Baseball fans who need one last hardball fix before settling for reruns of Major League and Rookie of the Year will get a chance to see two of the Colorado Rockies’ top prospects on display in the Arizona Fall League’s annual Fall Stars Game on Saturday.
The game, which will be broadcast on MLB Network, will give left-handed pitcher Kyle Freeland and outfielder Raimel Tapia a chance to showcase their skills just as current Major Leaguers like Corey Dickerson (2012), Nolan Arenado (2011) and Ben Paulsen (2011) have in years past.
Through Nov. 5, Freeland and Tapia’s Salt River Rafters (which includes players from five organizations: Arizona, Colorado, New York, Toronto and Washington) were 12-7 and tied for first in the AFL’s East Division.
Tapia has appeared in 15 games, hitting .273 with an OPS of .748. He’s notched three doubles, two triples and one home run (of the inside the park variety, full at-bat below) to go with 5 RBI. He’s 3-for-5 in stolen base attempts.
Freeland, meanwhile, is 2-1 in four starts and sports a 4.30 ERA in 14.2 innings pitched. His numbers are skewed a bit by a disastrous first start in which he could not get out of the first inning and allowed six earned runs, including two home runs. In three starts since that time he’s logged 14 of those 14.2 innings, surrendering just one run. He’s also compiled nine strikeouts to just three walks during that span.
Tapia was signed by the Rockies in 2011 and played two years with the Dominican Summer League Rockies before coming stateside. He spent 2015 with the Modesto Nuts, hitting .305 in 131 games.
Freeland, a Colorado native, was the Rockies’ No. 1 draft pick in 2014 (No. 8 overall) and split time between Grand Junction (Rookie) and Modesto (Advanced-A) in 2015. He was a combined 3-2 with a 4.05 ERA in nine starts.
Last year Colorado sent Christian Bergman to the Fall Stars Game and in 2013 they sent Tyler Matzek and Kyle Parker. Tune in on Saturday at 6 p.m. MST on MLB Network and you’ll catch a glimpse of these two rising stars within the organization. If their pattern holds like those that came before them, there’s a good chance it won’t be long before you’re seeing them contributing at Coors Field.