FanPost

AZ Fall League, part deux


I went to Thursday's AFL game at SRF. Salt River Rafters vs Glendale Desert Dogs.

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First thing I spotted was Archie Bradley sitting in the stands behind home plate. Which of course meant he was mobbed by autograph seekers in between every half inning.

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He was apparently in charge of the radar gun and charting pitches. The photo is a bit grainy, sorry. He's in a black shirt and white hat.

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Peter O'Brien wasn't playing in this game. Evan Marzilli was in RF and Brandon Drury was playing 2B. Enrique Burgos pitched the 8th inning. And Kaleb Fleck pitched the 9th.

The Salt River Rafters won the game 5-1. All five of our team's runs were scored in the 8th. The Glendale team's sole run was driven in by the Dodgers #1 prospect Corey Seager. He hit a monster RBI double nearly into the cactus in CF. Hit just under there, off the wall at the 410 ft marker, which apparently is not a HR at SRF. Hate seeing even Dodger prospects do good things. BOOO!

As for the DBacks guys:

Drury hit 3rd. He went 0-3, but had a BB in the 8th, eventually coming around to score when Glendale's pitcher loaded the bases then walked in a run. He was playing 2B, made quite a few plays. Maybe 6? Was the middle link on a GIDP. That was smooth. Nothing looked particularly challenging. He looked solid. Made a good decision to cut down the lead runner instead of the easier play at 1B once.

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Marzilli was playing RF instead of LF. He went 1-4. Hit a groundball single in the 8th for an RBI. Struck out twice, though. Once to end an inning with runners on 1st and 3rd.

Enrique Burgos pitched the 8th. Gave up a walk to start the inning. Then quickly got out of it. Weak flyout, 2K. Threw 18 pitches. He was throwing fairly hard.

Kaleb Fleck pitched the 9th. He also looked to be throwing hard. He wasn't messing around. 3 straight K to end the game. Threw 14 pitches, only 2 balls.

I was very curious about pitch speeds, since it seemed like those two were throwing very hard. As I mentioned earlier, Archie Bradley had the radar gun and was charting pitches. So, I went over and asked him for the FB speeds on Burgos and Fleck. He said Burgos was 95-98mph and Fleck was 95-97mph. (He was very nice, very polite. I also wished him good luck for his start on Saturday.) I have very limited video of Burgos and Fleck on my phone, but I haven't uploaded it yet. Let me know if anyone is interested.

Back to shot clock related news: Game time was 2:28. Though, keep in mind the home team won, so there was no bottom of the 9th.

Looks like it is the home plate umpire who gives the initial signal to start the shot clock at the beginning of each AB, or coming back from a time out. This isn't done as soon as the pitcher has the ball. It looked like the umpire was waiting for the pitcher to take the mound and make eye contact with the umpire. The rest of the time the clock is *supposed* to start when the pitcher gets the ball back from the catcher. But, that was still very inconsistent. Sometimes the clock would start right away, sometimes, again, not until the pitcher was set. It is truly weird.

The only other clock related thing I have to say is that, other than the 1st inning, the teams were very fast getting back after the inning breaks. I think this is where the most time is being saved. The clock says 2:30 between innings, but a few times both the batter and pitcher were ready before that had even run down.

Shorter inning breaks would be an obvious way to cut game time, but I can't see MLB adopting that any more than I can see the shot clock making it to the majors. No way would MLB allow the loss of advertising revenue.

Still, the AZ Fall League seems like a great fan experience. It is only $8 to get in. You can see some top prospects play. Talk with the scouts. Get some autographs of up-and-coming players. I saw Berthiaume, TLR and Watson at this game. Attendance was ~550. LOL. Very nice atmosphere.