The Scottsdale Scorpions, featuring the Detroit Tigers prospects playing in the Arizona Fall League got their short season underway starting on Monday, October 6. The two big names for the Tigers are top
prospect Kevin McGonigle and fellow infielder Max Anderson. Both had good games to kick off the Fall League, but more interesting has been the positions they’ve played.
McGonigle is a shortstop by trade, but as noted in his scouting reports going back to last year, he has a lot of work left to improve enough to play the position full-time in the major leagues. Hitting the caliber of pitching in the Fall League won’t be a problem, but having missed some time in each of his first two full pro seasons, getting some extra reps are a good idea. He’s largely facing competition at the same level he saw in Double-A down to younger, less experienced arms that need innings after missing time with injury this season. Still the real intrigue is watching him try and develop further as a shortstop, and seeing where the Tigers play him as an alternate position.
Max Anderson is in a similar situation. Now a top ten prospect in the system, Anderson is a decent second baseman and makes all the routine plays well despite somewhat mediocre range, but the Tigers are well stocked with second base options from Colt Keith to the possibility that McGonigle himself ends up playing some second base. It’s not impossible that they might decide to keep Gleyber Torres in free agency this winter as well. In all eventualities, the Tigers want to develop some positional flexibility.
So far, both men have played a lot of third base in the first week of Fall League action.
In Monday’s opener against the Peoria Javelinas, McGonigle played shortstop while Anderson played third base. McGonigle went 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts. Anderson went 1-for 3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
On Wednesday, McGonigle played third base and went 2-for-5 with a double, a walk, and a stolen base, while Anderson had the night off.
On Thursday night, McGonigle got the night off, while Anderson played third base. He went 3-for-4 with three doubles and two walks, looking quite impressive, although again I’ll caution that the level of pitching and the hitting environment in general strongly favors advanced hitters like McGonigle and Anderson. They’re expected to tear it up pretty well out there. Anderson isn’t the caliber of hitting prospect that McGonigle is, and he’s 2.5 years older as well, but he played 32 games in August and September at the Triple-A level, so he’s certainly seen more advanced pitching.
McGonigle played third base again on Friday night, while Anderson had the night off. McGonigle went 1-for-2 with a double off of Marlins pitching prospect Aiden May, who has a good slider and changeup but a bit of an underwhelming fastball, along with two walks with no strikeouts. McGonigle scored twice in that one as the Scorpions crushed the Mesa Solar Sox 10-2.
So McGonigle has three hits including two doubles, and has walked four times and struck out twice in 15 plate appearances so far, mostly playing third base.
Anderson has four hits, including three doubles, along with three walks in 10 plate appearances so far. He has struck out twice, and he too has played third base in both of his two games played.
Expectations for him to do plenty of damage in the Fall League are pretty high. Anderson needs to keep working on his pitch selectivity rather than relying too much on his hands to find his way to more pitches he can drive. Meanwhile, work in his setup and how he uses his legs in his swing are ongoing parts of the program to help him drive more balls in the air and pull the ball more effectively. He’s not an overbuilt slugger. Anderson makes a lot of contact but he does chase pitcher’s pitches too much, leading to a lot of routine ground balls. Much of his value is tied up in his bat, so better pitch selection and discipline, while learning to hit for more power against better and better pitching remains the challenges for him to become an effective major league hitter.
Play was cancelled in the Fall League due to inclement weather pushed into Arizona by Hurricane Priscilla pushing up the Baja Peninsula and bringing heavy rain to the desert.
Infielder Jack Penney is the Tigers third position player prospect. He can handle shortstop but profiles as a light hitting infielder who might turn into a solid utilityman if the bat continues to improve. He’s only had six plate appearances so far, walking in four of them without a hit or a strikeout.
RHP Dariel Fregio is a Tigers relief prospect with a good slider but an underpowered heater. He’s struck out three, walking one and allowing one hit in two scoreless innings of work.
RHP Carlos Lequerica was a big part of the West Michigan Whitecaps bullpen, but really needs his stuff to pop further. He’s a 25-year-old reliever who is very effective at the A-ball levels but is running out of time to turn himself into a real MLB caliber relief prospect. He’s only gotten into one game, collecting two outs, while allowing a walk, a strikeout, a hit, and no runs.
The one notable pitching prospect the Tigers were planning to send to the Fall League was left-hander Jake Miller, who dealt with injuries most of the year like many of the club’s pitching prospects. Emily Waldon of Baseball America reported earlier this week that the Tigers decided to pull Miller back instead to try and address the underlying cause of his injury trouble this season.
