Where they stand: Mesa finished second in the AFL East with a record of 16-17, 4.5 games behind Salt River.
The good: Brian Dozier hit .296/.358/.454 in 108 at-bats. Aaron Hicks hit .294/.400/.559 in 102 at-bats. Chris Herrmann hit .380/.456/.620 in 50 at-bats. Cole DeVries was 2-1, 3.12, 0.92 WHIP with 3 walks and 19 strikeouts in 26 innings.
The bad: Brett Jacobson was 1-2, 6.94, 1.71 WHIP with 8 walks and 12 strikeouts in 11.2 innings. Bruce Pugh was 0-1, 12.21, 2.93 WHIP with 15 walks and 13 strikeouts in 14 innings. Dakota Watts was 0-1, 5.65, 1.74 WHIP with 10 walks and 9 strikeouts in 14.1 innings.
What it means: Probably not much. I'm sure you'd rather do well than do poorly, but it's all small sample sizes. Still, I enjoyed following the AFL again this year, and I hope you did, too. After all, that's really what it's all for.
I didn't realize how well Hicks turned it up the last half of the AFL. He started pretty slow. I'm surprised Dozier made the all-prospects team and Hicks didn't, but I guess it has to do with the competition by position. I wonder if they picked by OF position or just strictly outfielders. Just 102 at-bats, but Hicks showing average, patience and power. Very nice.
I just hope it carries over into the future. The time for him to convert the tools into performance is dwindling. However, he isn't on the 40-man roster yet, so I suppose he has three or four more years before he reaches keep/cut status.
He's on the same pace as Span and Hunter.
The Milkmaid's last-second schedule change, forcing her to work on a Saturday, was enough to kill our only real chance to get to a game. I'm pretty annoyed that it was here and I wasn't able to see it.