Arizona Fall League & Dominican Winter League Recaps: 11/4
By Eric Graff
Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports
Arizona Fall League
Not a great weekend for the Braves prospects out in the AFL. Here are the stat lines:
Friday
- Elmer Reyes – 0-4, BB, K, fielding error
- Tommy La Stella – 0-4, BB, 2 K
- Robby Hefflinger – 0-4, 2 K
- Aaron Northcraft – LOSS, 2 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
All of the guys hopped on the struggle bus this weekend out in Arizona. Even Tommy La Stella has gone cold after his hot start, as the hot-shot 2nd baseman was 0-4 on Friday and struck out twice, but he did earn a walk. Over his last 7 games, La Stella is only 5-27 (.186) with only 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. He is still putting together a very good season in Fall League, but seems to just be struggling a bit lately.
Speaking of struggling, Robby Hefflinger is awful right now. Heff took another 0-4 game with 2 more strikeouts on Friday. He has only 1 hit in his last 23 at bats with 11 punch outs. On the mini-season, he is only hitting .185/.224/.278/.502, which is pretty poor for a league that is normally hitter dominant. It’s also surprising that he only has 3 extra base hits in his 54 at bats so far when he totaled 54 of them in the 2013 season. Elmer Reyes finished out the horrible batting day for the Braves by also going 0-4. The three Braves hitters combined to go 0-12 with 5 strikeouts on Friday.
The pitching didn’t fare much better. Aaron Northcraft started his 5th game of the season on Friday and it was probably his worst. He only lasted 2 innings and gave up 4 earned runs on 6 hits and allowed more batters to reach than he retired. Northcraft is now sporting a 7.62 ERA and has only pitched 13 innings in his 5 starts.
Saturday was the AFL Fall Stars game and Shae Simmons, the only Braves representative, didn’t even appear in the game.
Sunday was an off day for the league.
The Scorpions are back in action today at 12:35 MST. Hopefully, the guys will pick it up for the second half of the AFL season.
Dominican Winter League
Three days of games this weekend for the guys in the DWL. Here are the stat lines:
Friday
- Christian Bethancourt – 0-3
- Edward Salcedo – 0-3
Saturday
- Jose Lugo – 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, HOLD
- Juan Cedeno – 1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 K
Sunday
- Wirfin Obispo – 1 IP, 0 ER, 2 K, HOLD
- Christian Bethancourt – 1-3, R, RBI, Sac Fly, Throwing Error, Caught 1 of 3 base stealers
Christian Bethancourt played in 2 of 3 games this weekend with some mixed results. He went 1-6 with a sacrifice fly at the plate, but was just so-so behind the plate. He had 3 guys try to steal on him and threw out 1 of them. Bethancourt also had a throwing error on one of the two steals. Edward Salcedo put up a hitless game on Friday, going 0-3. Jose Lugo and Wirfin Obispo both earned HOLDS in their appearances and Juan Cedeno pitched a scoreless inning himself.
Stay tuned for all of the latest from the respective Fall Leagues!