There are six teams in the Arizona Fall League. They are divided into two divisions, east and west. The east has the Mesa Solar Sox, the Salt River Rafters, and the Scottsdale Scorpions. The west has the Peoria Javelinas, the Phoenix Desert Dogs, and the Surprise Saguaros.
People who have followed this league in the past may notice that there have been a couple of franchise shifts. The Peoria Saguaros team has been moved to Surprise. The former Surprise Rafters team has been moved to Salt River.
Here are the major league affiliations of each team:
Mesa--Baltimore, Cubs, White Sox, Minnesota, Pittsburgh.
Peoria--Milwaukee, San Diego, St. Louis, San Diego, Seattle.
Phoenix--Cincinnati, Cleveland, Yankees, Oakland, Toronto.
Scottsdale--Boston, Angels, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington
Surprise--Atlanta, Florida, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Texas.
As you can see, the Twins' team this year is the Mesa Solar Sox. The manager is Joe McEwing and the hitting coach is Jeff Branson. Two pitching coaches are listed, Jeff Fassero and Steve Mintz. Twins players in the Arizona Fall League are Cole DeVries, Brett Jacobson, Bruce Pugh, Dakota Watts, Chris Herrmann, Brian Dozier, and Aaron Hicks.
Other top prospects in the AFL this season include Matt Dominguez (Florida), Nick Franklin (Seattle), Grant Green (Oakland), Bryce Harper (Washington), Brett Jackson (Cubs), Wil Myers (Kansas City), and Mike Trout (Angels).
The season begins on October 4 and ends on November 17. The Fall Star Game (actual name: Rising Stars Game) will be played November 5. The league championship game will be played November 19. Let's play ball!
If anyone should see anything about when the Caribbean Leagues start, and what Twins are playing where, please let me know. So far, the information I find on the mlb.com site is from last year. I assume the Twins will have several players in Aragua again, but I don't know who yet.
We even have a correspondent on location (or close enough) for in person accounts of the action. Spooky, you're fine with weekly reports, right?
I would love to go to a few of these games. Bummer about the Twins being in Mesa...that's a jaunt (they're the farthest team from me, in fact). I'll have to wait for them to visit Peoria, which is the closest, although even that is 16.9 miles away. I'm in a suburb, but it's a very quiet, seemingly remote suburb. Anything that's happening is still a bit of a drive.
$7 GA tickets to all games. Yeah, I'll have to remember to see Mesa at least once.
The Peoria complex is pretty nice. I recommend a catching a game there.
There are baseball fields everywhere we drive. It's one of the things I really like about this area.
On that "MLB Playoff cheering map" that someone posted recently, it gave the Diamondbacks this tiny area between a few streets in Phoenix. I don't get it, man. I've never seen such a high concentration of people wearing the home nine's threads. I think over half the people I see in Arizona are wearing Diamondbacks gear.
And for whatever reason, I think I've seen one kid wearing a Cardinals jersey. One.
Possibly Matt Leinart's kid.
(Matt Leinart probably plays somewhere else, but I'm not looking up the Cards roster.)