Greetings from Peoria Stadium!
I’m starting my second week of Arizona Fall League coverage, and you’re probably tired of hearing from all of MLB Pipeline folks how much we love the Fall League.
Too bad.
In addition to seeing terrific talent day after day -- a wonderful thing for us after spending the year talking and writing about so many of these guys -- I always love the timing with the postseason going on simultaneously. It’s another great way to connect the dots from this league to the big leagues.
We always like to tout the pedigree of the AFL in terms of Hall of Famers (three) and award winners. We use this paragraph a lot in our stories about the league:
Roughly 60 percent of all Fall Leaguers have reached the Majors, including Hall of Famers Roy Halladay, Derek Jeter and Mike Piazza and current stars such as Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer and Mike Trout. The league has produced 333 All-Stars, 21 MVPs, seven Cy Young Award winners and 33 Rookies of the Year.
Those tallies will change once awards are announced this year, of course (Julio Rodríguez, for instance, played here in 2019). But not only do AFL alumni win personal hardware, they often help contribute to a team getting the big piece of hardware: the Commissioner’s Trophy for winning the World Series.
Just look at the Padres and Phillies, the National League Championship Series opponents. Both have many players who got some valuable development time in the AFL. There are 23 total NLCS participants who once were cutting their teeth here in Arizona. That’s over 44 percent of all rostered players still playing in the National League this year (totals based on Division Series rosters):
Phillies (11)
Bryce Harper: Scottsdale, 2010-11
Jean Segura: Scottsdale, 2011
Nick Castellanos: Mesa, 2012
Kyle Gibson: Peoria, 2012
J.T. Realmuto: Phoenix, 2012
Kyle Schwarber: Mesa, 2016 (on a rehab assignment)
Garrett Stubbs: Glendale, 2016
Edmundo Sosa: Surprise, 2017
Alec Bohm: Scottsdale, 2019
Brandon Marsh: Mesa, 2019
Bryson Stott: Peoria, 2021
Padres (12)
Wil Myers: Surprise, 2011
Jorge Alfaro: Surprise, 2013
Josh Bell: Scottsdale, 2014
Brandon Drury: Salt River, 2014
Austin Nola: Salt River 2014; Mesa, 2016
Josh Hader: Surprise, 2015
Pierce Johnson: Mesa, 2015
Sean Manaea: Mesa, 2015
Jurickson Profar: Surprise, 2015
Trent Grisham: Peoria, 2018
Jose Azocar: Mesa, 2019
Adrian Morejon: Peoria, 2019