AFL/Offseason Update: Oct. 20, 2025

Half of you may not see this post, thanks to the current AWS outage, but I’ll post what I can now and update later…

Scottsdale was winning won 15-4 in the 8th eight innings and appears en route to for its fourth straight win.

Jake Bennett, however, was responsible for three of those runs over his three innings of work. He gave up five hits, four in the 3rd after sitting through the Scorpions’ 12-run rally, walked none, and struck out four. He threw 61 pitches, 38 for strikes.

Austin Amaral was the first man out of the Scottsdale ‘pen and set the side down in order twice, striking out three. Barring another 12-run rally, he’s in line to pick up the win. He was credit with the win, his first of the fall.

Sam Petersen was the sole National in the starting lineup. He batted 9th and drove in four with a two-run single and a two-run double, but struck out twice. Petersen fielded two hits and had two putouts.

Scottsdale returns to action tomorrow with a doubleheader in Peoria.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I heard they have AWS over on Maple street…

Season Review: The 2025 FCL Nationals

With the FCL now fulfilling the role that was previously played by short-season “A”^*(acclimation to playing stateside), the focus here can be on the DSL grads. Don’t believe me? Do a sort by PA on the 2025 FCL batters and see for yourself.
^{* I still think MLB should have renamed the classifications below AA as A, B, C & D so we could be rid of the awful “single-A” used by lazy and/or dumb writers}

Five of the top 10 batters by usage were in the DSL in 2024. Four were repeating the level. The tenth was Sir Jamison Jones, a 15th Rd. HS pick from the ’24 Draft. The good news is that the ’24 DSL grads progressed at the next level. The bad news is that only one of the ’24 FCL repeaters did the same.

It’s a different story with the pitchers. Just two ’24 DSLers were sent stateside, though they were 1-2 in IP. Five repeated the level, but only saw more usage (Brayan Romero, who spent most of ’25 in Low-A). Three of the top seven pitchers by IP coming off an injury-shortened ’24.

Despite that, the Nats were pitchers were only slightly older than the league average (21.3 vs. 20.9), as the Nats were not alone in using the complex leagues for rehabs.

Still, with a group of league-average batters that were 4th in the FCL at 4.98 R/G and the #4 pitching staff (4.27 R/G) the ’25 F-Nats finished 2nd in the FCL East, eight games behind their co-tenants, but with their first winning record since 2022. As you might expect with a fair amount of teenagers, the team was below-average on defense, aside from throwing out runners (34%, 2nd best).

And now, the obligatory Top 5’s

The aforemntioned 10 were the only ones who surpassed 100PA, though it should be noted that there were a couple of older/’24 draft picks were pushed up fairly quickly after making their pro debuts (e.g., Sam Petersen, Luke Dickerson), that in the old world order may have gotten to 100PA in their first pro season.

Folks interested in seeing the full teams stats can find them here. FIP data can be found here.