Engel named Arizona Fall League Hitter of the Week

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Glendale Desert Dogs outfielder Adam Engel of the Chicago White Sox has been named Arizona Fall League Hitter of the Week after another strong set of games at the plate. He went 6-for-16 (.375), hitting his first home run of the Fall League season to go along with three RBIs, three stolen bases and four runs scored in the past week.

"It's an honor, obviously," Engel said. "It feels good having a decent Fall League so far. To put together a decent week feels good."

MLB Pipeline ranks Engel as the No. 17 prospect in the White Sox system.

Engel's biggest asset is his speed. He is second in the AFL with 10 stolen bases in 14 attempts. In his three-year Minor League career, he has 135 swipes in 166 attempts in 295 games.

"It's a lot of fun getting on the bases," Engel said. "You try to make guys worry about you, but I'm just there to help the guys behind me."

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Engel played baseball at the University of Louisville. It is there where he earned his Twitter handle, @ManOfSteal_10, by leading the team in stolen bases in all three of his seasons as a Cardinal with a total of 94 thefts in 116 attempts.

"I actually had a teammate in college who gave me the nickname," the 23-year-old said. "Right before a tournament in college I ended up changing my Twitter handle to that and it just stuck and people liked it so I haven't changed it since."

Engel is leading the Fall League in batting average, hitting .397 in 18 games. That is significantly higher than his career .266 average in the Minors.

"It's just the guys around me," Engel said. "You just pick everybody's brain and see what works for other guys. As the level of competition rises, you get to learn from the better guys and the hitting coaches out here. You get to hear different things. After a while you kind of put everything together, what you think works best, and they give us an opportunity to work out here."

Among all Fall League batters, Engel is tied for second in runs scored (15), hits (25) and walks (16). He's third in total bases with 41, and leads the AFL in OBP at .524 and OPS at 1.175.

However, the stats aren't the most important things that Engel has taken away from his first time in the Fall League.

"It's been a lot of fun," Engel said. "It's a good group of guys. [The fact that there's] four games [left] kind of stinks. You know you're going to leave soon, but it has been a lot of fun with these games and [I] built some good relationships."

Since Engel was selected in the 19th round of the 2013 Draft, he has risen as far as Class A Advanced Winston-Salem in his Minor League career. This AFL season has provided an outlet for more playing time for Engel as he improves his all-around game.

"[Looking to] just finish strong," Engel said. "That's always the goal when you come to the end of any season or any stretch of play. Just finish strong and try to go into the offseason with some momentum."