AFL Update: Oct. 21, 2026

After blowing an early 3-0 lead, erasing a 9-3 deficit, and twice tying the game late, Salt River was walked off in the 9th for an 11-10 loss.

Teo Banks was the sole National to appear on the game. Washington’s 18th Rd. pick in the 2024 FYPD homered twice, scored thrice, and drove in four while batting ninth and playing right field.

Jarlin Susana is expected to make his fourth AFL start this afternoon in Scottsdale against the Scorpions.

The Boys in Durham have been keeping the pageviews coming with several lists about pitchers, including:

• Best Fastballs Per Stuff+
• Best Changeups by Stuff+
• Best Breaking Balls by Stuff+

My beef with these is that it’s pitching equivalent to “tools,” which is almost scout-speak for position players who are fast, strong, and hit (a fat pitch down the middle) for serious power… but can’t hit. [Insert Elijah Green reference here]

Back in my days as starving small-town sportswriter, I will never forget what a HS coach told me about his players at an end-of-season dinner.

All these boys are good athletes, but few of them are players, guys with the skills to play. And that’s why they get beat by smaller, slower teams.

For example, Luis Perales comes up on twice on these lists (cutter, splitter) but even Stevie Wonder can see that it doesn’t matter if he can’t throw strikes. His 5.1 BB/9IP at Rochester and 10.6 in D.C. weren’t outliers. He’s averaged nearly five walks a game his entire minor-league career – and that’s more than 250 innings, so you can skip the SSS dance.

It’s great that we can now measure some of these things quantitatively. But it’s a mistake to confuse measurement with evaluation, as these lists imply. And that’s why we will still need scouts, who can tell when someone’s throwing 98 and getting strikeouts but against guys with bad habits or poor skills (i.e., strike-zone judgment).