NYPL notes: Hall heating up for IronBirds
It's taken a while for Adam Hall's professional career to really get started.After being selected by Baltimore in the second round of the 2017 Draft, the London, Ontario native had to wait three weeks to obtain his visa to play. Then, after going 6-for-9 in his first two games in
It's taken a while for Adam Hall's professional career to really get started.
After being selected by Baltimore in the second round of the 2017 Draft, the London, Ontario native had to wait three weeks to obtain his visa to play. Then, after going 6-for-9 in his first two games in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League, an oblique injury sidelined him the rest of the season.
The start of the 2018 campaign saw him hang back at the club's facilities in Sarasota, Florida for extended spring training before he was finally able to head to Aberdeen in June to demonstrate his full capabilities.
"Extended spring wasn't too bad because I was happy to be out there playing after getting hurt the year before," the 19-year-old admitted. "Things were going pretty well there, so it was all pretty positive. Starting the season with the IronBirds, it didn't go the way I'd like. I did not get off to the greatest start. That was pretty tough to go through adversity for really like the first time in my career."
Through his first 20 games with Aberdeen, Hall hit .179 with two extra-base hits and 29 strikeouts.
Though he was making contact, the shortstop was finding it hard to locate any available real estate across the diamond, which forced him to push a little too hard at the plate in an effort to get positive results.
After making some slight adjustments and just becoming more comfortable playing at the next level, Hall has since turned things around in a big way. He now sees his early struggles as a massive learning opportunity that will serve him well moving forward.
"Overcoming that was big, and that's a good thing to have for the rest of my career, if I do go through stuff like that again," the Orioles' No. 27 prospect said. "There wasn't anything particular that was a glaring thing that was so much different [at this next level]. At first, the hits weren't falling, then I was pushing a little too hard after that."
Hall is hitting .356 with eight extra-base hits, 14 RBIs, 13 runs scored and only 14 strikeouts over his last 27 games, and was 10-for-11 on stolen base attempts during this stretch.
And he seemingly keeps improving at the bat, running a current hit streak to 10 games after collecting two hits in each game of the IronBirds doubleheader versus Connecticut on Sunday.
Over his last 10 games, he is hitting .471, proof that Hall, who is looking to continue the trend over the final weeks of the season, is settling in.
"It feels like every part of my game is really coming together right now. There haven't been any issues with my body, that's another positive," Hall said. "In this moment, I think I have things pretty much where I want them to be. I just want to continue doing I've been doing the last couple of weeks. Just playing my game and keep it going."
In brief
Swinging through: With 15 games left to play, Mahoning Valley's Tyler Freeman is a near lock for the batting title. He sits atop the league with a .378 average, 50 points higher than the next eligible batter. The Indians' No. 19 prospect has 84 hits, 25 more than anyone else. The last player in the New York-Penn League with 90-plus hits was Connecticut's Danny Vazquez, who led the loop with 90 in 2012. The last time a player put up triple digits in the hit column was 2004, when Mahoning Valley's Argenis Reyes led the pack with 101.
New depths: Brooklyn's Jaison Vilera leads the league with a 1.30 ERA, while teammate Christian James sits fourth at 1.99. The last Cyclones pitcher to finish the season with an ERA under 2.00 was Marcus Molina with a 1.77 mark in 2014. The last time a team finished with a pair of sub-two ERA pitchers was in 2012, when Lowell's William Cuevas (1.40) and Francisco Tavaras (1.99) accomplished the feat. In a combined 21 starts, Vilera and James have 11 outings in which they did not allow a run.
Hits by the bunch:Davis Bradshaw has played just four games for Batavia, yet the Muckdogs outfielder is already proving worthy of his recent promotion from the GCL. The 11th-round selection by Miami in June's Draft went 2-for-3 in his NYPL debut, followed by back-to-back 0-for-4 nights before going 5-for-5 on Sunday against Auburn. He owns 16 multi-hit games this season between the two levels. Bradshaw carried a six-game hitting streak to the Muckdogs, and his debut effort at the next level pushed him to four straight multi-hit games.
Craig Forde is a contributor to MiLB.com.
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