Arizona Fall League Update: 11/9/2009

I watched the AFL Rising Stars Game on Saturday. The quick stats for the Oriole prospects:

1B Brandon Snyder: 1-4 with a walk
3B Josh Bell: no official at-bats but a walk and an RBI sac fly in 2 plate appearances
P Brandon Erbe and 1B/DH Brandon Waring did not play.

Beyond the numbers, Brandon Snyder's bat looked a bit slow against the hard throwers. He was late a lot. On the other hand, Snyder made a great play diving to his right in the first inning, flipping the ball to the pitcher at first for the out, robbing Mike Moustakas of a base hit. Snyder looked very good in the field all night.

Josh Bell demonstrated a pretty good eye and a lot of ink on the forearms. I can't think of another Oriole who has sported tattoos that were visible while they were in uniform.

Jason Castro: Big arm. The 22-year-old Astro catcher looked great behind the plate.
Yonder Alonso: Big power
Jemile Weeks: fast, fast FAST!
Dustin Ackley: Plays a great centerfield. Makes it look easy.

Oriole Prospects

Brandon Snyder continues to hit well psoting a .355/.453/.597 line for the Desert Dogs.

Josh Bell has cooled a bit but is still hitting .309/.397/.473. Snyder and Bell continue to be intriguing possibilities to fill the holes at the corner infield positions, maybe as early as next season.

CF Matt Angle continues to get on base. His .298/.370/.362 line is pretty impressive when you consider that he has stolen 6 bases and not been caught yet. There is a place in the bigs for a leadoff guy who gets on base at a .370 clip and steals bases. He is a guy to watch closely at Bowie next season.

Brandon Waring is hitting .290/.361/.613 in limited action.

P Brandon Erbe has pitched the best of the Oriole prospects albeit only over 3 starts and 9.0 innings pitched. A 1.11 WHIP, a 2.00 ERA and a 4.5 K/BB ratio so far.

Out of the pen, RP Eddie Gamboa pitched well before getting hurt, posting a 3.86 ERA. RP Josh Perrault sports a 2.70 ERA but has walked 4 while only striking out 3. Those numbers will need to improve is Perrault hopes to break camp with the Orioles out of Spring Training.

P Ryohei Tanaka has served as a swingman of sorts for the Desert Dogs and got knocked around during his last outing to rasie his ERA to 5.54. But before that, he had pitched fairly well and still boasts 10 Ks to only 3 BBs over 13.0 IP.

Other Prospects

Toronto hitting prospect is getting exposed in this hitter's league and is hitting a measly .167/.281/.250.

Oakland 2B Jemile Weeks is hitting .300 with 5 stolen bases and leads the Dogs with 3 triples.

CF Grant Desme continues to own Arizona hitting .354/.433/.754 (!) this fall.

At 13-9 and a 3.5 game lead on the rest of the AFL East (with 10 games to go), the Desert Dogs are virtual locks to play int he AFL Championship. The game will be on MLB Network Saturday, November 21st at 2:30 PM. There should be Orioles-a-plenty in action for that game.