Arizona Fall League Preview: Three Pirates to watch, other prospects on roster
Arizona Fall League starts today, who I'm watching, both as Pirates prospects and others that will play with them
The 30th edition of the Arizona Fall League kicks off today, and once again the Pittsburgh Pirates will be sending a group of prospects out west to participate.
We previewed the eight players from the Pirates’ organization that will be playing for the Salt River Rafters - three position players and pitchers - when the rosters were originally announced.
Today with things getting underway, I wanted to take a closer look at not only some of the Pirates prospects I’ll be watching closely, but also a couple of other names from different organizations that will all play for the Salt River Rafters.
Alessandro Ercolani
At just 19-years-old, he is the youngest player that will be participating in the AFL, so realistically, he should probably have the lowest set of expectations attached to him.
Really at this point, it’s about making back the innings he lost out on this year - he hasn’t pitched in an affiliated game since July 30.
Ercolani still managed to more than double his work output from 2022 to this season, throwing 65 innings for Bradenton.
The fastball has gotten up to 97 mph, although he did have a tendency in seeing a little bit of a drop off as he got later into games. There is certainly something there to work with, just trying to develop more consistent at this point in his development.
He was noted in this Baseball America article as having one of the best singular pitches (cutter) by a model that they created, xStuff+.
Probably expect the stat line to not look the prettiest (it’s already more of a hitter friendly environment), but he stood toe-to-toe with Top 100 prospect Jett Williams earlier in the year and blew him away with a couple of fastballs.
Ercoanli feels like he’s on the fringe of becoming a legitimate prospect in the system, and this can really catapult him into that conversation.
Jack Brannigan
This one is a little bit on the obvious side, as Bucs on Deck named him the Pirates minor league hitter of the year for 2023, and Baseball America even listed him as a sleeper.
Playing for Bradenton and Greensboro this year, Brannigan finished one home run shy of a 20/20 season, and furthered his case as one of the better defenders in the minor playing all over the infield.
He has great speed, and the power started to show more in his first full season of pro ball. Again, it’s a hitter friendly league, at least generally, but this is a great opportunity to get some work against better competition.
One of the things he told me he wanted to work on in the offseason was pitch recognition/chasing pitches, so this will be a good chance to work on that.
Side note: Salt River only has three outfielders listed on their roster, and the Pirates seemingly have his two best positions locked up for the foreseeable future.
Not saying he is going to play in the outfield, but we saw Nick Gonzales get his first game action at third base in the AFL, and Brannigan has the arm to play anywhere.
Maybe it’s worth it to toss him out there and see what happens.
Jase Bowen
Another not so great surprise, Bowen was my choice for hitter of the year, but got outvoted. He tore up the South Atlantic League, finally working his way up to Double-A Altoona to end the season.
A lot like his early cameo in Greensboro at the end of the 2022 season, he struggled a bit in Altoona, but that helped him get adjusted last time around going into a full season at the same location.
This should only further help him.
Like Brannigan, there is some swing and miss concerns with Bowen but the Pirates are hurting for upper level outfield prospects, and he may have among the better tools to lay claim to the top spot if he’s able to work out some of the kinks in his swing.
If I had to put money on who has the best performance in Arizona, it would probably be on Bowen. With only three outfielders listed on the roster, there should be plenty of opportunities to get at-bats.
Others to watch
Jaden Hill was one of the more intriguing college arms in the 2021 draft, but slipped due to having Tommy John surgery.
The numbers weren’t pretty pitching at 23-years-old in High-A, as he was mostly limited in his starts but he did strikeout 57 batters in 43.2 innings pitched.
He’s a guy with an elite Vertical Approach Angle (VAA), and he went to LSU, so you know multiple writers on the site are going to be watching him closely.
Jackson Jobe may be the best prospect on the Rafters’ roster, and he was another 2021 draft pick. He was slowed by an injury, but no healthy, he showed why the Tigers took him with the third overall pick.
In 64 innings pitched this year, Jobe struck out 84 batters while only walking six, crossing through four levels and finishing in Double-A.
Prospects Live was able to get some data on him during his time in Single-A, with him averaging 96.7 mph on his fastball, with 17.8” IVB, -4.5 VAA (both good), and a 61.5% whiff rate with his slider.
He had three pitches average above or right below 3,000 rpm of spin.
One of the better pitching prospects in baseball, he’s just 21-year-olds and for comparisons sake, two months older than Bubba Chandler, and basically four more than Anthony Solometo.
A couple of other notable names on the roster;
Jace Jung was the 12th overall pick in 2022, brother of Texas Rangers’ infielder Josh. He finished the season with Erie, and faced the Altoona Curve. He hit 28 home runs between two levels.
Ivan Melendez was a second round pick out of Texas in 2022, hit 30 home runs between High-A and Double-A, but also struck out 34.2% of the time.
A top 10 pick in 2021, Benny Montgomery has great speed but is moving through the Rockies system on the slower side, playing all of this season in High-A and posted a wRC+ of 95.
Ercolani has a long ways to go, but it’s remarkable where he’s at, considering his age and the fact that he comes from a country whose entire population would easily fit into PNC Park. He made tremendous progress just over where he was to start this year.
Brannigan playing shortstop batting 7th
Bowen in RF batting 9th