The Arizona Fall League officially came to an end over the weekend with the Championship game being played. The Peoria Javelinas, the team with all of the Cincinnati Reds representatives, finished up their season on Thursday, falling short of the finals. Today we are going to look back at the position players that the organization sent out to Arizona.
Brandon Dixon
After a bit of a slow start it didn’t take long for Brandon Dixon to get things going for Peoria. In the final three weeks of the season he hit .375/.474/.750 with six walks, six doubles, two home runs and 15 strikeouts. He would complete his trip through the Arizona Fall League with a .979 OPS, which was the fourth best mark in the league. He finished 5th in the league in average with a .333 mark, his on-base percentage ranked 2nd at .429 and his .550 slugging ranked 4th. All of those were good things, but there was one thing that wasn’t so good in his time in Arizona: He struck out 24 times in 70 plate appearances (34.3%).
Brian O’Grady
Among the position players that the organization sent to Arizona, Brian O’Grady was the one without any upper minor league experience. In very limited action, he played in just 11 games, he struggled to hit, posting a .211/.333/.237 line. He had seven walks, which boosted his on-base percentage, but he couldn’t find the hits frequently and only had one extra-base hit (a double).
Zach Vincej
There’s not a player that went to the Arizona Fall League, Reds player or not, who had a more impressive six weeks than Zach Vincej did. From the start of the games until the final day, all he did was hang out at the top of the leaderboard in nearly every category. He finished the season with a .352/.425/.676 line with seven doubles, two triples and four home runs. He finished in the top three in the league in average, on-base percentage, OPS, doubles, triples and home runs. He led the league in slugging.
Chad Wallach
For the third straight year Chad Wallach went out to play in the Arizona Fall League. The first two times were a real struggle, but things went better for first baseman/catcher in 2016. After struggling to OPS .500 in the previous two trips, Wallach went out and hit .250/.320/.441 in 20 games played for Peoria. He hit three home runs and four doubles, both numbers were more than his previous combined totals from the league.