The Arizona Fall League is about a week old, and it’s time to take a look at how the Tiger representatives are doing. The Tigers sent six players to the AFL: David Espinosa, Don Kelly, Kody Kirkland, Humberto Sanchez, Adam Peterson, and Mark Woodyard.

Player      AB    H    HR    BB    SO    SB    AVG     OBP     SLG
Kirkland     7    3     0     1     3     1    429     556     429
Espinosa    17    7     0     1     1     1    412     444     529
Kelly       20    6     0     1     2     0    300     318     300

Player        G     IP     ERA     H     HR     BB     SO
Sanchez       1    4.0    0.00     3      0      2      7
Peterson      3    4.1    4.15     5      2      1      5
Woodyard - DNP

Of the group Sanchez probably has been the most impressive. In his only appearance, over half of his outs came via the strikeout. He did battle a little wildness with a couple walks and a couple wild pitches, but it was very impressive nonetheless.

Peterson was hammered for both homeruns in his first outing, but has been effective in his two subsequent starts.

The position players have played reasonably well also, with all 3 hitting for a good average, but without much power.

It remains to be seen how much weight the organization will place on these performances. In the cases of Kirkland, Kelly, Espinosa, and Sanchez none are currently on the 40 man roster. If they aren’t added, they become eligible for the Rule 5 draft. A very good AFL showing could make these players more attractive to other teams looking for help, in turn forcing the Tigers to find a roster spot to avoid losing them.

To keep track of how the Tiger contingent, and the Mesa Solar Soxs are doing, MiLB.com has the
stats here.