Arizona Fall League Prospect Report

Image credit: Kameron Misner (Photo by Bill Mitchell)

Kameron Misner, OF, Marlins — After hitting two home runs on Tuesday, Misner said he was in the Arizona Fall League to continue working on his strengths. As it turns out, one of his strengths is … well … strength. Misner has shown himself to be one of the league’s premier power bats from the left side, capable of swatting balls great distances with almost comical ease. He exited the day with seven home runs, one shy of teammate Nelson Velazquez (who also homered on Tuesday) for the league lead.

The Marlins prospect was paid a visit last week by the Edwar Gonzalez, one of the system’s hitting coordinators. Over the course of a couple of days, the pair continued hashing out Misner’s goals from the season and the Fall League. Specifically, Misner was working on honing his approach to better pick pitches on which he could do damage as well as keeping the barrel of his bat in the zone for a longer period of time.

Has Misner improved on both those fronts? Yes. Is there still plenty more work to be done? Absolutely.

“I was just pulling off baseballs,” Misner said. “The barrel was in the zone really quickly and out of the zone really quickly. (When that happens) you don’t have much adjustability when it when it comes offspeed pitches. I’m working on getting a lot better at it (but) I could still improve a lot on it.”

Judging by his play in the AFL, it certainly seems like he’s found a way to get his barrel to the baseball more often while producing a great deal of loud contact.

Nelson Velazquez, OF, Cubs — Velazquez has turned the Fall League into a combination of Christmas and Groundhog Day. Like clockwork, he gets up, takes quality at-bats, spits on tough offspeed pitches, makes loud contact and hits a ball a very long way. Then he goes home, goes to sleep, wakes up the next morning and does it all over again. This time, the victim was Peoria righthander and Pirates prospect Roansy Contreras, who was on such an upward trajectory this year that he made his big league debut.

In his first at-bat against Contreras, Velazquez worked the count full before getting a 94 mph fastball on the inner half of the plate. For most players, that might lead to a swing and miss or weak contact. Instead, Velazquez pulled his hands in, got the barrel to the ball and drove it some 400 feet down the right field line for a truly impressive combination of hittability and impact. His eight home runs are the the most in the league, and he also tops the circuit in average, RBIs, and slugging percentage. If he can catch Bryson Stott for the RBI crown, he will win both the traditional and sabermetric triple crowns.

Owen White, RHP, Rangers — The AFL is usually a hitter’s league, and this year is no different. That’s doubly true now that most of the top arms have departed due to either injury or workload. White is one of the exceptions. He has been tremendous throughout the course of the league, including on Tuesday, when he worked four scoreless, one-hit innings against Scottsdale. White struck out four and walked a pair. For the season, the 23-year-old has gone 4-0, 1.16 with 23 strikeouts in 23.1 innings. He’s walked 11 in that time, but four of those free passes came on Nov. 3. With that start removed, White has walked seven over 19 innings.

HITTERS

ORG	CLASS	RANK	PLAYER	AB	R	H	RBI	AVG	NOTES
ARI	AFL		Cooper Hummel, OF	3	1	0	0	.192	BB (12),
ARI	AFL		Buddy Kennedy, 3B	4	0	2	0	.225
ATL	AFL		Luke Waddell, SS	3	0	1	1	.225	BB (7),
ATL	AFL		Drew Lugbauer, C	3	0	0	0	.405
ATL	AFL		Jesse Franklin, OF	3	2	1	0	.095	2B (1), BB (8),
BAL	AFL		Greg Cullen, 2B	4	0	1	0	.294
BOS	AFL		Triston Casas, 3B	3	0	1	0	.333	BB (13),
BOS	AFL		Kole Cottam, C	4	1	2	2	.286	HR (3),
BOS	AFL		Jeter Downs, SS	3	0	0	0	.196
CHC	AFL		Nelson Velazquez, LF	3	1	1	1	.390	HR (8), BB (14), E (4),
CHC	AFL		Andy Weber, SS	4	0	0	0	.315
CIN	AFL		Drew Mount, OF	4	0	1	1	.290	2B (3),
CIN	AFL		Ivan Johnson, 2B	4	0	1	0	.269
CLE	AFL		Richard Palacios, 2B	4	0	0	0	.275	E (1),
COL	AFL		Ezequiel Tovar, SS	3	0	1	0	.176	BB (5),
COL	AFL		Michael Toglia, 1B	3	0	0	0	.250	BB (8),
COL	AFL		Ryan Vilade, LF	4	0	0	0	.220
CWS	AFL		Yolbert Sanchez, SS	3	0	1	0	.393	BB (8),
DET	AFL		Eric De La Rosa, OF	4	0	2	1	.250
HOU	AFL		Grae Kessinger, SS	4	1	1	0	.291
KC	AFL		Seuly Matias, OF	4	0	1	0	.224	SB (1),
KC	AFL		Jake Means, 3B	4	0	0	0	.186
LAA	AFL		Jeremiah Jackson, SS	4	1	1	1	.152	HR (3),
LAA	AFL		Orlando Martinez, RF	4	0	0	0	.217
LAA	AFL		Anthony Mulrine, C	4	0	1	2	.108	2B (1),
LAD	AFL		James Outman, CF	3	0	0	0	.340	BB (9),
LAD	AFL		Jacob Amaya, SS	4	2	3	1	.342	2B (2), HR (2),
LAD	AFL		Carson Taylor, C	4	0	1	0	.385
MIA	AFL		Troy Johnston, OF	4	0	0	0	.291
MIA	AFL		Kameron Misner, OF	2	3	2	2	.220	2 HR (7), 2 BB (16), CS (2),
MIL	AFL		Mario Feliciano, C	4	0	1	0	.300
MIL	AFL		David Hamilton, SS	4	0	1	0	.292	BB (5),
MIN	AFL		Matt Wallner, RF	4	1	1	0	.269
NYM	AFL		Carlos Cortes, 2B	4	0	1	0	.222
NYY	AFL		Elijah Dunham, OF	4	0	0	0	.354
NYY	AFL		Andres Chaparro, 3B	2	0	0	0	.222	BB (6),
NYY	AFL		Austin Wells, C	4	1	1	0	.275
OAK	AFL		Jonah Bride, 3B	3	1	1	0	.227	BB (11),
OAK	AFL		Jeremy Eierman, SS	4	0	0	0	.083
PHI	AFL		Bryson Stott, SS	4	0	0	0	.299	BB (20),
PHI	AFL		Simon Muzziotti, CF	3	1	1	0	.255	BB (11),
PIT	AFL		Nick Gonzales, SS	4	1	3	1	.381	2B (4), BB (12), SB (4), E (1),
SD	AFL		Chandler Seagle, C	4	1	1	3	.292	HR (1),
SEA	AFL		Zach DeLoach, CF	3	1	0	0	.175	2 BB (16),
SEA	AFL		Jose Caballero, IF	4	0	0	0	.224
SF	AFL		Hunter Bishop, OF	4	0	0	0	.235
SF	AFL		Marco Luciano, SS	3	0	1	0	.210
STL	AFL		Brendan Donovan, 3B	3	1	1	1	.342	HR (1), BB (6),
TB	AFL		Matthew Dyer, C	2	0	0	0	.200	BB (6), E (1),
TB	AFL		Curtis Mead, 2B	3	0	1	0	.324	BB (3),
TOR	AFL		Gabriel Moreno, C	4	0	1	1	.339	2B (9),
TOR	AFL		Leonardo Jimenez, 2B	4	0	1	1	.214	2B (3),
WAS	AFL		Jackson Cluff, SS	3	0	0	0	.339	BB (11),
WAS	AFL		Israel Pineda, C	3	0	1	0	.333

PITCHERS

ORG	CLASS	RANK	PLAYER	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	ERA	NOTES
ARI	AFL		Keegan Curtis, RHP	1	2	0	0	0	2	2.84
CLE	AFL		Damon Casetta-Stubbs, RHP	1	1	0	0	2	1	0.00
HOU	AFL		Joe Record, RHP	2	2	0	0	0	4	0.00
MIA	AFL		Jefry Yan, LHP	1	1	0	0	0	3	10.50
MIN	AFL		Evan Sisk, LHP	1	0	0	0	0	1	8.64
NYM	AFL		Garrison Bryant, RHP	3	4	3	3	2	0	4.85
NYM	AFL		Connor Grey, RHP	3	3	2	2	1	2	3.60	L (1-2)
NYM	AFL		Brian Metoyer, RHP	1	0	0	0	0	2	6.75
OAK	AFL		Hogan Harris, LHP	1.1	0	2	2	5	2	10.29	L (0-1)
OAK	AFL		Jeff Criswell, RHP	4.2	4	3	3	1	8	6.20
PHI	AFL		Damon Jones, LHP	1.1	0	0	0	1	3	0.96	W (1-0)
PIT	AFL		Michael Burrows, RHP	2.2	3	2	2	2	4	4.38
PIT	AFL		Roansy Contreras, RHP	4	3	2	2	0	3	4.50
SEA	AFL		Travis Kuhn, RHP	1	1	1	1	1	2	1.23	Sv (1)
SF	AFL		R.J. Dabovich, RHP	1	2	1	1	0	2	1.86
STL	AFL		Andre Pallante, RHP	4	2	0	0	0	6	1.59	W (1-1)
STL	AFL		Zack Thompson, LHP	2	2	0	0	2	3	1.76
STL	AFL		Jake Walsh, RHP	1	2	1	1	2	1	8.22
TB	AFL		Trevor Brigden, RHP	1	1	0	0	0	2	5.56
TB	AFL		Matthew Peguero, RHP	1	1	0	0	0	2	3.60	W (1-0)
TB	AFL		Caleb Sampen, RHP	4	0	0	0	0	4	4.40
TEX	AFL		Owen White, RHP	4	1	0	0	2	4	1.16
TOR	AFL		Brody Rodning, LHP	1	2	1	1	1	0	9.35
WAS	AFL		Cole Henry, RHP	4	3	0	0	1	7	3.32