Fall/Winter Ball Thread

[Craig Grebeck]

Not sure why we haven't had one of these yet. Our Arizona Fall League participants are: Gordon Beckham, Lucas Harrell, Aaron Poreda, Derek Rodriguez, Carlos Torres, Cole Armstrong and Maurice Gartrell.

Beckham's performance will dictate where he starts next year, IMO. If he handles himself really well, he might start in Birmingham.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/winterleagues/?league=afl

[Sockinchisox]

Beckham also has a blog for the AFL.

http://aflwhitesox.mlblogs.com/

[Hagan]

Any news coming out of Instructional League? Has anyone taken in any games??

Originally Posted by Hagan

Any news coming out of Instructional League? Has anyone taken in any games??

Is that where Jordan Danks is at? Anyone else noteworthy?

[Sockinchisox]

Interesting, Beckham is playing 2nd.

Although it could be just to find him ABs.

[jabrch]

Originally Posted by Sockinchisox

Interesting, Beckham is playing 2nd.

Although it could be just to find him ABs.

Greene and Desmond are both more likely to play SS in the bigs. Not sure where Beckham ends up...

[Craig Grebeck]

Originally Posted by Sockinchisox

Interesting, Beckham is playing 2nd.

Although it could be just to find him ABs.

Guys play everywhere in the AFL. It is not telling of anything.

[California Sox]

Beckham is not playing ss because he was a late addition without a priority spot. That's all. I wouldn't read more into it than that. Greene was considered an iffy defender with a good bat when drafted. Now he's a good defender with an iffy defender. Hard to tell how things will end up when a prospect is so new to pro ball.

[KenBerryGrab]

Keith Law in his Insider column on ESPN has a good report on Poreda. Says he saw him in two one-inning stints and that the lefty threw "91-96" in his first outing and 93-96 in the second, with big sink. The four seamers showed "late life."

He said Poreda didn't use his slider much, that one was nasty and the others average, with an early break that wouldn't fool big-league hitter.

Originally Posted by KenBerryGrab

Keith Law in his Insider column on ESPN has a good report on Poreda. Says he saw him in two one-inning stints and that the lefty threw "91-16" in his first outing and 93-96 in the second, with big sink. The four seamers showed "late life."

He said Poreda didn't use his slider much, that one was nasty and the others average, with an early break that wouldn't fool big-league hitter.

What's 91-16?

[KenBerryGrab]

Originally Posted by btrain929

What's 91-16?

It's a typo! Should be 91-96. Dang fingers. Now edited.

Well I'm glad to hear his sinker is really effective. I would think the AFL would be the perfect time to work on his offspeed pitches. The fact that he didn't see many in 2 outings is slightly discouraging. Just teach the kid a circle change and he'll be able to get by. Sinker, c.change, and ANOTHER pitch, and he'll be really good.

[EMachine10]

Originally Posted by btrain929

Well I'm glad to hear his sinker is really effective. I would think the AFL would be the perfect time to work on his offspeed pitches. The fact that he didn't see many in 2 outings is slightly discouraging. Just teach the kid a circle change and he'll be able to get by. Sinker, c.change, and ANOTHER pitch, and he'll be really good.

Have him develop the slider a little bit more and we could be in luck.

[JorgeFabregas]

Poreda struck out the side while giving up a walk and a single in his first inning of work today (his third appearance in the AFL, I believe).

Beckham is playing SS today.