Arizona Fall League Roundup: Michael Montgomery Bounces Back

Before I get into Friday's AFL roundup, here is an excerpt from Bryan Smith's writeup on Nationals prospect Bryce Harper over at Fangraphs:

The weakness you’ve probably read about, which is true, is that Bryce Harper is going to strike out. Probably a lot. Power hitters often do, and Harper is no exception — he swings incredibly hard at the baseball, and sometimes goes after pitches that he shouldn’t. What I will point out, though, is that we should not be worried about his strikeout rate. Because Harper swings so hard, and is so strong, what was clear in batting practice is that he is going to hit a ton of line drives. Like he will with home runs, he will be among the top of the Major League leaderboards in that category one day. All this leads me to say that we safely project Harper to have BABIPs above league average, which will help mitigate a strikeout rate north of 20%.

He goes on to say that Harper is the best prospect in the AFL, and that he is one of the two best prospects in baseball. 

Here is a look a the top performers from Friday's AFL action:

Mike Montgomery, KC-5 IP, 3 H, BB, 3 ER, 4 K

Adron Chambers, STL-2-5, RS, HR, RBI

Eric Farris, MIL-2-6, RS, 2 RBI

Caleb Gindl MIL-2-4, 2 RS, 2 2B, BB, K

Eric Hosmer, KC-0-5

Engel Beltre, TEX-3-4, RS, 2 SB, RBI

Ben Revere, MIN, 1-4, BB

Eduardo, Escobar, CHW-2-4, RS, HR, RBI

Devin Mesoraco, CIN-0-3, 2 K, 2 PB (6), E

Jared Mitchell, CHW-0-3, RS, BB

More after the jump:

Dustin Ackley, SEA-2-3, 2 RS, 2B, 2 RBI, BB, K

Brian Barnes, HOU-3-5, 2 RS, 3B, HR, 6 RBI

Cord Phelps, CLE-2-4, 3 RS, 2B, BB, 2 K

Trayvon Robinson, LAD-0-3, BB, K

Austin Romine, NYY-0-4, K, PB (4)

Brandon Laird, NYY-0-4, K

Jerry Sands, LAD-2-4, RS, 2B, K

Michael Taylor, OAK-1-3, RS, 2B, 2 RBI, BB

Brett Jackson, CHC-0-2

Kirk Nieuwenhuis, NYM-0-2

Brandon Wood, LAA-0-4, 2 K

Andrew Lambo, PIT-0-3, 2K

Jordany Valdespin, NYM-3-3, SB

AJ Pollock, ARI-0-5, 2 K, SB

Brandon Belt, SFG-2-5, RS, RBI

Marc Krauss, ARI-1-3, 2 RS, HR, RBI, 2 BB, 2 K

Charlie Culberson, SFG-2-5, RS, 2B

Charles Blackmon, COL-1-2, 2 RS, 2 BB

Kevin Goldstein tweeted the following about Dodgers SS prospect Dee Gordon earlier this morning:

1. #Dodgers SS Dee Gordon remains loco in Puerto Rico; 4-for-5 w/ 3B tonight, 17-for-29 (.654) on the season.
   
2. We still don't know why the Dodgers elected to send Gordon to Puerto Rico instead of the AFL, but Gordon is making the most of it in the early going.