Arizona Fall League Update

If lived in Arizona, I might not get much else done other than watching baseball. Pitchers and catchers report for spring training in late February every year. Once the MLB season starts you not only have Diamondback games but extended spring training to watch. June comes along and you have the rookies playing ball. Finally, you have Fall Instructional League and the Arizona Fall League starting up in October and running up toward Thanksgiving. This pretty much leave you with December and January as the only times with no baseball. Sounds pretty awesome if you ask me.

But I digress... The AFL is off and running - and is 9 games into their season. The Angels sent prospects to play on the Scottsdale Scorpions who are in first place. Though to be fair, every single AFL team is separated by just one game currently.

Here’s how the Angels prospects are looking so far:

Taylor Ward / Wade Wass

Ward only logged 4 ABs in which he didn’t get a hit or walk and struck out twice. He became the victim of a shoulder impingement so the Angels replaced their #10 prospect with with unrated Wade Wass who has yet to play. Wass made #37 on the Halos Heaven mis season prospect rankings.

Matt Thaiss

#11 on HH and #3 on MLB.com

Thaiss is 7 for 22 with 4 walks, 8 Ks, and 2 stolen bases in 2 attempts. He has a triple and and double but is so far dinger-less in the AFL. Fall League is so far a hitters paradise as Thaiss is hitting .318 which is only good for 10th best on his team. Thais has also been on base in all 6 of his games played.

Troy Montgomery

#20 on HH and #20 on MLB.com

Montgomery is 7 for 26 with 2 walks, 5 Ks, and a stolen base in two attempts. Like Thaiss, he also has a triple and a double but no home run. He has also hit in 5 of the 6 games he’s played.

Adam Hofacket

#28 on HH

Hofacket has only pitched 3.1 innings and they have not gone well. He gave up 8 runs in his first appearance and 3 runs in his second. He didn’t give up any runs in his last 1 inning outing. Overall he has a 29.70 ERA which is bad, right? He has struck out 4, walked 3 and given up 2 homers (but in his first outing).

Samil De Los Santos

#30 on HH

Like Hofacket, De Los Santos was rocked in his first fall outing - to the tune of 6 runs in 0.2 IP. He threw a scoreless 2 innings his last time out. He has struck out 1 and walked 4 so far in 2.2 innings and 2 appearances.

Nathan Bates

Unranked on HH and MLB

Bates is, so far, the best Angels pitching prospect in the AFL. He’s given up just 2 runs in 3 appearances and 5.1 innings. Not great, but better than the other guys. He has struck out 3 and walked 1 as well.

Connor Lillis-White

Unranked on HH and MLB

Lillis-White has only appeared once back on October 10th and gave up 4 runs (1 earned) in 0.2 IP. White had a pretty great, under the radar season this year with a .179 BAA and 3.90 ERA across high A and AA ball.