Two weeks into the Arizona Fall League, Hagen Smith's walks are still dampening some of the excitement from his strikeouts and general effectiveness, but at least the league context is a lot more forgiving.
Smith's on-again-off-again relationship with his control stood out as worrisome in the Southern League, and more specifically in a Birmingham Barons rotation where strike-throwing virtually guaranteed success. Guys like Shane Murphy and Jake Palisch outperformed Smith despite a fraction of Smith's bat-missing ability purely because they forced Southern League hitters to beat them, and Southern League hitters couldn't make that happen.
In the AFL, however, it seems like every other pitcher struggles to throw strikes, and between the desert air and showcase-caliber hitting, they're paying the price for wildness:
- Southern League: 4.01 R/G, 10.6 BB%, 23.5 K%
- Arizona Fall League: 6.74 R/G, 15.8.BB%, 24.3 K%
In this sense, it stands out that Smith has pitched six scoreless innings in two starts for the Glendale Desert Dogs, working around four hits, four walks and a hit batter while striking out nine. He's walked a tightrope a few times while allowing three steals in as many attempts, but the strikeouts -- along with a well-timed relay to cut down a runner at home plate in his first start of the spring -- have kept the runs columns clean.
By now, it seems like any potential revelations with regards to his control will have to wait until the offseason, but he's at least pitching well enough to add to his workload. He's up to 22 starts and 81⅔ innings this season, which is still 10 innings short of what he threw with Arkansas and Winston-Salem last year.
At 3-6, the Desert Dogs are in last place through the first two weeks of Arizona Fall League play, although rainouts have limited them to nine games.
Hitters
| Player | PA | 2B | 3B | HR | BB/K | SB/CS | BA/OBP/SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caden Connor | 37 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11/2 | 4/0 | .360/.541/.400 |
| Sam Antonacci | 36 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5/5 | 3/0 | .226/.333/.387 |
| Ryan Galanie | 26 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1/7 | 1/0 | .211/.308/.211 |
Glendale should feel familiar to the White Sox's position-player delegates, and not just because they know Camelback Ranch inside and out, or because they all won rings with the Barons. The Desert Dogs offense is very Birmingham-like, in the sense that they're average in OBP despite being dead last in homers and overall slugging. Connor is doing his best Rikuu Nishida impersonation with an absurd walk rate, but Antonacci is in uncharted territory, as he has more homers than HBPs.
Statcast tracks games in the AFL, so it's worth. noting the homer traveled 406 feet with an exit velocity of 103.3 mph, as Antonacci's batted-ball data is mostly unfamiliar.
Galanie hasn't gotten it going yet, but Scott Merkin wrote a good story about his fondness for offseason RV excursions.
Pitchers
| Player | G | IP | H | HR | BB | K | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hagen Smith | 2 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0.00 |
| Connor McCullough | 2 | 5.2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 7.94 |
| Jarold Rosado | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 18.00 |
| Carson Jacobs | 3 | 1.2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 5.40 |
Smith's performance stands out when looking at his Desert Dogs teammates, who are either overdrafting walks or getting punished for mistakes inside the zone. When looking at Glendale's leaderboard, what stands out most is the presence of Dodgers pitching prospect Alex Makarewich, who appears to be an entirely different person than White Sox infielder prospect Alec Makarewicz, and not just Ellis Island clerical error. They have not yet faced each other. Perhaps they're never supposed to meet.
