Arizona Fall League 2023

[JM3]

Chris Troye
8 games
8.2 IP
6 ER
10 hits
6 walks
11 strikeouts

6.23 ERA, 1.85 WHIP, 11.4 k/9, 6.4 bb/9

Honestly not a ton to be excited about here. Yes, most of the damage was done in one outing which obviously skews the statistics, but like in AA when he walked 7.8 per 9 innings, the walk rate is too high, & the strikeout rate is still high, but isn't nearly as gaudy, dropping from 14.5 per 9 (after it was 18.2 per 9 in high-A). Feels like he's going to have to get better at command and control to continue succeed as he moves through the org. Interesting guy & the transparency is awesome...but we shall see what the future holds.

For completeness purposes, though, here are Troye's stats without his awful outing, & they will look quite good...

7 games
8.2 IP
1 ER
6 hits
4 walks
11 strikeouts

1.04 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 11.4 k/9, 4.2 bb/9

 

[JM3]

The bad news...

Hickey 1-5 with 4 strikeouts
Rosier 0-4 with a walk & a strikeout
McDonough 0-4 with 3 strikeouts & an error

Combined 1-13 with 1 walk & 8 strikeouts in a 2-1 10 inning loss.

The good news...

Troye wasn't the only Red Sox pitcher to make an appearance. All 4 Red Sox relievers got in.

Troye pitched a scoreless 3rd inning. Strikeout, strikeout, single, single, Strikeout.

Cepeda pitched a scoreless 5th with a single & 2 strikeouts.

Olds struck out all 3 batters in the 6th.

Mata pitched a 1-2-3 7th with a strikeout.

Combined pitching...

4 IP
0 runs
3 hits
0 walks
9 strikeouts

61 pitches, 41 strikes

View: https://twitter.com/sittingstillsox/status/1722665500080001416

 

[JM3]

View: https://twitter.com/RedSoxPlayerDev/status/1722365422090018835

 

[JM3]

Rosier & McDonough were 0-4 with a walk & 0-3 with 2 walks respectively in the season finale, a 6-4 loss.

 

[The Gray Eagle]

AFL final stats:

McDonough: 59 AB, 254/366/424. 11 BB, 17 K. 5 for 9 in SB.
Rosier: 93 AB, 258/355/344. 13 BB, 19 K. 8 for 9 in SB.
Hickey: 55 AB, 182/357/200. 15 BB, 24 K. 1 XBH (a double) 1 RBI.

Somehow they all had good on-base numbers, thanks to a lot of walks.
Hickey's line is bizarre, though it's only 55 at-bats.

 

[JM3]

AFL final stats:

McDonough: 59 AB, 254/366/424. 11 BB, 17 K. 5 for 9 in SB.
Rosier: 93 AB, 258/355/344. 13 BB, 19 K. 8 for 9 in SB.
Hickey: 55 AB, 182/357/200. 15 BB, 24 K. 1 XBH (a double) 1 RBI.

Somehow they all had good on-base numbers, thanks to a lot of walks.
Hickey's line is bizarre, though it's only 55 at-bats.

Thx. I got lazy & didn't bother to post the final stats. I think partially because there wasn't anything to be excited about. Rosier's BABIP luck came back to earth. I think the most exciting stuff in all that is Rosier having a 17.8% k-rate against pretty good pitching? Glendale overall had a 28.4% k-rate. McDonough obviously had the best results, but I don't have it in my heart to be excited about him, especially with the 4 errors he made in 14 games in the infield. Also, ready to move on from Hickey if anyone wants him.

For completeness, the since-deposed (now-indisposed?) Brainer Bonaci was 1-7 with 4 strikeouts.

 

[RoDaddy]

I think the most exciting stuff in all that is Rosier having a 17.8% k-rate against pretty good pitching?

Is it pretty good pitching? The AFL is typically a hitters league.

Very disappointing BA's across the board for these guys. Throw in the pitching stats (as JMC nicely summarized last Thursday) and this was not the greatest of Sox AFL seasons

 

[JM3]

Is it pretty good pitching? The AFL is typically a hitters league.

Very disappointing BA's across the board for these guys. Throw in the pitching stats (as JMC nicely summarized last Thursday) and this was not the greatest of Sox AFL seasons

I think the high batting stats are more related to the ballparks & quality of hitters than there being bad pitchers, as the average pitcher will be better than an average AA pitcher, which is the level Rosier was at until recently. But the overall results weren't great for Rosier & especially Hickey, so it's not really a great look & just like the nicest thing I could say more than like a really positive sign.

Overall, the AFL average OPS was .767 & hitters struck out in 26.2% of plate appearances while walking 12.3% of the time.

So...

Average: .767 OPS/26.2% k-rate/12.3% bb-rate
Rosier: .699 OPS/17.8% k-rate/12.1% bb-rate
Hickey: .557 OPS/34.3% k-rate/21.4% bb-rate
McDonough: .790 OPS/23.9% k-rate/15.5% bb-rate

& for pitchers the averages are 5.14 ERA, 1.53 WHIP, 10.6 k/9, 5.0 bb/9.

So yeah, Penrod is really by far the biggest Red Sox AFL success story, followed probably by Wyatt Olds.

 

[JM3]

PENROD pitched a scoreless 2nd inning, allowing a hit & recording a strikeout.

Rosier is 1-2 so far & scored a run. The AL is winning 5-1 in the top of the 5th.

Randomly enough, I came across a YouTube video of this inning from the behind the plate view... including about 90 seconds of warm up before the inning.

The batters are Benny Montgomery, Jakob Marsee & Jacob Berry.

View: https://youtu.be/lZ4yRfagQ3k?si=Oncwz46pega2V659