Instructional league helped A’s prospects shake off rust
After a year without minorleague games, A’s player development staff used the justfinished fall instructional-league camp to make up lost time on the field.
“Normally we cover a lot of meetings and organizational philosophies and stuff like that,” A’s farm director Ed Sprague said. “The goal ( this year) was really just to try to make up atbats for the players and innings for the pitchers.”
The A’s brought 46 prospects to their instructional-league camp in Arizona, which ended last week. That included a few who were at their San Jose alternate site during the majorleague season, but most of the group hadn’t been part of team-organized workouts since the spring.
Sprague said the camp operated more like an inseason affiliate, with focus on players getting individual drill and field work and on games. The A’s played about two dozen games against other teams, mostly nineinning affairs. Sprague said hitters showed “a little rust” seeing live pitching at first but improved during the camp and “it was nice, competitive baseball.”
Among position players, infielder Jonah Bride, a 23rd round draft pick in 2018 who hit .279 at High-A Stockton in 2019, “probably stood out the most in terms of improvement,” Sprague said. “Maybe not a top prospect, but he played really well.” Lawrence Butler, a first basemanoutfielder and 2018 sixthround pick, “continued to show the ability to hit the ball really hard,” and outfielder Austin
Beck displayed improved pitch recognition, Sprague said.
Beck, the A’s firstround pick in 2017, posted a high strikeout number at Stockton in 2019 and wasn’t among the prospects at the alternate site this summer. Despite a lack of game atbats, Beck seemed to have a better strikezone grasp in instructional-league games, Sprague said.
“He got himself in better counts. He swung at better pitches,” Sprague said. “He’s still obviously a plus defender. But the biggest thing with him is can he get the bat-to-ball skills and control of the strike zone that’s going to allow for his power to shine?”
Prospects who were in both San Jose and Arizona included switchhitting shortstop Logan Davidson, the 2019 firstround pick, who impressed in his first full year in the A’s system. Davidson didn’t get many righthanded atbats at San Jose, where the A’s had one lefthanded pitcher, and played some second and third base out of necessity and adapted well.
“I don’t want to say he made more strides than anybody else but … you had to kind of kick yourself like, really, this guy’s only played half a season?” Sprague said. “You would’ve felt like this guy was coming off Double-A. He felt like he was a roster guy.”
Catcher Tyler Soderstrom, Oakland’s firstround pick this year from Turlock, showed a “really advanced approach for a high school kid in terms of balance and recognition,” Sprague said. “He’s got a chance to be a plus hitter with plus power. Defensively, he’s got the skill set behind there — he just needs a lot of reps.”
All five of the A’s 2020 draft picks were at instructional league. Secondround pick Jeff Criswell, a righthander out of Michigan, showed a “wipeout slider” and reached 98 mph in twoinning stints; the A’s are hoping he projects as a starter, Sprague said. Fourthround pick Dane Acker, from Oklahoma, showed a good breaking ball, and 2019 ninthround pick Colin Peluse showed a jump in velocity to the 9697 mph range.
“The overall crop of pitchers I thought was kind of our best crop that we’ve had at instructional league for quite a bit of time,” Sprague said. “Almost every guy averaging over 90 mph, and we had a handful of guys that were 94 to 98.”
The A’s shut down their instructional-league team briefly in mid-October because of a positive coronavirus test. Sprague said the A’s think it “might end up being a false positive based on the followup testing.” He credited players with following protocols such as maskwearing and distancing on the field, and said overall, the camp was valuable for prospects whose progress otherwise largely was put on hold this year.
“It was great to be able to get these guys out here, get some eyes on them,” Sprague said. “It’s not a perfect world where they had a whole season, and I think it’s going to disrupt some guys worse than others.
“I think some of the younger, younger guys will bounce back because maybe they missed half a season or whatever. Some of those midrange guys where they’re kind of in that peak development time, yeah, that’s going to hurt. But it shouldn’t be a death sentence — they should be able to continue to work hard and everybody in the industry’s in the same boat, so it’s not like we’re any different than anybody else.”