Arizona residents know July and August as monsoon season, when storm cells carry mile-high walls of dust into the Sun Valley and cover the area in sand and rain. These storms provide the only reprieve from daily hundred-degree highs that stifle the Phoenix area from May through September. To many of those who dream of lush, green outfields and chilly October nights, American professional baseball introduces itself in the hostile Sonoran Desert, where adjusting to life and pro ball throughout the AZL season all comes down to weathering the storm...

Yikes. Sorry about that. Maybe I should stop trying to be poetic and get to the baseball. For those who don't know, I showed up in Phoenix in late June and left in mid-August, and I caught 35 AZL games over that span, 18 of which involved the rookie Rangers, so it makes sense that I should write something about them. I won't get to every rookie Ranger here, but I have notes of varying length on pretty much everyone I saw in several games. The players presented in the order in which I thought to list them.

Disclaimer: I am not a scout, nor do I have anything close to a scout's eye for baseball. All thoughts expressed here are my own judgments and may be very, very wrong.

THE HITTERS:

Ti’Quan Forbes had a rough debut with the bat. I don’t imagine that minor league managers try to squeeze every bit of optimization out of their lineup order past the standard "fast guys up front, strong guys in the middle, weak hitters at the back" thinking, but Forbes lost his spot as the leadoff man in late July. His hands move quite a bit pre-swing, and he hits a lot of ground balls. I have 38 balls in play for Forbes in my notebook, and my classifications have 28 grounders against three line drives. He displays good instincts in the infield and certainly has the arm to play at third, though he tends to airmail throws. Forbes sometimes struggles to accelerate out of the box, but he definitely shows above-average top-end speed. He just needs to hit. Filling out that frame would be nice, too.

Josh Morgan also didn’t hit for power – I never once saw him hit a ball that caused an outfielder to run toward the fence, and the one extra-base hit I saw from him occurred when the right fielder dove for a blooper and missed – but he made up for it in other ways. Morgan had the best strike zone judgment on the team, and he took a bunch of walks. He also got hit by a bunch of pitches, even by rookie ball standards. Unlike Forbes, Morgan is very short to the ball, and he sprays low line drives to all fields. Morgan is quick, and he gets to more than his fair share of balls at short or second, but his glovework needs attention.

Yeyson Yrizarri is an aggressive swinger with more pop than the aforementioned infielders. Otherwise I don’t remember a whole lot about his hitting. Second and short weren’t problems defensively, and he had the best arm on the team as well.

Jose Almonte also really struggled to hit. He constantly expanded the strike zone and made things hard for himself, but when got a pitch up in the zone, he could give it a ride. Secondary pitches gave him a ton of trouble; I remember one particular eight-pitch at bat because it might have been the only eight-pitch AB I saw from him all summer. (He struck out.) Almonte fits in right field and needs a bunch of seasoning.

Darius Day showed up in the middle of the season and took the leadoff role from Forbes after a few games. Day can run, throw, field, lay off pitches outside, and whiff on every breaking ball he sees with two strikes. I have him with one hit against six strikeouts on breaking balls. He got time at all three outfield spots, but he looks able to hold down the fort in center.

Carlos Arroyo runs really fast, and he doesn’t whiff often, but that’s about it. He plays all three outfield spots and some second base and is one of those "does whatever the game asks of him" kind of guys. He also runs really fast, which I’m repeating in order to get the point across.

Zach Stephens was old for the league, but he was a solid hitter in a lineup that needed every bit of offense it could get.

Sherman Lacrus puts nearly everything in the air. I called 23 of 35 balls in play either flies or liners. He got the job done behind the plate, but he doesn’t jump out as a defensive asset. A hitter-friendly park could do him a lot of good.

Oliver Caraballo provided pretty consistent production from the cleanup spot all season. Caraballo normally played a decent left field, occasionally spelling Stephens at first. One day, I showed up to Surprise, and Caraballo was in catcher’s gear. That day did not go well for him. It didn’t get better the next day, either. I didn’t see him in catcher’s gear anymore after that, but if he can learn the position, he becomes more useful immediately.

Todd McDonald led the team in wENIGMA+ by a mile. He possesses upper body strength so fantastic that he forgets to use his legs at all. It’s really unnerving.

Smerling Lantigua hasn’t done much stateside in three years stateside. I’m not sure where he goes from here.

Isaias Quiroz looked overmatched every now and then, but I saw him reach four times in a game, and he's only 17. We don't need to hold everyone to a Michael De Leon standard.

Jose Cardona doesn’t have a Fangraphs page, for some reason. He hit well enough for a midseason promotion, and he hit pretty well in Spokane, too.

THE PITCHERS:

Luis Ortiz rolled. The league was no match for him. Ortiz gave up one home run, had one poor outing when he could not locate his fastball, and received a deserved promotion to full-season ball. Here's what I wrote a while back:

Ortiz generally throws 91-94 on the fastball, though I’ve seen 95 a couple of times. It runs pretty naturally. Slider is hard at 85-87, and it breaks more down than away most of the time. Changeup goes 84-86 with noticeable fade and occasional sink. For comparison, I expect that the average AZL pitcher works 88-90 with either a high-70’s slider/slurve or a low-70’s pure curve. Changeups aren’t exactly common, but they’re normally low-80’s. Like literally almost every pitcher, Ortiz can’t function without fastball command. Good news is he’s pretty good at it most of the time (read: nine of the ten innings I’ve seen from him). When the heat goes where he wants it to, he can generate whiffs, often low/away. When it straightens out, it’s hittable, but rarely does anyone barrel it. He can throw the slider for strikes and chases to lefties and righties, but it’s not an insane weapon yet because the inconsistency with the horizontal break doesn’t let him start it out of the zone and pull back in on his arm side (i.e. backdoor to lefties). When Ortiz establishes his fastball low, the big advantage he has with the slider is that it’s very fast for the level and it tunnels well off his fastball, so hitters have a difficult time picking it up to lay off on it. The change is a work in progress. He has a tendency to release a bit early and miss armside. There aren’t enough good changes at this level for me to really give a comparison. Like the slider, it’s greatest quality at this level is its velocity. It’s never caused my jaw to hit the figurative floor like his other two pitches have at times, but it’s something. Mechanically, Ortiz is using better torque than he did as an amateur, and the extra twist probably adds a layer of deception. The delivery is a touch quicker now than it was when I first saw him, which probably aids his balance because it’s difficult for a guy that big to stand on one leg for a while and then execute a very precise motion.

Omarlin Lopez looks all over the place, but the stuff appears to be there. True three-pitch pitchers aren't all that common in the AZL, but Lopez definitely exhibits a feel for his low-90s fastball, graceful curveball, and fading chage. The mechanical profile makes things pretty tricky, as he starts and stops and starts and stops and starts and stops and finally strides and delivers, but some meat on his bones could do wonders to help him control and streamline his motion.

Brett Martin touched 94 and above a lot more than I remembered happening. He mixes a little drop-drive in with his rotation into stride, and the ball comes out of a high slot. It confuses me, so maybe it confuses hitters too. The slider and change are both workable.

Nick Green epitomizes effortless heat at this level. He sits 91-94 (touched 96 once) and can generally put the fastball where he wants to and generate whiffs with it, but the secondaries need a lot of work. Green likes to work in his slider as his main secondary, but it appears pretty flat. The curve offers better depth and comes with better command, and the change acts like a change, but they don't match his fastball.

Joe Palumbo improved greatly upon his 2013 debut. He can spot his low-90s fastball at the knees, and he can drop his curveball in for strikes. Cutting down on walks benefited him greatly.

Luke Lanphere works fastball-slider with a high slot and a busy front leg, and the fastball looked hittable at times, but he improved his peripherals this season and should get a shot above the complex league next year.

Ariel Jurado throws near 90 with some tail, but his fastball works more off the sharp angle at which he throws it, and that angle causes it to tunnel well with his slider.

Emerson Martinez throws a bit harder than Jurado without as much movement on the fastball, and his slider doesn't have the same tilt Jurado's does - I saw them pitch back to back multiple times, so they sit next to each other in my notes and in my head - but he gets his share of whiffs to go along with the hard hits he gives up.

Sterling Wynn started a couple of games and got hit hard. Heat ranges 88-90 out of a low three-quarter slot, and he throws a mid-70s breaker that generally starts to look better as his appearance progresses.

Gio Abreu looks like he would blow away in an Arizona dust storm, but he can top 90 without any significant lower-body effort. It's all arm speed with him. Abreu doesn't really have a usable secondary right now and needs to focus on commanding his fastball.

Easton Napiontek could eat Abreu for breakfast, but he doesn't throw nearly as hard. He put a 9 on a gun once, but he's more of an 86-88 guy with a slurvy breaker in the high 70s.

Joe Filomeno throws 92-94 from the left side with a nifty slider. He looks like a solid bullpen guy going forward.

Storm Rynard didn't know where his low-90s fastball was going most of the time.

Cody Palmquist struck out a bunch of guys with a fastball that wasn't all that fast (87-89). I have one outing in my notebook in which he got five whiffs on the fastball in one inning.

Jacob Raffaele signed with the Rangers as an undrafted free agent, I believe, and his job was to warm up at a moment's notice and take over for relievers who didn't bring their control with them from the bullpen. Raffaele doesn't throw hard at all (83-86 FB with two mid-70s secondaries), but he has by far the best hair on the team.

Che-Hsuan Lin is a pitcher now, apparently. He looks like a recent convert to the mound.

I didn't plan on writing about rookie ball today, but now that I have, I'd be more than happy to take any questions about these guys. I also have some recaps of specific games written up here and some videos here.

7FH

@sevenfuturehit