PEORIA, Az. — Remember the days when the Arizona Fall League used to be the finishing school for top prospects? Now it feels like the high school JV team gets a few ringers from the varsity. Known as a hitter’s league, most Washington Nationals fans remember the 2011 Scottsdale Scorpions team that featured Bryce Harper and some other top prospect named Mike Trout in the same outfield! Harper’s OPS was 1.034.

The days of Top-10 prospects all over rosters in the AFL are mostly over. The highest rated prospect was Sebastian Walcott (No. 11 on Baseball America) in the AFL this year. He didn’t impress last night in the AFL Championship game. In fact, he was batting 6th and finished his AFL with a .303 batting average and a .806 OPS for 31st in the AFL regular season. He played three postseason games going .222 with a .444 OPS. Kevin Bazzell from the Nats system hit .341 with a 1.091 OPS for 5th in the league. Again, it’s a hitter’s league.

In the pre-game, they announced the award winners for the league’s season and Nats’ top minor league pitcher, Jarlin Susana, was named the Pitcher of the Year for the AFL. He had the most strikeouts in the league and tied for 11th with a 3.86 ERA. In 2⅔ innings in their postseason, he put up a 0.00. But Susana also tied for 9th in most walks.

In the Fall Stars game last week, we saw Susana throw 1.0 scoreless to start the game. And the debate will rage on as to whether or not he is ultimately a reliever thinking Mason Miller at the top-end or Yovanny Cruz at the low-end. As a starter, you dream of Jacob Misiorowski and fear that he ends up as Nate Pearson.

The Nats players showed up well and Bazzell really opened up eyes. Susana won the award as the best pitcher, but was he? My issue is exactly what happened in the Fall Stars game. Starts off looking brilliant then loses concentration and focus and walks a batter, gives up a hit, and velo drops quickly. Was he over-throwing to put 103.4 mph on the radar gun? A 2.5 percent drop in velo to finish the inning at 100.2 to 101 is still hot. But again, I’ve never been a velo guy as the most important component of pitching. Look at the scoreboard. Who controls the runs? That is how you win and lose games. No team ever lost giving up zero runs. Capisce?

Scouts and prospect evaluators have video cameras everywhere. Some on the pitchers and some focused on the batters.

Getting back to the AFL Championship game. What a snoozer. It was 8-0 by the sixth inning and three errors on the visitors. It was a cool night and no balls were carrying. Doubles down the line and a lot of bloop hits and errors. Again, this was not the varsity playing.

The most interesting part about watching Walcott was that he was a top name mentioned in the MacKenzie Gore trade that didn’t include him. The Nats got three other top prospects with Gavin Fien, Devin Fitz-Gerald and Alejandro Rosario. For that reason, there was a reason to see Walcott in a big game. There were scouts from every team in the crowd watching and taking notes. The Royals scout next to me was demonstrative when he didn’t like something.

Will this be the final televised game until the minor leagues open up in near the beginning of April? The lockout looms and we will wait and see what happens next.

Next up is watching more Winter League baseball in the Caribbean.

All photos provided by Steve Mears for Talk DC Sports