The ball jumps most days in the Fall League, but especially so yesterday. Baseball America’s Josh Norris saw five homers exit the yard. Watch all five homers below, plus a bit of analysis on what each player needs to prove over the duration of the fall.

Tim Elko, 1B, White Sox: Elko can make a baseball disappear in an instant. All he has to do is wave his magic wand. The Ole Miss alumnus turned the trick 18 times this season, which he split between Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte. On Tuesday, the 25-year-old Elko was part of Glendale’s five-homer onslaught which finished with a 19-9 Desert Dogs rout. Elko’s blast was the chaser on the back end of Zyhir Hope’s opening shot and gave Glendale an early three-run edge. He finished the day 3-for-6 with the homer and three runs scored.

Brock Wilken, 3B, Brewers: Wilken is one of the organization’s premier power brokers, a reputation he earned over three seasons at Wake Forest and has since cemented over two professional seasons. Thirty-two of his 80 hits with Double-A Biloxi this past season went for extra-base hits, including 17 home runs. The figure placed fourth in the Southern League. On Tuesday, he gave the desert its second dose of his power stroke when he vaporized a pitch from White Sox prospect Grant Taylor for Peoria’s lone longball of the afternoon. He finished the day 1-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts, including one against former Wake Forest teammate and current White Sox farmhand Eric Adler, who froze his fellow Demon Deacon in the sixth inning.

Colson Montgomery, SS, White Sox: Last year, Montgomery was one of the brightest performers in the Arizona Fall League’s annual Fall Stars Game. He went 2-for-2 in the yearly showcase, including a home run off of Dodgers prospect Ronan Kopp. Seemingly, he was poised for big things, especially considering he was headed to the offensive oasis of Triple-A Charlotte. Things didn’t quite go as planned, and Montgomery scuffled in a season spent one step from the big leagues. He’s back in the Fall League in 2024, and on Tuesday he connected on his first home run of the six-week season. The three-run blast came in the eighth inning off of reliever Mark Manfredi (Brewers) and was part of a 2-for-4 day with a pair of walks mixed in as well.

Zyhir Hope, OF, Dodgers: On Monday, Hope got a hanging breaking ball and shot it out the opposite way at Peoria Stadium. On Tuesday, he showed off his pull-side power. On the seventh pitch of his at-bat against Javelinas starter Patrick Monteverde, Hope got a mistake middle-down and did not miss. The jolt left the bat at 111 mph and was out of the yard seemingly milliseconds after it was struck. The longball was Hope’s third of the spring and gave him one apiece to left, center and right field.

Otto Kemp, 2B, Phillies: Glendale’s Arizona Fall League lineup is full of big boppers, but one of the least heralded made the biggest impact on Tuesday. Kemp, a Phillies infielder who opened eyes this past season by smacking 16 home runs across all four full-season levels of the minor leagues, slammed two of his team’s five longballs in its rout of Peoria. Kemp, 25, came into the day’s action with just one hit in his first 13 Fall League plate appearances, but the two blasts helped him bust out in a big way. The home runs came off of starter Patrick Monteverde (Marlins) and reliever Mark Manfredi (Brewers). Kemp’s only other two-homer game of the season came on June 5, when High-A Jersey Shore visited Greensboro.

Ethan Salas Joins The Hot Sheet Show

Salas is one of the most high-profile prospects on AFL rosters. The Padres teenage phenom joined our weekly Hot Sheet show yesterday to discuss watching San Diego’s postseason run, some hitting tweaks he made throughout the season, plus how he’s preparing to one day reach the big leagues.

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