Arizona Fall League Recap – Hitters

This year the Phillies only sent two hitters the Arizona Fall League.  The first was former second round pick in the 2011 draft, Clearwater CF, Roman Quinn and the other was AA catcher Logan Moore.  Quinn came with much bigger expectations and played in 24 of Scottsdale’s 32 games (including missing time due to an injury scare), Moore was more roster filler and a back up, getting into only 12 games.

Roman Quinn:

24 G 92 AB .250/.361/.359 2 3B 2 HR 14 SB 2 CS 16 BB 16 K

The fall league was good for Quinn, who was the primary center fielder for the Scottsdale Scorpions.  The Phillies stressed approach and switch hitting for the fall and Quinn succeed in both them with a much improved walk and strikeout rate, as well as 80+ PAs batting left handed.  Scouts and evaluators came away favoring the long term outlook of his left handed swing, which shows more power and impact, but Quinn did continue to put up more dominant numbers from his natural right handed swing.  On the bases Quinn led the league in stolen bases, but his baserunning instincts continue to be called into question.  In terms of recovery from the injury the speed was more 70 than 80 on the time he was turning in, but he did flash the top line 80 speed on multiple occasions, and he appears to be fully recovered from the Achilles injury.  In the outfield the reports were that Quinn’s instincts are beyond the number of reps, but the routes still need a lot of work.  From interviews Quinn is feeling much more comfortable playing the outfield as opposed to playing in on the dirt and he is translating that into stride on the field.

Overall I would say that Quinn’s stock is up after his performance in Fall League, but I wouldn’t read too much into the walk and strikeout rates until they translate against more consistent pitchers and routines.  It isn’t a big leap forward for Quinn either, it has been a slow grow and return to his pre-2013 level of prospect status.  If he can go to Reading and put up similar numbers, perhaps with a touch more extra base pop, then he will go shooting up rankings.

Logan Moore:

12 G 41 AB .146/.234/.171 1 2B 5 BB 11 K

Moore came into fall league with the reputation of being one of the organizations best defensive catchers and with a .221/.296/.358 line in AA he was starting to inch towards a ceiling as a good defensive back up.  Moore just flopped in the AFL.  The defense was suspect and he was iffy on throwing out baserunners.  The offense was just bad and he looked overmatched.  This doesn’t mean the end of the line for Moore.  He will likely return to AA in 2015, at least in a part time role.  If he can show the defensive skills again (and his receiving and game calling can be very good), he can start to crawl his way back to that defensive backup catcher label.  The bat will likely never be there, but he is going to need the defensive rebound more than anything.

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