Arizona Fall League Players of the Week
October 31, 2017 - Arizona Fall League (AzFL) News Release
Scottsdale, Arizona - A pair of Atlanta Braves prospects - outfielder Ronald Acuna and left-handed starting pitcher Max Fried - have been named the Arizona Fall League Players of the Week.
Acuna - MLB.com's No. 5-rated overall prospect, No. 3 outfielder and No. 1 Braves prospect hit .476 last week with three homers and 12 runs scored.
He led the AFL in hits (10), extra-base hits (6) and total bases (22), notched a two-homer game, and hit safely in his five games played.
After three weeks, he ranks first in runs scored (17), tied for second in hits (17) and extra-base hits (7), third in slugging percentage (.667), tied for third in homers (3), on-base percentage (.455), total bases (30), and fifth in batting average (.378).
The 19-year-old La Guaira, Venezuela native is completing his third professional season in the Arizona Fall League. He is a career .310 hitter in 236 minor-league games with 29 homers, 119 RBI and 74 stolen bases.
In 2017, the 6-0, 180-pound Acuna was promoted twice (High-A Florida, Double-A Mississippi, Triple-A Gwinnett), batting .287, .326 and .344, respectively, at the three highest stops in the Braves organization.
Fried - The former 2012 first-round draft pick (seventh overall) won both his starts last week to become the league's first three-game winner.
He allowed only one run and five hits in 11 innings.
The 6-4, 200-pound Santa Monica, California native finished the AFL's third week of play leading in wins (3) and strikeouts (23), and tied for the lead in starts (4) and innings pitched (19) while ranking eighth in ERA (0.47).
The five-year professional made his major-league debut on August 8, 2017 vs. Philadelphia. He posted a 1-1 record and 3.81 ERA in nine appearances (four starts) for the parent Braves. He spent most of the 2017 campaign at Double-A Mississippi and Triple-A Gwinnett.
Originally drafted by San Diego, Fried was traded to Atlanta in December, 2014 in a multi-player deal.
Others - Other nominees for the third 2017 weekly awards were Peoria 3B Austin Riley (Braves), and Scottsdale LHP Justus Sheffield (Yankees).
Arizona Fall League - Known throughout professional baseball as a finishing school for Major League Baseball's elite prospects, the Arizona Fall League, now in its 26th season, is a six-team league owned and operated by MLB.
It plays six days per week (Monday-Saturday) at six spring-training stadiums in the Phoenix metropolitan area - Camelback Ranch Glendale (Glendale Desert Dogs), Sloan Park (Mesa Solar Sox), Salt River Fields (defending champion Salt River Rafters), Scottsdale Stadium (Scottsdale Scorpions) and Surprise Stadium (Surprise Rafters).
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