Atlanta Braves prospects show dominance in AFL

We’ve noted how well Max Fried and Ronald Acuna had been doing out in the desert this Fall… but with all results now in: they took it to another entire level.

The Arizona Fall League is an interesting short league.  A lot of interesting prospects go there, and for various reasons:  refine their craft, get challenged vs. better competition, get in some extra work, and more.  The Atlanta Braves decided to take things up a notch this Fall.

Ronald Acuna and Max Fried were two Braves’ members of a stacked delegation that played in Peoria for a squad also stacked with other significant talents.

In short, they won…  Acuna took MVP honors and the Peoria Javalinas took the AFL title in convincing fashion on Saturday.

But it was the way in which Fried and Acuna performed that should excite us fans, for they did exactly what you’d want to see happen for players on the cusp of the majors.

They Dominated.

The Chief Offender

Generating a lot of offense – and the other pronunciation/meaning: “offense” – was Acuna.

The former use of the term… indicating baseball production at the bat… was clearly there from the numbers:

• .325/.414/.639/1.053 slash line
• Tied for 4th overall in hits (27)
• Tied for 14th in doubles (5)
• 1st in home runs (7)
• 2nd in OPS
• 2nd in slugging
• Tied for 5th in RBI (16)
• Tied for 4th in Walks (12)

Acuna was 8th in overall AB’s (83), so a lot of these ‘accumulation’ numbers came from extra chances… but others still had more.

The latter definition came as a result of this tweet…

Now the general attitude of Braves fans reacting to this word on twitter could be summed up as “if you can back it up, it ain’t bragging.”  Acuna did exactly what you would think a premium hitter should do against strong competition before hitting the majors.

About Harper…

For fun, I went back and checked Bryce Harper‘s results from the AFL.  That happened in 2011.

[table id=77 /]

It’s actually kind of eerie just how similar these numbers are.  In a month, Acuna will turn 20 years old.  Harper had actually been younger at that time – he had just turned 19 before his AFL stint.  Oddly, Harper wasn’t quite as good as some of his peers then, but they included names like Gyorko, Myers, and Arenado.

Similarly performing names this year included teammate Eric Filia (.408!, 1.088 OPS), Nicky Lopez (.383), and a couple of others with extraordinary batting averages over 22+ games.

Austin Riley ended up at .300 with a robust 1.021 OPS; Alex Jackson faded to .263, but held his own.  However, none of these players combined both the hitting prowess and the power that Acuna exhibited.

So is there any reason for concern about Acuna going forward?  After all, Bryce Harper already has an MVP trophy of his own – the big one – from his age 22 season (2015).

Two cautionary points to watch:

• Strikeouts.  Though he matched Harper with 22 in the AFL, that’s a near-25% K rate.  It was against very good pitching, but not major league stuff.  At the same time, he was also taking his walks:  that’s a very good thing.
• There’s always a Joey T around.  Joey Terdoslavich was also in that Class of 2011… and slashed .321/.426/.457/.972 with 3 homers.  3B Mike Olt was there too – on Terdo’s team.  He was 2nd in the league in OPS at 1.197 over 106 AB.

That said, Acuna has a whole lotta tools to work with, and that raw talent will likely serve him well as he adjusts to the Next Level.  How he responds to those challenges will be equally as important.