The players in the Arizona Fall League had a mini vacation over the past few days. Rain in the Phoenix area wiped out games on both Saturday and Sunday well ahead of time, and there was a scheduled off day on Monday. All six teams got back on the field on Tuesday, though. Peoria played host to Scottsdale and the game started out looking like an offensive onslaught. The two teams combined for nine runs in the 1st inning, but only scored five runs the rest of the game – all in 1-run innings.
In the Javelinas half of that 1st inning it was Leo Balcazar who drove in the first run for Peoria. He lined a single back up the middle at 99 MPH to bring in a run and send another runner over to third base. That hit extended his hitting streak to all four games he’s played in so far in the Arizona Fall League. He would add another single in the 8th inning as he raised his average to .375 through the first four games.
But if you happened to be watching the game you’ll already know that it wasn’t the bat that was impressing everyone, but it was Balcazar’s defense. He made several plays that got the broadcast crew excited. And those plays all came at third base – a position he hasn’t spent much time in his career playing.
Balcazar was just one of five prospects to play in the game. Alfredo Duno picked up a hit and an RBI, going 1-4 on the day. Cam Collier went 0-4 but scored a run. Hunter Parks struggled on the mound, walking four batters and giving up a run while throwing 26 pitches and just seven strikes in 0.2 innings.
Trevor Kuncl came on in the 8th to reliever Parks with the bases loaded and got out of the jam. He returned to pitch the 9th inning, too, striking out three batters with one walk in his 1.1 innings.
Statcast data from the day
The Pitchers
It was a bad day for Hunter Parks as he simply couldn’t find the strikezone, throwing nearly three times as many balls as strikes on the day. He did average 97.0 MPH on his fastball and he topped out at 98.2 MPH.
Trevor Kuncl didn’t throw quite as hard as Parks but his results were much better. His fastball averaged 95.2 MPH on the afternoon and topped out at 96.4 MPH. Only seven of his 26 pitches were fastballs, though, as he went cutter heavy, throwing it more than half of the time.
The Hitters
Alfredo Duno had the second hardest hit ball of the day. His single had an exit velocity of 104.5 MPH. Two of the three batted balls he had were grounders (including his single). He popped out to shortstop in his other at-bat. He showed off a pop time of 1.9 and a throw at 82.5 MPH on a stolen base in the game. Both of those are well above-average numbers for a catcher.
Cam Collier only put one ball in play on the day and it turned into a fielders choice. He hit that ball hard, but the grounder was 103.3 MPH back up the middle to the second baseman who flipped to shortstop at the bag but it wasn’t in time to get the runner and everyone wound up being safe.
Leo Balcazar’s first hit of the day, as noted above, was on a line drive into center at 98.5 MPH. His second hit was on an infield chopper at 78.1 MPH. He did show off a strong arm, registering a throw on an assist at 87.2 MPH. Balcazar also turned in a sprint speed of 29.0 ft/sec on his infield hit.