By wrapping up the East Division with one week to play, Phoenix was able to rest some regulars and look ahead to Saturday's championship game against the West Division-winning Surprise Rafters at Scottsdale Stadium. The game begins at 2:35 p.m. ET and will be available on MLB.TV through the offseason package.

The Desert Dogs are vying for their fourth consecutive AFL championship, and though none of the players on this year's squad are repeat performers from 2006, that doesn't mean they don't feel the mantle of "perennial favorite" on their shoulders.

"From what I've heard, in the past our team has been a winning team and it's almost expected for us to win," said Phoenix outfielder Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh's first-round pick in 2005. "But we've come together as a team and put some wins together, and now we can have fun and get ready for the championship."

Actually, Phoenix outfielder Nolan Reimold (Orioles) is returning to the title game, having played for the runner-up Grand Canyon Rafters in 2006. (His club fell to the Desert Dogs, 6-2, in the one-game playoff.) And he's not the only guy in a Phoenix uniform with AFL championship game experience.

Coaches Kimera Bartee (Orioles) and Todd Steverson (Athletics) are both league alumni. Bartee played for the Sun Cities Solar Sox in 1996 and the Grand Canyon Rafters in 1997, with his Rafters club falling to the Peoria Javelinas in three games. Steverson played three seasons in the AFL with Sun Cities between 1994 and 1996, so he and Bartee are reunited as teammates now. Sun Cities was runner-up in 1995.

The big differences are that when Bartee and Steverson played in the league, the championship series was a best-of-3 affair -- the one-game format was instituted in 2001 -- and the victors were awarded sweatsuits. That's right: Arizona Fall League sweatsuits. Now they get very nice rings, just like the league champions in the affiliated Minor League circuits during the regular season.

"I guess you could say it's for bragging rights, but we get a ring too," McCutchen noted. "So we're playing for something and it's going to be a fun experience."

Over the course of the season, Desert Dogs manager Rafael Santana (White Sox) and his field staff of Bartee, Steverson, coach Brandon Moore (Pirates) and pitching coach Gary Lucas (Twins) guided the club to a league-best 20-11 record.

And the big story for Phoenix was its pitching. Lucas steered the staff to a league-record 2.68 ERA. (The previous best had been 2.84 by Scottsdale in the inaugural '92 season.) The club also set records for fewest hits allowed with 236 (277 by Phoenix in 2006) and fewest runs with 99 (145, also Phoenix last year).

As luck would have it, its ace, Minnesota's Nick Blackburn, comes up in the rotation for Saturday's tilt. He went 4-0 with a 1.64 ERA in six starts this fall, striking out 20 and walking two in 22 innings.

The Phoenix bullpen was also stellar, important in a league where starters' innings are limited. Baltimore's Jake Arrieta, a 2007 fifth-round pick making his pro debut here, led the league with a perfect ERA in 14 outings, a span of 16 innings. He tossed a scoreless frame in Thursday's regular-season finale, but has pitched on one day's rest in five of his 14 games, so he could see action Saturday.

Other relievers with ERAs below 2.00 in 10 or more innings: Chris Hernandez of the Pirates (0.00), Fernando Hernandez Jr. of the White Sox (0.00), Eduardo Morlan of the Twins (0.00), Dewon Day of the White Sox (1.38), Brad Kilby of the Athletics (1.59) and closer Bob McCrory of the Orioles (1.50), who led the league with five saves.

Among the key hitters on a team that batted just .253 were Oakland catcher Raul Padron (.320), White Sox second baseman Chris Getz (.278), Twins shortstop Trevor Plouffe (.280) and White Sox outfielder Ryan Sweeney (.286).

After losing their Opening-Day game to Mesa, the Desert Dogs won eight of their next 10 and never fell out of first place. They also enjoyed a pair of five-game winning streaks.

The Phoenix players certainly are aware now, if they weren't before, of some of the alumni who've come before them.

In 2005, the club included prospects not just from Oakland, which always has spots on the Phoenix roster by virtue of being the parent club playing at Phoenix Municipal Stadium during Spring Training, but also the Dodgers, Braves and Diamondbacks, among others.

While Arizona usually places its players with the Scottsdale Scorpions, that stadium was undergoing renovations in '05, so the Diamondbacks prospects were shifted that season. That meant names such as shortstop Stephen Drew joined prospects like first baseman James Loney, second baseman Tony Abreu, outfielders Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia in beating the temporarily relocated Scorpions (in Surprise), 9-3, in the title game.

Team 2004 had such names as Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard and Oakland closer Huston Street, who both went on to win the Major League Rookie of the Year award in 2005. That club beat Scottsdale, 6-2, in the finals.

In the West, the battle was waged much more intensely, though it seemed from the get-go that the Surprise Rafters would cruise to the title. But the feisty Peoria Javelinas had other plans and moved within a game of the lead with two to play before Surprise (19-13) finally clinched the division Wednesday.

Leading the way at the plate for manager Damon Berryhill (Rangers), coaches Jon Nunnally (Indians) and Aaron Holbert (Reds) and pitching coach Steve Luebber (Royals) were shortstop Elvis Andrus of the Rangers, who hit .353 in 15 games, Cleveland first baseman Michael Aubrey, who hit .275 with five homers and 11 RBIs in 24 games, and Kansas City second baseman Marc Maddox, who batted .321 with two homers and 13 RBIs.

On the mound, the Rafters were paced by southpaw Matt Harrison (Rangers), who went 5-0 with a 2.00 ERA, and Angels right-hander Fernando Rodriguez, who was 2-1 with a 3.97 ERA and gets the call Saturday. In relief, the stalwarts have been Cleveland's Michael Finocchi (0.00), Kansas City's Nate Hoelscher (1.50) and Texas' Paul Kometani (1.80).

Surprise had a permanent team bearing its name this year for the first time. The stadium, home to both the Rangers and Royals during Spring Training, housed the displaced Scorpions in 2005 when Scottsdale was undergoing renovation, playing under the temporary name of the Surprise Scorpions. It also housed the floating Grand Canyon Rafters in 2006, but this year the Rafters were named for their hometown.

Like the Desert Dogs, the Rafters lost their season opener, falling to the Javelinas, 3-2, before reeling off eight wins in a row to take first place and never look back.

On the final day of the regular season, Phoenix and Surprise squared off in a game that turned out to be a dress rehearsal for Saturday. Phoenix cruised to an 8-0 victory to knot the six-game season series between the two squads. The Rafters did not score a run off the Desert Dogs' vaunted pitching staff in their last two contests.