AFL/Offseason Update: Oct. 19, 2022
Peoria saw its 2-1 lead in the 7th erased with a three-run HR as Suprise tripled ’em up, 6-2, to drop the Javelinas to .500 at 7-7.
Three Nationals appeared in the game:
- Drew Millas (pictured above) caught the game and batted cleanup, but was 0-for-3 with an RBI on a sac fly. Samad Taylor stole two bases against him in the 5th and 9th innings.
- Will Frizzell was the DH and went 1-for-4 while batting 8th.
- Amos Willingham (pictured right/below) came on after the Earl Weaver special and struck out the first two batters he faced before rolling a groundout to end the 7th.
The two teams will switch venues and rematch tonight in Surprise at… wait for it… Surprise Stadium.
FROM THE WTF FILES… A NEW STADIUM IN HAGERSTOWN?
I’ve seen this swirling in my RSS feed for a few weeks now, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t pass along this item from his highness at Ballpark Digest. The latest is that this will be built in time for the 2024 season of the Atlantic League.
Have at it in the comments, but I fail to see how they’ll be able to draw enough attendance to be financially viable when they could barely make a go of it with no player costs and dirt-cheap rent.
AN EARLY LOOK AT THE NATS’ 2023 DRAFT TARGETS
Todd Boss has a look at some of the possible draftees for Washington, pending the outcome of the playoffs. You’ll have to visit his site to figure out the pic.
I’ve been questioning the logic of the Javelinas expanded roster, and with the AFL now about halfway through, it’s clarified things. It seems that the Nationals exceptional naming of 10 players wasn’t a change in approach, but rather the Nationals just making up their own rules… which have paid off really stupidly.
As I’ve mentioned before teams would name 6-8 players to the squad (typically 3 batters and 4 pitchers). There was typically a hierarchy among these players. One batter would be allowed to start like 70-80% of games (the “STARter”), while two others would play about 50% of the time (the “regular”), and if you named a 4th, he’d get a handful of starts (like 25%) (the “taxi driver”). Case in point: last year Jackson Cluff was our STARter playing 76% (22 of 29 games), Millas 58% (17 g) and Casey 45% (13) our “regulars” and Pineda our “taxi driver” 31% (9). Altogether, Nats batters got 61 starts of a possible 261 (29 games * 9 positions), which with a 4th player (Pineda) worked out to very slightly above the 20% that would’ve been fair since there are 5 teams naming players to the squad.
Surprisingly (or perhaps not) nothing has changed this year. Each team gets their STARter, 2 regulars, and sometimes a taxi driver. 5 players have 9 or more starts so far, aka your STARters (no one else more than 7): Merrill (Padres), Perez (Mariners), Rodriguez (Mariners), Martinez (Guardians), Kendall (Mets). My guess is that Hassell was intended to be our STARter, but when he got injured, Rodriguez an OF, filled that role. This doesn’t make any sense, because Rodriguez is a corner OF, like Yasel Antuna, so it doesn’t make sense why Antuna wouldn’t be the beneficiary of extra playing time, and the Mariners would, when playing time isn’t merit based but pre-determined.
However, beyond this, it’s clear that by the Nationals exceptionally naming 6 batters from the normal 3-4, they didn’t secure any additional playing time for them. 15 batters have received at least 5 starts, while 5 have not played more than 3, which like the STARters you’d expect to be a cross-section of the 5 teams contributing to the Javelinas. Howver, 4 of these 5 “taxi drivers” are Nationals (Frizzell, Baker, Lindsly and Hassell). Combined, they have played as many games as one STARter, Perez, Merrill or Martinez (11).
This is incredibly frustrating, because by naming more players, it has only harmed themselves. There were about 50-60 starts available, so by splitting that playing time among double the usual number, of course each player will get substantially less time than before. I had thought there might have been special dispensation to get a larger share of playing time, as no team has ever before named 6 batters to one AFL team before. There had to be a good reason for this, but seeing how it’s all played out, in fact, no, there was no agreement, and Frizzell, Baker and Lindsly will probably each only get around 5 games each.
What a waste.
Agreed. It seems a terrible waste of time for the players, who could be getting more reps in the Instrux. Baker is one the Nat organization has really featured in its prospect promotion, and of course Antuna is on the 40-man (for no apparent reason), so you would think they would have a vested interest in trying to get PT for those guys. And you know that Frizzell has to be hitting bombs in BP in the desert air.
The league has undergone and will continue to undergo changes.
One time the teams were comprised almost exclusively of Triple A players with the occasional lower level player being a high profile top draft choice who was making their first appearances in organized ball.
Mr. Roland Hemond, the main architect of the Az Fall League, had a vision of creating another league made up of the younger players we usually see in what is now known as the Arizona and Florida Complex Leagues with the season running from the late Fall into the early Winter.
The organizations didn’t go for that.
What we have now is a collection of lower level players but the formula remains that the parent clubs are placing the players that missed time, the ones they want to stretch out so they can assimilate easier into the next level where they’ll play a longer season, the ones that will be working on weaknesses and/or changes and players they might be highlighting to be used as trade capital.
The Fall League used to boast it being the stepping stone to the Majors typically seeing as many as 5 dozen players in the Majors the following season but with the amount of lower level players on the rosters now that has changed.
In addition one point that most fans don’t know about and are confused by is that the players chosen for the Fall Stars Game have been chosen before they play a single Fall League game, as opposed to their performance.
Hey Lee, welcome back again. Happy for the photos.
Thank you Mark I appreciate that.
I blew out my back in 2000 and unfortunately it caught up with me bigtime this year.
I was hoping some of my colleagues would be able to share some of the game day pics with y’all as occasionally in the past but MiLB no longer allows them to post outside of their site or even share images with players, which all of us have always enjoyed doing.