With the winter hot-stove turned up to high as free agents start inking their names to BBA contracts, over in the Florida Prospect League, Boise's team of young hitters (and base stealers) were just as sizzling, kicking of Ybor City's season by going 5-2.
Thru the first week of play, the young Spuds find themselves atop several offensive leaderboards, helping carrying sub-par pitching performances:
| STATISTIC | | LG RANK |
|---|
| AVG | .354 | 1st |
| oWAR | 2.9 | 2nd |
| SB | 14 | 2nd |
| R | 65 | 3rd |
| OPS | .962 | 3rd |
| HR | 11 | t-3rd |
Boise's top three pitching prospects --
Carlos Díaz,
Jorge Maestas, and
Robin Cooper -- were not selected to the FPL team, but rather given the winter off after seeing their workloads increase this past season over the previous year. Thankfully sluggers
Ismael Alfonzo and
Ricardo Ruíz helped pick up the underwhelming staff en route to the top of the standings with three weeks of games still left to play. Alfonzo, whose bat is finally coming around, led the attack with 4 HR and 14 RBI, while Ruíz, Boise's top offensive prospect, chipped in with 2 HR and 11 RBI while slashing an incredible .481/.531/.778.
