The Arizona Fall League starts today, with our boys taking the field at 2:35pm. The Reds are assigned to the Phoenix Desert Dogs this year. The Reds have chosen to send these players to the league: RHP Brad Boxberger, RHP Nick Christiani, LHP Donnie Joseph, LHP Travis Webb, Catcher Yasmani Grandal, Infielder Brodie Greene and Infielder/Outfielder Cody Puckett.
Some of the stadiums have the Pitch F/X cameras installed, so I can’t wait to see the data for all of the players. Boxberger spent time in the AFL back in 2009. He topped out at 97 MPH that year according to the data. I have seen him hit 98 in person once as well. Should be interesting to see Joseph’s data, as the reports were that he boosted his velocity this season.
Speaking of Brad Boxberger, he is blogging from the AFL for MLBlogs. Go check it out, he has two posts up so far.
The IBF Baseball World Cup is underway from Panama. The Reds have several players representing their country: Kyle Lotzkar (Canada), Luca Panerati (Italy), Neftali Soto (Puerto Rico), Donald Lutz (Germany) and Didi Gregorius & JC Sulbaran (Netherlands). Didi Gregorius had a HR and 2 RBI in a 19-0 win for the Netherlands over Greece. JC Sulbaran threw a 5 inning complete game with 4 strikeouts and a walk. Luca Panerati threw 1.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen for Italy. Neftali Soto had a 2-5 with an RBI night. The Germany game has not been updated with results as of this post.
Baseball America will release the Southern League Top 20 Prospects tomorrow. Be sure to check back for that one. I could see both Yasmani Grandal and Neftali Soto making the list, but we shall see to Wednesday.