Pittsburgh Pirates Arizona Fall League Recap

A final look at the Pittsburgh Pirates' players in the Arizona Fall League

The Arizona Fall League wrapped up over the weekend, with the Surprise Saguaros winning the Championship game on Saturday against the Peoria Javelinas.

It’s the second straight championship for Surprise.

Salt River didn’t make the play-in game, finishing with a 14-16 record, which put them in a tie for fourth place with the Mesa Solar Sox.

Here’s a look back at the Pirates’ prospects that played and how they did. Since some of the games had stat cast available, I will have another article later this week detailing some of the numbers I collected throughout.

Jase Bowen

.290/.355/.500 4 HR, 19 RBI, 14 R, 6/9 SB

Bowen remained one of the better hitters in the fall league, although he did slow down a bit towards the end. He finished fourth in total bases, fifth in hits, and was the only player to top the century mark in at-bats.

He also participated in the Home Run Derby and the Fall Stars game.

Jack Brannigan

.177/.290/.405 4 HR, 12 RBI, 14 R, 4/4 SB

With a mid-30% strikeout rate, it was a tough fall for Brannigan. The good news is that he continued his work at shortstop and played well there. Another interesting note: he reached base 22 times through hits, walks, and hit by pitch and scored 14 runs total.

Not a bad conversion rate.

Carter Bins

.300/.333/.550 2 HR, 6 RBI, 8 R, 1/1 SB

Bins played the fewest games among all Salt River hitters but made it count. He hit the Rafters' first home run of the season, and half of his 12 hits went for extra bases.

Nick Dombkowski

8.1 IP, 15 H, 4 ER, 9 BB, 8 K

The former undrafted free agent in 2021, Dombkowski, posted a not-horrible 4.32 ERA but a WHIP of 2.88.

Cam Junker

7.2 IP, 11 H, 6 ER, 6 BB, 8 K

Just two of the five pitchers for the Pirates finished with fewer walks than strikeouts, with Junker being one of them. He didn’t pitch horribly, and in this much of a small sample size, one blow-up game kind of does you in for the entire season.

Tyler Samaniego

7.1 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 6 BB, 9 K

The other pitcher to have fewer walks than strikeouts, Samaniego, is also one of two to have a WHIP under 2.00.

JC Flowers

11 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 11 BB, 9 K

If you drop the walks from his stat line, which includes a 3.27 ERA, it doesn’t look like he pitched too badly. He was the most used Pirates’ pitcher, but the elephant in the room is the 11 walks.

Alessandro Ercolani

3.2 IP, 2 H, 4 ER, 11 BB, 5 K

Ercolani’s fall ended early, and while the two hits and five strikeouts look good in 3.2 innings pitched, the massive amount of walks left a dark cloud over his stint in Arizona.

Of the pitchers who finished in the top 10 in the AFL in walks, Ercolani threw the least amount of innings and was one of two not to top 10 (Adisyn Coffey).