OF Robert, RHP Duplantier Named Arizona Fall League Players of the Week
Published on November 13, 2018 under Arizona Fall League (AzFL) News Release
Scottsdale, Arizona - Glendale Desert Dogs outfielder Luis Robert (White Sox) and Salt River Rafters right-handed starting pitcher Jon Duplantier (Diamondbacks) are the Fall League's week five players of the week.
Robert - The highly-regarded outfielder - MLB Pipeline's No. 44 overall prospect, No. 10 outfielder and No. 4 White Sox prospect - extended his AFL- best hitting streak to 14 games. He batted .400 for the week and led the league with eight hits.
Robert finished the fifth week of play as the league's No. 5 hitter (.361) and tied for the AFL lead in runs scored (18).
Injuries limited the 21-year-old native of Havana, Cuba to 50 games in 2018, his first season of professional baseball in the United States, when he played at three levels - rookie-level Arizona League (White Sox), Single-A (Kannapolis) and High-A (Winston-Salem).
Duplantier - Pipeline's No. 80 overall prospect and the Arizona Diamondbacks' No. 1 prospect posted nine strikeouts in his week-five start, the Fall League's second highest single-game whiff total in 10 years.
Through five weeks, the 24-year-old Newark, Delaware product shared the Fall League's strikeout lead (27) with Scottsdale starter Forrest Whitley (Astros), Pipeline's No. 1-ranked pitcher. Duplantier also sported a 1-1 record with a 4.08 ERA in five starts covering 17.2 innings.
The five-year professional, who pitched collegiately at Rice University, was drafted in the third round (89th overall) by Arizona in 2016.
He split his 2018 season between the rookie-level Arizona League Diamondbacks and Double-A Jackson.
His three-year minor-league record includes a 17-4 slate with a 1.79 ERA and a .199 opponent batting average. He also boasts 245 strikeouts in 211 innings. Others - Also nominated for the fifth weekly AFL awards were Surprise RHP Nate Pearson (Blue Jays), Salt River RHP Griffin Jax, Surprise SS Cole Tucker (Pirates), OF Daniel Woodrow (Tigers), Glendale 3B Yu Chang (Indians), Mesa RHP Erick Leal (Cubs) and Scottsdale RHP Sam Wolff (Giants).
Arizona Fall League - Known throughout professional baseball as a finishing school for Major League Baseball's elite prospects, the Arizona Fall League, which completes its 27th season on Saturday with its annual championship game, 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), Peoria Sports Complex (defending champion Peoria Javelinas), Sloan Park (Mesa Solar Sox), Salt River Fields (Salt River Rafters), Scottsdale Stadium (Scottsdale Scorpions) and Surprise Stadium (Surprise Rafters).
Arizona Fall League Stories from November 13, 2018
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