Sixto Sanchez pulled from Arizona Fall League by Phillies

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Play gets underway today in the Arizona Fall League, the annual fall showcase event for some of the top prospects from each organization in Major League Baseball.

The Philadelphia Phillies were scheduled to send eight players to participate in the AFL with the Scottsdale Scorpions squad: first baseman Darick Hall, third baseman Luke Williams, shortstop Arquimedes Gamboa, outfielder Austin Listi, and pitchers Luke Leftwich, Seth McGarry, Tyler Viza, and Sixto Sanchez.

However, just yesterday the Phillies announced that Sanchez, the club’s top prospect, was being pulled out of the league. The move appears to be largely cautionary in nature.

Sanchez turned 20-years-old at the end of July. He went 4-3 with a 2.51 ERA and 1.071 WHIP this past season with the High-A Clearwater Threshers. The right-hander allowed 39 hits over 46.2 innings across eight starts with a 45/11 K:BB ratio.

He was really beginning to heat up when the Phillies shut him down due to elbow discomfort following a start on June 3. In his previous four outings, Sanchez had gone 3-1 while allowing just 15 hits over 25.2 innings with a 29/4 K:BB ratio.

Sanchez would never return, and the AFL stint was going to give him a chance to get some more innings of work in before taking a break for the winter.

Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia described the circumstances of his removal from the Arizona Fall League as follows:

“Sanchez was firmly on the road to recovery and getting work in the Florida Instructional League when he recently came down with soreness in his right collarbone. Team medical officials are not alarmed by the issue and they are confident that Sanchez will be fully healthy and ready to go for spring training. However, the setback cut into Sanchez’s preparation time in Florida so the team has decided to err on the side of caution and hold him out of the AFL.”

The other seven Phillies prospects will open their Fall season tonight against the Mesa Solar Sox in Scottsdale, Arizona. The six teams of the AFL are divided into two divisions. Each is scheduled to play a 30-game schedule which ends on November 15, with a championship game scheduled between the two division leaders on November 17.

When healthy, Sanchez combines a 70-grade fastball with fantastic control and improving curveball and changeup offerings that have led to his being rated not only the Phillies top prospect, but also one of the most exciting arms in the entire sport.

He is currently ranked as the 21st overall prospect by MLB, and the #6 right-handed pitching prospect in the game. Assuming he is healthy in the spring, you should expect Sanchez to reach Double-A next season.

Again, given health, by spring training of 2020 when he will still be just 21-years-old it is likely that he will push for a spot in the Phillies starting rotation.

Originally published at Phillies Nation as "Phillies pull top prospect Sixto Sanchez as Arizona Fall League gets underway"

Ian Happ Shines in AFL Fall Stars Game

The Chicago Cubs have experienced quite the year in 2016. The big league club won the World Series for the first time since 1908, ending the ‘Curse of the Billy Goat’ and freeing Steve Bartman from exile.

There were many individual accolades for the players in the organization as well. Ben Zobrist was the World Series MVP, while Javier Baez and Jon Lester shared the NLCS Most Valuable Player honors.

Kris Bryant was named as the National League Most Valuable Player. Bryant also won the Hank Aaron Award as the top all-around hitter in the National League.

Right fielder Jason Heyward won a National League Gold Glove Award, as did first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

Rizzo was further honored as the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year at first base, and he also won a Silver Slugger Award.

Kyle Hendricks was honored by his peers with the Players Choice Award as Outstanding National League Pitcher.

Phillies Prospect Scott Kingery Heating Up in the Arizona Fall League

The Philadelphia Phillies’ top second base prospect is playing in the Arizona Fall League and is heating up after a slow start.

The Philadelphia Phillies have been considering their future at the Keystone position ever since the greatest player in franchise history at the position began to decline in recent years. 

That player, Chase Utley, was the starter at second base for the better part of a dozen seasons from 2004-15, providing All-Star caliber production for the majority of that time.

In the wake of Utley’s trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers in August of 2015, Cesar Hernandez took over at the position. 

Hernandez provided a solid batting average and some speed in the Phillies lineup, but he is an inconsistent player who is prone to maddening mistakes.

In the 2015 MLB Amateur Draft, the Phillies selected Scott Kingery out of the University of Arizona with their second round selection, the 48th player chosen overall. 

Kingery has hit for a .271/.328/.372 slash line with eight homers, 58 extra-base hits, 67 RBI, 119 runs scored, and 41 stolen bases in 49 attempts during his first two minor league seasons.

Bryce Harper's Coming Out Party

In writing up my final MLB Power Ranking last week, I finished up the Washington Nationals comments with this line: "I believe that this postseason could very well be Bryce Harper's true launching pad to on-field stardom."

The Nats finished 2nd in the Power Ranking and were the team that I believed were best positioned to win the World Series. The San Francisco Giants killed that possibility by dumping Washington in four games in one of the National League Division Series.

But the postseason performance of Harper, limited to those four games as it was, may indeed have been that launching pad. Harper launched a few himself, blasting 3 homeruns. He also scored 4 runs and knocked in 4. He hit .294, registering a .368 on-base percentage, an .882 slugging percentage, and had an OPS of 1.251 as well.

Harper began his assault on Giants pitching in the bottom of the 7th inning of Game 1 with the Nats trailing 3-0. Against reliever Hunter Strickland, Harper led off and absolutely crushed a titanic shot into the right field upper deck at Nationals Park to get the Nats on the board.

Harper, who appears to thrive under pressure in dramatic situations, sensed the importance of getting the Nats crowd back into the game: "Get some runs on the board, get this crowd back into it. Getting them going was very exciting." It wouldn't ultimately be enough, as San Fran held on to win 3-2, going up 1-0 in the series.

Game 2 would prove to be historic, the longest postseason game by time in MLB history, tied for the longest by innings.