MESA SOLAR SOX (12-15, second in the East)
While Jason Motte certainly had a fantastic season in 2007, his journey from Palm Beach to Springfield to Mesa wasn't without trials and tribulations. The St. Louis farmhand, who is developing into one of the better relief prospects in baseball, will be the first to admit that his slider can use some work.

He's spending his time in Arizona fine-tuning the pitch he hopes will improve an already-impressive resume. The former 19th-round selection (2003) began the year in the Florida State League but after collecting three saves and posting a 0.90 ERA in nine outings he was bumped up to the Double-A Texas League, where he helped pitch Springfield into the championship series.

All Motte did was go 3-3 with a 2.20 ERA in 44 appearances, collecting eight more saves along the way. He struck out 63 in 49 innings and held the opposition to a .208 batting average. Imagine what he could have done with a better slider.

"My slider during the season was pretty bad to be honest," said Motte, who is 2-0 with a save and a 3.27 ERA in 10 AFL appearances. "Every now and then I'd throw a good one. I was trying to throw a change, a splitter -- trying to get a second pitch. Now I'm working with Mark Riggins [the Cardinals' Minor League pitching coordinator] here after working with him a lot during the season. He keeps telling me to just get out there and concentrate on getting on top and pulling my front arm down.

"Everything flies open on the slider, but now I'm trying to stay straight toward the plate. My first outing here was good, but the next two my arm was dragging and my slider was horrible. So I'm working with Riggins on trying to drive my shoulder toward the catcher and get more leverage."

The chase for the MVP is still up in the air, but Sam Fuld (Cubs) is making his case for the batting title. He's been at or near the top of the league for much of the fall and is clinging to a slim lead heading into the final week. He's riding a seven-game hitting streak during which he's batted .471 (13-for-27) to raise his average to .398.

Fuld, who leads the league with 37 hits and nine doubles, has collected two hits in each of the first six games of his current hitting streak. Matt LaPorta (Brewers) remains tied for the league lead with five homers and is atop the league with 20 RBIs.

PEORIA JAVELINAS (15-13, second in the West)
Talk about bittersweet. RHP Darren Clarke worked his way up through the Colorado system, finally reaching the big leagues this season when he made a pair of appearances for the eventual National League champions. Two weeks later, though, he was back in Double-A Tulsa and on the disabled list, where he spent much of the summer nursing his way back from yet another shoulder injury.

Clarke, a 35th round pick in the 2000 Draft, was having a very good season for Tulsa. He posted a 1.64 ERA with 16 strikeouts in 11 innings and even pitched a scoreless inning and a third with the Rockies. But when he strained the capsule that protects the rotator cuff and labrum it marked the second consecutive year in which his shoulder has landed him on the shelf. Clarke was limited to 26 2/3 innings in 2006 with a strained latissimus dorsi muscle.

In an effort to make his shoulder hold up in the future, Clarke began working this summer and is continuing to do so with Peoria. He didn't believe it required changing his training regimen, so he and Tulsa pitching coach Bo McLaughlin decided to change his mechanics. A little tweak here, a little tweak there and suddenly Clarke was no longer throwing across his body, hopefully alleviating the strain on his shoulder.

"It's something I really need to figure out," Clarke said. "The last two years I've had shoulder injuries end my season. We started working on it from the first day I came back when I was throwing from 30 feet. I have to make sure I'm doing the right things to limit the mechanical issues.

"I don't think my velocity has been affected by it [the different mechanics], but I'm trying not to pay attention to the radar gun here anyway. But I feel like there's less stress on my arm than usual."

Corey Wimberly (Colorado) is making a push for the AFL batting title, hitting .392 going into the final week of play. After going 7-for-14 in his last four games he trails Mesa's Sam Fuld by just six points. Cuban IF Juan Miranda quietly put together a strong first season in affiliated ball while splitting time between Class A Tampa and Double-A Trenton this summer. He hit .265 with 16 homers and 96 RBIs, also collecting 34 doubles and five triples. He's continued to produce this fall, tying for the league lead in homers while his 17 RBIs are second to LaPorta. Miranda is also hitting .295 with an impressive strikeout-to-walk ratio (18-to-16).

PEORIA SAGUAROS (10-18, third place in the West)
Right-handers Jonathan Ellis and Neil Jamison helped pitch San Antonio to a Texas League title this season, combining to form one of the more reliable bullpen duos on the Double-A circuit. While the pair teamed up to go 6-9 with 14 saves and a 4.30 ERA, there are still questions about how effective they can be as they move up through the Padres' system.

The pair has reunited once again this fall, but whether they will be together next season in Triple-A Portland or even in San Diego someday remains a viable question. Bill Bryk, who until recently was San Diego's Minor League field coordinator -- he was reassigned as an advance scout last month -- has some concerns about the arm slots on both pitchers and whether or not they can find the proper arm angle consistently enough to compete at a higher level. He also has some doubts about whether their futures will remain intertwined.

"Jamison is a good kid, but I've only been lukewarm on him because of his arm slot," Bryk said. "He's a good competitor, and he gives what he has. But last year I had him as a fringe prospect, and this year he went to Double-A and was inconsistent. He gets underneath everything. If he's pitching at three-quarters he's effective but when he starts dropping, lefties see him well."

Left-handed hitters hit .269 (25-for-93) against Jamison as opposed to the .296 (40-for-135) clip at which right-handers touched him. Lefties, however, drew 17 walks against him and had a .382 on-base percentage while right-handers collected only nine walks and reached base at a slightly lesser rate (.354).

Ellis, meanwhile, was also inconsistent at times but finished the season stronger, posting a 1.69 ERA in 12 outings in August and September. The opposition hit .243 against him, and he split 32 walks equally among the left-handed and right-handed hitters.

"He's a sinker-slider guy with sharper stuff than Jamison," Bryk said. "He can show three big-league pitches at times and for me, he's above Jamison. He's still learning his trade, and he's more effective when he doesn't try to overthrow the ball. He loses sink when he does that.

"I don't see him as a setup guy or a closer, but I can see him as a Major League contributor. I can't say the same thing about Jamison, there are too many inconsistencies because of when he gets his arm slot up. Ellis, for me, is more consistent with his sinker or slider."

3B Mike Costanzo remained with the Sags despite the trade that sent him from Philadelphia to Houston last week. Instead of joining the other Astros prospects in Mesa, he simply sat out Thursday's game against Scottsdale and waited for a new jersey to arrive.

PHOENIX DESERT DOGS (17-10, first place East)
What had shaped up to be a miserable season for C Drew Butera took another twist on July 30 when the Mets shipped him to Minnesota in the deal that brought Luis Castillo to New York. Butera was struggling at Double-A Binghamton at the time, hitting .188 in 117 at-bats after beginning the season with modest success at Class A Advanced St. Lucie.

But the move from Binghamton to New Britain, also in the Eastern League, proved to be beneficial for the son of former big-leaguer Sal Butera. The youngster didn't sulk, and though there was surprise at being dealt by the organization that had drafted him, it quickly dissipated. The younger Butera went on to have a strong finish with the Rock Cats, hitting .260 with a .360 OBP in 50 at-bats.

"It's the same game [in New Britain], and I appreciate everything the Mets did for me," Butera said. "But I thank the Twins because they wanted me. It's another door that opened. And my dad was excited because he played for the Twins. He said it was another door opening, too, and that maybe it was a quicker way to the big leagues."

What's ironic is that the Mets currently find themselves in need of a catcher. The Mets have no prospects that are Major League-ready, and the free agent market is thin. That's not to say Butera would be the answer -- he's at least a year away from the big time -- but he was closer to the top than anyone else in New York's system.

Butera wasn't about to play the what-if game. He labeled situations like that as "catch-22" and prefers to focus on improving this fall with Phoenix. He says he's looking for more consistency and judging from the numbers he's put up at his various stops since being drafted, it's obvious that consistency has eluded him. His only real success came at St. Lucie this season, where he hit .258 with five homers and 22 RBIs with a .418 OBP.

The Desert Dogs clinched the East Division title on Saturday with a 5-2 victory over the Peoria Saguaros. Phoenix is 8-2 in its last 10 games and is the only team in the division with a record above .500. The Dogs (2.76) are also the only squad sporting a sub-3.00 team ERA. That's not surprising considering that of the pitchers eligible for the league's ERA crown, they hold the top three spots. Jake Arrieta (14 IP, Baltimore), Fernando Hernandez, Jr. (11 2/3, White Sox) and Eduardo Morlan (11 2/3, Minnesota) have not allowed an earned run between them.

SCOTTSDALE SCORPIONS (12-16, third place in the East)
Travis Snider won't turn 20 until February but the former first-round pick (14th overall, Toronto, 2006) continues to play with veteran confidence. He's tearing up the AFL after a big season at Class A Lansing of the Midwest League. Snider is hitting .337 with four homers and 11 RBIs with a healthy .411 OBP, putting him among the leaders in each category. He's also riding a six-game hitting streak and has hits in nine of his last 10 games.

The Scorpions lead the league in attendance with 6,949 fans going through the turnstiles of Scottsdale Stadium. That's an average of 463 fans per game. Surprise, the outpost that's furthest north and west of all the action, is last, averaging 217 fans per game. Caleb Stewart (Mets) is tied for the league lead with five homers. Brian Anderson (Giants) is second with three saves. Nick Pereira (Giants) continues to lead the league with 26 strikeouts, one ahead of teammate David Purcey (Blue Jays).

SURPRISE RAFTERS (18-10, first in the West)
Rangers prospect John Mayberry hit 30 home runs and drove in 83 while splitting time between Class A Bakersfield and Double-A Frisco. While those numbers were impressive, his .235 average and 126 strikeouts were not. He's in Arizona working to improve the latter of those statistics.

One of the areas that he's targeted for improvement is "using the whole field" more than he did in 2007. The 6-foot-6 right-handed slugger naturally pulls the ball to left field, so he's working on becoming more of a threat the other way.

"I want to get my stroke down and drive the ball the other way," Mayberry said. "It's a little bit mental and physical. From the mental standpoint, you try to realize what the pitcher's trying to do to get you out. As you go higher up, the pitchers are able to execute their plans better. But I feel like I'm making strides, and the results will come. I just have to be patient."

Mayberry pointed to a Nov. 2 game against Mesa as an example of the progress he's making. Right-hander Jimmy Barthmaier, who was on the mound for the Solar Sox, had faced Mayberry eight times during the regular season while pitching for Corpus Christi. While Mayberry had some success -- he had three hits, including a homer, and a walk -- he felt Barthmaier had the upper hand.

"During the season he stayed hard away from me, and I struggled," Mayberry said. "But in this game against Mesa I hit the ball decently off him. I looked at the ball in flight, and it had some nice backspin. And even though I didn't get a hit [it was a hard line drive to center], it felt like a good at-bat."

Mayberry has four homers and 12 RBIs this fall but is hitting only .216.

Infielder Marc Maddox (Kansas City) earned a promotion from Burlington of the Midwest League to Wilmington of the Carolina League this year but struggled a bit in Class A Advanced. The experience of playing in the Carolina League appears to have been helpful, though, because Maddox has been one of the pleasant surprises of the AFL season. He's third in the league with a .388 batting average and has a .447 OBP in 67 at-bats.