Giants, A’s send top prospects to Arizona Fall League

The Arizona Fall League announced tentative rosters Tuesday for the 2017 season, featuring four Giants prospects and five Athletics prospects in the annual six-team league.

Each team is made up of prospects from five major league organizations and runs from Oct. 10 through mid-November. The Mesa Solar Sox won the 2016 league championship over the Surprise Saguaros.

Right-handed pitchers Tyler Beede and Tyler Cyr, catcher Aramis Garcia and outfielder Steven Duggar will represent the Giants for the Scottsdale Scorpions, composed of minor leaguers from the Giants, Los Angeles Angels, New York Yankees, New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds.

2017 has not been kind to Beede. Tabbed by many as the Giants’ top pitching prospect entering the season, Beede saw his hits per nine rate rise to 10 while his strikeouts per nine fell to just under seven. Beede has a 4.79 earned run average in 109 innings pitched for Triple-A Sacramento.

Duggar is an athletic outfielder who reportedly had a shot to crack the major leagues this season before missing most of the first half with a hip injury. The 2015 sixth-round draft pick has shown patience, a feel for hitting, and decent speed. In 130 games between Double-A Richmond and high-A San Jose in 2016, Duggar hit .302 with an .836 on-base plus slugging percentage.

Garcia has 17 home runs in 99 games between high-A San Jose and Double-A Richmond, while Cyr has steadily rose through the Giants’ farm system as a reliever after being drafted in the 10th round of the 2015 amateur draft. Cyr has a 2.65 ERA in 142-2/3 professional innings across three seasons.

The A’s send two of the organization’s Top 10 prospects according to Baseball America’s midseason update. Righty Logan Shore and catcher Sean Murphy have spent most of 2017 playing for the high-A Stockton Ports.

Right-hander Miguel Romero has bounced around the lower levels of the organization, while outfielder Tyler Ramirez torched both high-A and Double-A to the tune of a .316 average over 128 games. Infielder Sheldon Neuse will also head to the AFL after being traded to the A’s as part of the deal for Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson on July 16.

While the AFL isn’t necessarily a step up the minor league ladder, Giants like Christian Arroyo and Austin Slater, as well as current Athletics Matt Chapman and Sean Manaea, have played in Arizona in previous years. If anything, it’s a vote of confidence that an organization wants to see more of a player.