Rundown of Baltimore Orioles prospects in 2017 Arizona Fall League
By Vivek Shukla
Baltimore Orioles will send a handful of prospects to the Arizona Fall League 2017 including names such as Ryan Mountcastle, Tanner Scott and more.
The Arizona Fall League (AZFL) has served as an extension of the minor league season and a chance for Baltimore Orioles prospects to advance their game. The league serves the purpose of allowing individual players to get more work in before the off-season begins.
The real fantastic component regarding the Arizona Fall League is that it consists of minor league players from all levels Single-A through Triple-A.
For younger players, this comes to the as good challenge to play tougher competition. Players like Donnie Hart, Stefan Crichton, Jimmy Yacabonis, and DJ Stewart have had success in their following seasons after playing the AZFL.
Baltimore Orioles reporter on MASNsports’ Steve Melewski, revealed some of the players that the Orioles will be sending in 2017. There is a reason for excitement with many of these prospects.
Ryan Mountcastle
Ryan Mountcastle may be the most exciting of the batch to head to the Arizona Fall League. The young prospect drafted out of Hagerty High School has shown great promise as a future Orioles star.
As a 2015 first rounder, he possesses an advanced hitting tool which has brought him to AA Bowie at the young age of 20. After hitting .314 with 15 home runs and 35 doubles at Frederick, he is slowing adjusting to Double-A play.
Mountcastle leads all of the minor leagues in doubles with 46. As he continues to grow, it will be exciting to see how his doubles turn into home runs as we saw with Manny Machado.
With the Bowie Baysox, he has been learning to play third base as he transitions from shortstop. The AZFL will also allow for Mountcastle to get more work at third base.
While Mountcastle has not been given the best reviews for his infield defense and projects as a left fielder, it is too early to give up on a young man.
As the Orioles have shown with Trey Mancini, if you can hit, they’ll find a place for you. This decision is similar to Chance Sisco going to the AFL at the age of 20 when he also went from Frederick to Bowie.