The temperature is not the one factor that is been heating up within the desert with Week 2 of the Arizona Fall League within the books. After a shortened opening week — resulting from rain from Hurricane Priscilla and Tropical Storm Raymond, which pressured the cancellation of a number of video games — gamers appeared to settle in properly throughout the marketing campaign’s second week.
We have seen an unprecedented sizzling begin from Pirates No. 15 prospect Esmerlyn Valdez, who’s on tempo to put up online game numbers that might solely be amassed utilizing a cheat code, and dominance on the hill from Astros No. 7 prospect Anderson Brito, who was untouchable in his second Fall League look.
So, it is no shock that Valdez (Salt River) and Brito (Scottsdale) earned Hitter and Pitcher of the Week honors, respectively, for Week 2 of the Arizona Fall League.
Valdez is coming off of a historic week for the River Rafters. The 21-year-old slashed .615/.727/1.846 whereas pacing the circuit in complete bases (24), house runs (5), slugging share (1.846), OPS (2.573) and ending tied within the lead with eight hits. Valdez completed second in batting common, on-base share, RBIs (11) and walks (7). The Dominican Republic native put an exclamation level on his week with a two-homer, 10 complete base sport on Sunday. In eight video games this season, Valdez has mashed seven house runs, which is already midway to the AFL file of 14 set by Brandon Wooden in 2005.
The outfielder was signed throughout the worldwide signing interval in January 2021, and actually tapped into his energy final 12 months when he led the Florida State League in homers with 22. Valdez break up this season between Excessive-A Greensboro and Double-A Altoona, and he continued to rake. Mixed, he posted a .286/.376/.520 slash line with 26 dingers, a pair of triples, 25 doubles, 86 RBIs, 75 runs scored, 56 walks and three stolen bases in 123 video games.
Brito tossed three hitless frames in his lone look of the week for the Scorpions on Friday. The appropriate-hander struck out seven batters in a row in a stretch that spanned the primary to the third innings. After selecting up one other strikeout to finish his outing, Brito’s eight complete punchouts are probably the most in a single AFL look this season. Flashing as excessive as 98.9 mph on his heater, Brito recorded six of his strikeouts on whiffs. After issuing a pair of walks to the primary two batters he confronted, the 5-foot-10, 155-pounder didn’t permit one other baserunner.
The 21-year-old broke into professional ball in 2024 by logging a 0.40 ERA with 40 strikeouts in 22 1/3 innings within the Rookie-level Dominican Summer time League, then got here to the US and made one scoreless begin within the Rookie-level Florida Complicated League earlier than thriving at Single-A Fayetteville over seven appearances in 2024. He pitched all of this season at Excessive-A Asheville, posting a 3.28 ERA, a 1.30 WHIP and a .202 common in opposition to. The native of Venezuela struck out 65 whereas strolling 28 over 12 begins (49 1/3 innings).
