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AFL Update: Oct. 25, 2016

drew-ward-afl-10-24-16Glendale scored in each of the first four innings to build an 8-1 lead and cruised to 12-4 victory, its fourth of the AFL Season.

Two Nationals batters appeared in the game (spoiler alert, one of them is pictured).

Andrew Stevenson led off and played left field. In six ABs he singled, tripled, scored twice, and drove in a run to push his AFL batting average to .267. In the field, he had four putouts and fielded the ball six times total.

Drew Ward (*ahem*) singled twice, walked once, doubled once, struck once, and scored thrice. Hr drove in a run and committed error, but is hitting an Nintendo-esque .448/.529/.517 in eight games thus far.

The Desert Dogs return home this afternoon to host Surprise.

12 Commments

  1. Nintendo-espue indeed. Here I was bragging about Ward yesterday and he has gone up since.
    Makes me chuckle when I remember how a lot of people were complaining of his slow development.
    He’s 22.
    With the Nats done, this is the best show around.
    Kudos again to the photographer.

    2. Ward’s “slow” development shows the downside of drafting HS prospects. It often takes at least 3-4 years before a reasonable assessment of their likely MLB potential can even be made. I’m just happy he has managed to stick at 3B, because if he’d ended up at 1B at a young age like Marrero, his chances of ever becoming an impact player in the bigs would have dropped considerably.

      1. I dunno, a certain Potomac season ticket holder who runs a website familiar to us has been skeptical for two years that Ward can stick at 3B, if I’m remembering correctly. What say ye, Luke?

        The Nats already have another position-limited good bat in our old friend Orange. And theoretically, there won’t be another 1B opening with the big club for three more years, the remaining time on Zim’s contract. One of those guys might be able to stick with the big club as a bench bat before then, though. I think Rendon has three more years until free agency as well.

        1. I still think Ward is best suited to 1B, but I can understand why the Nats would want to delay making that move until they *have* to. He’s leaps and bounds better than Matt Skole and doesn’t turn 22 until the day after Thanksgiving.

  2. Very happy Ward’s having an AFL that can only help solidify his prospect status. He’s a great kid, and it’s time for the org to develop a high school position player to regular status not named Ian Desmond.

  3. Ward had a nice write up by Sickels as one of four guys so are standing out in the AFL. He noted that the power is showing up but otherwise very complimentary.

  4. Matt Skole is off to a slow start in the Mexican Pacific League. In 12 games, he is 8 for 43 with 2 doubles, 0 HRs, 9 BBs and 13Ks.

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