Atlanta Braves AFL Recap: Acuna homers, Alex Jackson just keeps raking

Garrett went out of town, so you have to deal with me giving a quick AFL update and recap. My apologies in advance.

The biggest news of the week is that the power started to show up for Acuna (well, at least on his stat line) as he connected for his first home run in the Arizona Fall League, an opposite field shot off of one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, Mitch Keller. Acuna’s line through 10 AFL games currently sits at .281/.385/.438 and while he hasn’t lit the world on fire there, he is performing very well and has done nothing to diminish his stock as one of, if not the best prospect in the game.

More surprisingly has been the emergence of Alex Jackson as Babe Ruth’s clone (small sample size warning here) as he now leads the Arizona Fall League with five home runs. Over the last week, Jackson has been on an absolute tear hitting home runs seemingly every day and he now ranks second in the league behind David Bote with a 1.211 OPS in nine games of work. His work behind the plate has gotten mixed reviews, but if he has truly taken a step forward with the bat....it could play anywhere on the field.

Austin Riley has gotten only five games of action due to the amount of playing time that Peoria has given to Michael Chavis due to how well he has been playing, but Austin has made the most of his time and is currently hitting .250/.318/.450 in a small sample size. That said, there has been increasing buzz about Riley’s stock due to his strong second half in 2017 and it is likely we will see his name on top 100 lists this offseason.

Touki Toussaint had a rough game and has seen his ERA (again, small sample size here) jump to 11.81 in 5.1 innings of work (it was a particularly rough appearance where he gave up five earned runs in less than an inning of work....everyone has bad days). Max Fried, meanwhile, remains one of the best pitchers in the league as he has struck out 18 batters in 13 innings pitched while posted a 0.69 ERA (nice) and a 0.77 WHIP.

Jared James has seen limited playing time, but has put up a .838 OPS in six games and Corbin Clouse, a guy everyone needs to keep an eye on for Atlanta’s bullpen next year, now has made four appearances and three of them were scoreless outings.