Eric Longenhagen is publishing brief, informal notes from his looks at the prospects of the Arizona Fall League and, for the moment, the Fall Instructional League. Find all editions here.

Yankees RHP James Kaprielian sat mostly 92-93 mph and touched 96 one start after sitting 94-97 in his first appearance since an elbow flexor strain. His velocity is worth monitoring, not only because he’s returning from injury but because the 94-plus we saw before his injury and in his first AFL start was not the kind of velo was saw from Kaprielian at UCLA and we’re still trying to figure out exactly what this guy is.

Cubs RHP Duane Underwood was up to 96 with his fastball and sitting 93-94, but the pitch is flat, lacks horizontal movement and is too often left up in the zone, waiting to be tattooed. Underwood has given up lots of loud contact so far this fall despite his velocity and I think it’s fair to say the pitch plays down below what the radar gun would otherwise indicate. His slider has good shape to it, though, and I wonder if the fastball would play better in one inning, max-effort stints.

Former Cubs and current Yankees INF Gleyber Torres continues to impress with his bat. He homered off of Underwood in his first at-bat and then doubled down the right-field line in his second. Of note: Torres swung at the first pitch in each of his first three ABs, something Cubs catcher Victor Caratini recognized and exploited after Torres’ first-inning homer by calling for first-pitch breaking balls in his next two at-bats. Torres missed both, badly. His at-bats Tuesday were poor, even if the results were not, and his play at second base has had flashes of brilliance as well as moments of aloof embarrassment.

By the way, Caratini looks good at the plate but not behind it. Despite what has been solid game-calling, his receiving and ball-blocking have both been poor. He popped 2.03 for me Tuesday, which is a tick below average and passable for me, but I don’t consider him a long-term catcher. Evaluating catchers in Fall League can be hard because many of them had full seasons of work behind the plate and could be exhausted. They’re also catching stuff that is completely foreign to them from arms with which they’ve typically never worked. Even with this in mind, catching in general has been bad so far in the AFL.

Conversely, outfield defense has been pretty good. Mets CF Champ Stuart and Marlins CF Yefri Perez have both had a defensive hiccup or two but are near 80-grade runners and at the very least have breathtaking range. Cardinals OF Harrison Bader, himself an average runner, broke early on a shallow fly and made a nice diving catch yesterday and Dodgers OF Alex Verdugo caught a ball in the right center-field gap yesterday that I didn’t think he’d get to off the bat.

Mariners lefty Luiz Gohara of Brazil was up to 98 last night.