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AFL/Offseason Update: Oct. 11, 2022

Peoria jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two and an 8-1 lead halfway through and withstood late charge from Mesa to prevail, 11-8.

Drew Millas led the Javelinas offense with three hits, including his second fall HR, and four RBI. The 24-y.o. backstop batted seventh and had nine putouts. Alas, he was caught stealing but did not return the favor in two attempts against him.

Amos Willingham was the only other National to appear in the game. He was the third reliever out of the ‘pen, and was dinged for two runs on two hits and a walk while striking out three in his single inning of work.

Peoria (5-2) heads to Scottsdale (3-4) tonight before returning home to rematch against Mesa tomorrow.

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ALU NAMED I.L. PLAYER OF THE MONTH FOR SEPTEMBER

The plaudits for keep coming for Jake Alu as the 25-y.o. was named the International League Player of the Month for September.

Alu posted a line of .409/.442/.761 with 7HR and 25RBI in 23 games for the month and .323/.372/.553 with 11HR and 45RBI overall (59G). The 2019 pick out Boston College was also named the “Good” for both Harrisburg and Rochester on this site in the 2022 Season Overall GBI.

17 Commments

  1. Millas looking to be the Jackson Cluff of 2022, strong defensive player who goes west to mash in the desert. hope it translates to better luck for him next year. most likely not, it did nothing for Cluff.

  2. That sounds like a fair assessment of Millas, although of course it’s good to see a player doing well. Just hope the organization doesn’t leap to the wrong conclusions. There’s no reason to add him to the 40-man.

    The Nat catchers are playing because they are two of the three on the roster. It’s truly terrible how little the other field position players are seeing the field, though. Either add more teams or ask the managers to split PT, with a couple of ABs a game per guy. Much like Little League, it’s important that everyone gets to play!

  3. Yea Millas is racking but it feels like Cluff last year, so I can put much stock in it unless he has made a swing adjustment. Cluff was bad before and after.

    Hassell who I was excited to watch in the Fall league is likely not going to suit up again with his hand/wrist injury which has apparently been bothering him for awhile.

    Free Will Frizzell!! My goodness.

    I was only really excited to see Hassell and Frizzell among the Nats contingent and it looks like I’ll see neither for different

    Outside of Alu winning player of the month, Frizzell also won his in the LOW-A league.

  5. I stumbled across a fascinating stat about Jake Alu: Alu was the best defensive 3B in all of the minor leagues this season, according to Defensive Runs Saved. He was worth 17 runs above average. This is…. unexpected to put it mildly. I’ve never heard that Alu was even above average defensively, but apparently he was one of the best defenders in all of minor league baseball.

    To put how good +17 DRS into perspective, only 7 players in all of MLB were worth more than 17 DRS this season. +17 is literally Gold Glove caliber defense. Michael A Taylor, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Adley Rutschman and Nolan Arenado were 4 of the 7 players, each of whom are considered the best defenders in the game. Hayes and Rutschman, for example, had 70 grade defense when they were promoted recently.

    Meanwhile, Alu continues to get no respect beyond this blog, despite possibly being one of the best defenders and hitters in the minor leagues.

    I was already excited about Alu’s future, but this has me on a whole ‘nother level.

    Skip to 18:58 of the podcast for an interview with Alu: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-the-dodgers-do-what-they-do-w-jos%C3%A9-mota-standout/id1461705002?i=1000580333150

      1. He has a clearer path to major league playing time in DC than any other big league club. Our options at 3B (among other positions) are dire.

    2. Ali is older than Kieboom, older than Robles as well. That’s just the nature of the prospect biz. Not that he can’t still make an impact in the show, but the buzz will always go to the youngsters

  6. If this is true about Alu’s defense it definitely ups my value of him. Can anybody who has seen Alu play 3B back this up?

    I had never heard of his D and had the mindset he was a below average defender.

    But if his glove is slick and he hits like he did at the end of the year, Alu could be a late bloomer/gem, who was not a top prospect but ends up a solid everyday big leaguer.

    Quite honestly Alu should have been player of the year or co poy. I’d take his year finish over De La Rosa and over Wood wasn’t here long enough to be seriously considered in my opinion.

  7. Same with my mindset re Alu’s defense. He mostly had been a second basemen, and most of those guys are there because they couldn’t hack it defensively in other slots (see Garcia, Luis).

    Kieboom really isn’t a competent defensive 3B, but he seems guaranteed to be the front-runner for the job because, well, Rizzo is stubborn. There’s not really a lot of logic to support that concept, defensively or offensively. One would hope that they’re impressed enough by what Alu has done to give him a real shot, but we’ll see.

  8. Also agree that at least 90% of my AFL interest was in Hassell and Frizzell.

    With Millas not being able to throw out guys, after a 44% CS rate at Wilmington this season, I wonder if the young pitchers in AZ are so concerned with the pitch clock that they’re not doing much to hold runners.

    1. Haven’t the minor leagues been pitching with the pitch clock already? It’s not like this is a new development for them. However, they may be working on THEIR stats and not really focusing on holding runners. I remember that Davey Johnson didn’t give two hoots in a handbag about pitchers holding runners close, and the results showed it.

  9. A rebuild especially in year 2 of 5 or six May favor Alu with his LH bat sly ding into any lineup equation nicely .

  10. Interesting to see the coaching / PD staff additions and tweets this off season especially the one big skipper position vacant on the farm …

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