Arizona Fall League Review: The End

The Arizona Fall League wrapped up Saturday night with their annual championship game.

The Braves’ Braxton Davidson hit a 10th inning walk-off blast (note: Nats Pitcher Taylor Guilbeau literally walking it off, just like Tug McGraw said) to give Peoria the coveted title, while Brewers 2b Keston Hiura (soon to be seen in MLB stadiums everywhere) was named the league’s MVP.

For the Giants’ reps, things were pretty well wound down before the end, and I’m sure everyone is looking forward to a nice long break after the extra two months of play.

If you missed Carmen’s excellent work down in the AFL sun, you need to stop reading this right now and check out her interviews with Garrett Williams and Sam Wolff right now!

San Jose play by play man Joe Ritzo also weighed in with a piece featuring the ex-San Jose players on the AFL squad this year:

This, then, is the end. The final week, and there wasn’t a whole lot of action to be had in it:

The Hitters

C.J. Hinojosa: 3 G, 1 for 10, 3 BB, 2 K. Season totals: .149/.245/.234
Matt Winn: 1 G, 0 for 2, 1 walks, 1 K. Season totals: .122/.321/.317
Heath Quinn: 0 G. Season totals: .128/.222/.128

Our boys went a collective 17 for 127 in their AFL play, a group effort of .133. Not exactly the stuff of headlines. Possibly more surprising was that Heath Quinn was the only one of the trio who failed to notch an extra base hit, finishing with the most punchless line of the group. However, as veteran AFL observers constantly remind us, it’s not good to read too much into AFL performances as players are frequently gassed the time they get to these extra months. The bodies aren’t conditioned yet to be playing in October and November. The AFL is the only league ever where Mike Trout looked bad, and that’s as good a cautionary tale as there is.

The Pitchers

Garrett Williams: 1 GS, 4 IP, 4H, 2 R, 4 BB, 6 K. Season Totals: 1.88 ERA, 27 K/11 BB 24 IP
Melvin Adon: 1 G, 0.2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 0 K. Season Total: 2.92 ERA, 21 K/3 BB 12.1 IP
Chase Johnson: 1 G, 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K. Season Totals: 3.00 ERA, 10 K/7 BB 9 IP
Sam Wolff: 1 G, 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. Season Totals: 0.00 ERA, 14 K/2 BB 10 IP

Melvin Adon, too, appears pretty gassed as his final two appearances were easily his worst and failed to record a strikeout in either. Garrett Williams walked four in his last outing, though he also kept up his recent run of swing and miss. Sam Wolff finished off a nearly perfect AFL, keeping his ERA at 0.00, though he did walk his only two batters of the campaign in his final appearance. On the flip side, Chase Johnson picked up 40% of his AFL strikeouts in his final outing. I’m sure those arms are going to be happy to get some rest for the holidays.

The only Giants’ player who is getting any kind of steady play in the Winter Leagues is new-Giant Abiatal Avelino, who has been anchoring the top of the order for the Gigantes del Cibao in the Dominican Winter League. The right-handed hitter has been having an excellent winter, hitting .316/.373/.368 for the Gigantes with a double and a HR and is 3 for 4 in SB. As you can see from the above tweet, he had a big day last Sunday, going 4 for 5 with his first HR of the winter. Interestingly, Avelino was playing LF in that game. He’s also seen some action at 3b, in addition to his work at SS. Sharpening up the ol’ positional flexibility?

Avelino seems to enjoy his Sunday games — after going 4 for 5 last Nov. 11, he finished up his week with a 3 for 4 day yesterday.

With the AFL over I’ll be shutting down the weekly updates, but remember you can follow along any Winter League action on this page. It’s a really useful link for following the progress of, say, Heliot Ramos this winter (he’s currently 3 for 6 with two doubles after his first two games!)

Have a Great Thanksgiving everyone!