The Arizona Fall League rosters were announced by Major League Baseball last week. The league allows up-and-coming prospects (usually from high-A and double-A levels, as well as recent high draft picks) to continue honing their skills away from the fall instructional leagues held by each organization. Play will begin in early October and run until late November with the six teams – each one made up of five organizations’ players – continually facing each other.

Over the next week, we’ll take a look at some of the more interesting names on each team. The rosters that were recently released are preliminary rosters and some players will be added, while others could be removed. Yesterday, we took a look at the Phoenix Desert Dogs. Today, we’ll have a peek at the Scottsdale Scorpions roster.

The Scottsdale Scorpions (Click HERE for the entire roster)
Arizona, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Colorado

Daniel Moskos | LHP | Pittsburgh
The Scottsdale squad does not feature many truly interesting pitching names, although Moskos does stand out as a former No. 1 draft pick of the Pirates. The left-hander has had a disappointing pro career to this point, although you may enjoy the 3.84 ERA in double-A… but the ground-ball rate of 54.3% is more impressive. Moskos has been too hittable but with a better defense behind him, he should have a little better luck. The strikeout rate in the past three years has plummeted, which is troubling (9.24 to 6.36 to 4.20 K/9).

Buster Posey | C | San Francisco
Teams have become very conscious of service time, so it would not be a surprise to see Posey begin 2010 in triple-A. With that said, the bat and glove are both ready for the Majors. If possible, the best scenario would be for San Francisco to resign veteran Bengie Molina to split the catching duties with Posey next year. Whether Molina would accept that type of playing time remains to be seen. The Giants prospect should eventually become a very real (and much-needed) threat in the heart of the club’s lineup.

Wilin Rosario | C | Colorado
The Rockies organization was extremely aggressive with Rosario after his breakout 2008 season in short-season ball. He was jumped over low-A ball and the 20 year old spent the season in high-A. Not surprisingly, Rosario struggles in April and May before finding his footing over the next two months. Injuries then wiped out August so the Dominican native will be fresher than most of the catchers in the league.

Brandon Allen | 1B | Arizona
A busy year for Allen is only going to get busier. The first-base prospect has played for four teams already this year – including making his MLB debut with Arizona – and he’ll join his fifth club in the AFL. Currently in the Majors, Allen is holding his own and the 23 year old has a shot at being the Diamondbacks’ opening day first baseman in 2010.

Hector Gomez | SS | Colorado
Gomez is a very promising prospect, but the Rockies organization would no doubt like to see him spend a little more time on the field. After missing all but one game in 2008, the shortstop missed significant time in April and June of this year. Gomez is a good defensive player but he needs a lot more work on his approach at the plate, including his walk rate which was at 4.3% this year at high-A ball.

Domonic Brown | OF | Philadelphia
A two-sport prep star, Brown has quickly become quite the baseball player ever since he began focusing on the sport on a full-time basis. He has made himself into a five-tool player with the increase in power this season; his ISO increased from .126 in 2008 to .212 in ’09. Brown also has the ability to hit .300 and steal 20-30 bases in a full season.

Jose Tabata | OF | Pittsburgh
On the plus side, Tabata has shown the ability to hit for a consistently-high average despite playing at double-A and triple-A in 2009. On the downside, his power has yet to develop and he’s had trouble staying on the field due to injuries. His off-the-field lifestyle is also questionable, as is his actual age. Tabata, though, is showing signs of being ready to contribute in Pittsburgh by mid-2010 at the latest.

As Dave reported earlier on the cusp of last night’s waiver trade deadline the Rockies acquired Jose Contreras from the White Sox. As Dave noted this is a marginal move, sort of a tit to the Giants’s Penny addition’s tat, but, it does allow the Rockies to keep Josh Fogg out of the starting rotation in spite of Aaron Cook’s trip to the DL.

Contreras typically works from multiple arm angles. Dropping down to deliver some of his pitches. The pitchf/x data picks up release point and from it we can see an interesting trend.

These are the release points for Contreras this season. I split them by his August 19th start, because starting then he largely abandoned his lower delivery slot. The colors a little confusing, but the main point is that he throws all four pitches from his main arm slot and his slider and two-seam fastball from the second slot.

Here is what the movement of his four pitches looks like with the pitches from the lower arm slot semi-transparent.

The slider from the lower slot has less, and even negative, horizontal movement (negative movement is in to RHBs and away from LHBs). That means while his normal slider moves away from RHBs his dropped down slider moves in to RHBs. Hid dropped down two-seam fastball also moves in more to RHBs, and has less vertical movement, more ‘sink’.

I am not sure why he gave up pitching as much from the second arm slot. According to my numbers both the slider and two-seam fastball actually do better from the dropped down delivery (better run values). Among other differences the slider generates more whiffs from the dropped down delivery (30% versus 16% misses per swings) and the two-seam fastball way more grounders (56% versus 43% GBs per BIP). If I were Colorado I would look into having him bring back the second arm angle.

The last two years had been a steep slope for Vladimir Guerrero. A variety of health problems robbed him of his ability to play defense, and his legendary offensive skills seemed to decline fairly quickly. After being a mortal lock for a ~.400 wOBA, Guerrero posted a .373 mark last year, and then began this season without any power. When the Angels put him on the disabled list with a bum knee on July 7th, he was hitting .290/.319/.415 with a whopping four home runs. Considering his status as a DH, he was performing below replacement level. It was hard to believe, but he had become the weak link on the Angels roster.

After about a month recovering on the sidelines, the Angels brought Guerrero back. And Guerrero brought the old version along this time. Since returning, he’s hitting .337/.389/.625. He hit two home runs last night, giving him nine in 26 games. His wOBA over the last month is .429. Last night, he homered on a pitch about six inches off the ground – just classic Vlad.

Now, no one thinks this is his true talent level, of course, but he’s certainly better than he performed prior to going on the DL. ZIPS projects a .309/.365/.489 mark from him over the rest of the season, which is a step down from his heyday but a quality hitter nonetheless. The Angels didn’t need an offensive boost, but they’re getting one anyway. Guerrero is on a mission to show that he’s still got something left, just in time for the playoffs to roll around.

Be afraid, American League pitchers. Vladimir Guerrero has found his power stroke again. That ridiculous offense just got stronger.

No, this isn’t a post about the Marlins.

Fans of the Kansas City Royals, it’s time to move on. It is one thing for your GM to routinely make shockingly bad decisions and then tell you to “trust the process”. But when ownership becomes even more haphazard about handing out stupid contracts, then it’s time to find a new drug. The glory days are long gone and aren’t coming back. The only joy Royals’ fans now have is being able to watch Zack Greinke take the mound every fifth day. It’s time to end this unhealthy relationship and move on. There are plenty of good suitors out there, and face it, you deserve better than this.

I’m not going to suggest that Royal fans jump on the Yankees or Red Sox bandwagon, or any large market team for that matter. Nor will I be discourteous enough to suggest that Royal fans look across the state. Here are just a few smaller market teams I’d submit for your consideration —

Tampa Bay Rays

General Manager Andrew Friedman has taken a perennial basement dweller and made them into a fit contender, while adhering to a strict budget. In other words, Friedman has been everything Royals fans hoped Dayton Moore would be. Unlike the Royals, the Rays draft extremely well; their farm system depth is enviable. Also unlike the Royals: the Rays are adept at developing their own players. *Cough* Alex Gordon… Friedman and his crew evaluate players correctly and are second to none and when it comes to finding freely available talent and making it work. Friedman is the anti-Dayton. There’s still plenty of room on this bandwagon.

Texas Rangers

The Rangers were expected to contend in 2010, not this year. They have a solid nucleus of young talent in Ian Kinsler, Elvis Andrus, Derek Holland, Neftali Feliz and Julio Borbon. The Rangers have also got the most out of an inexperienced pitching staff by complimenting them with one of the finest defenses in the league. The Rangers should continue to improve from within, as they boast one of the better farm systems in baseball even after graduating many of their system’s best talents this year. GM Jon Daniels has had his share of biffs when it comes to making trades (Adrian Gonzalez, anyone?), but he’s also had some major coups, like take for instance the Teixeira deal.

Seattle Mariners

Yes, I know it would be a bitter pill to swallow, rooting for the team that dumped Yuniesky Betancourt on you, but it is moves like that should encourage you to pull for the Mariners. They show they know how to properly evaluate their own players and dump bad contracts from the previous regime. (See also: Washburn, Jarrod) Mariner fans can feel your pain after having to deal with years of Bill Bavasi. As one of big contributors to the homegrown talent in the Brewers organization, Jack Zduriencik has an eye for talent. He’s also been a master at acquiring undervalued talent and spinning them into gold, as demonstrated in picking up players like Franklin Gutierrez, David Aardsma or Russell Branyan either via trade or free agency. Looking at some of his other under-the-radar moves, it’s obvious that he values defense. With his dealings, in just one year the Mariners went from a 37% winning percentage to a team above .500. He has Tom Tango on his payroll, and if you needed a couple of other reasons to hop on the Seattle bandwagon, there’s Ichiro and Felix Hernandez.

There are plenty of other fish in the sea, Royals fans. Why stay?

Delmon Young’s last few weeks has carried quite a bit of hype and it seems to be all for naught. Young’s fantasy stock has shot up I suppose, but over the last four weeks his line was .280/.299/.520. The slugging is certainly impressive – eight of Delmon’s 21 hits were either doubles or home runs during the span – but that’s a .819 OPS. How often do you see players with ISO almost higher than their OBP?

Hit Tracker lists five of his eight home runs as “Just Enoughs”, which is pretty self explanatory in nature. Not all of Young’s home runs are pull jobs that barely clear the fence though. Only two of his home runs have gone to left field with the rest going into center and on – his weakest of the bunch – heading out to right field. During the recent hot streak he slammed a 447 foot bomb off Jarrod Washburn in Comerica, but Hit Tracker has that affected heavily by wind and temperature.

To make matters worse Young is striking out 26% of the time – a clear career high – while walking 3% of the time – a clear career low – oh and he’s still swinging out of the zone around 40% of the time. We know he’s not very good at defense either which means even if this hot streak were representative of the true Delmon Young, and it’s not, he’s basically what you get when you take Miguel Olivo and tell him to play the corner outfield.

MGL wrote on a similar player a week ago when he addressed Jeff Francoeur’s recent banner week, adding that taking a small high point in a disappointing player’s season as proof they’re on the upswing is faulty. It seems like the same phenomenon that occurred in that case is repeating itself here. Young had the tools and minor league numbers, but it seems his work ethic will be the fault of his career unless things change quickly.