Phillies Prospect Scott Kingery Named to Fall League All-Star Game
By John Town
Despite struggling in the Arizona Fall League so far, Phillies prospect Scott Kingery was named to the Fall Star Game, the AFL’s All-Star Game.
Each Arizona Fall League team has 17 games under their belt so far with 15 more left to be completed. With the season more than halfway over, MLB released the rosters for the Arizona Fall Leagues All-Star Game, the “Fall Star” Game. Despite his struggles, Phillies second-base prospect Scott Kingery was nominated to what Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com called “the AFL’s version of the Futures Game.”
Since the “Fall Star” game is similar to the Futures Game, it centers more around big-name prospects rather than players with statistical success. Kingery, the No. 13 prospect in the system according to MLB.com, is the only big-name Phillies prospect in the Fall League. The team didn’t send any other MLB Top 30 prospect to Arizona.
Kingery likely wouldn’t be in the Fall Star Game if it were based on statistical performance. He has not performed well with the Scottsdale Scorpions so far. Through 47 plate appearances in Arizona, Kingery has just nine hits. He has also walked just twice compared to nine strikeouts in that span. Limited strikeouts have been key to Kingery’s success so far in his minor-league career, but he has struggled with them in the AFL.
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Kingery’s Scottsdale, High-A Clearwater, and Double-A Reading teammate Mitch Walding has been playing far better than Kingery so far. In 40 plate appearances through 11 games, Kingery has an .804 OPS with four of his ten hits going for extra bases. Walding walked more than 12% of the time through this season, but strikeouts have always plagued him.
Relief pitcher Jeff Singer has also put together a nice stint in Arizona. In five appearances, Singer has yet to allow a run and his 0.60 WHIP is fourth among all pitchers in the Fall League. In 40.1 innings across three levels this year, the South Jersey native posted a 1.79 ERA, 30.1% strikeout rate, and 0.89 WHIP.
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Unfortunately, the Fall Star Game isn’t about how well a player performs. Instead, the rosters are almost locked from the get-go since placement is more based on reputation as a prospect instead of how well one performs. That is why Kingery gets a bid in the game while Singer and Walding are left off the roster.