on this fine Fall Friday. They will be taking on the also 9-7 Salt River Rafters - both teams trail League leaders Scottsdale and Peoria (who also go head-to-head tonight) by 1/2 G apiece.

It certainly appears to be a very intriguing pitching matchup as the Saguaros and Blue Jays AFL Ace, LHP Ricky Tiedemann, faces Salt River and Tigers' former first rounder (2021) Ace RHP Jackson Jobe. The bats may be quiet early so hopefully the bullpens are up to the task.

Tune in HERE as game time approaches for the Live Streaming window.

Tentative start time is 9:30 EST.