Jeff Niemann and Ben Zobrist are other notables for the Rays in the AFL. Wade Townsend's recovery from TJ surgery has went really well and it's possible that he may pitch in the AFL this year.

In unrelated minor league news, the Durham Bulls entire staff was fired. Three major league advance scouts and minor league pitching coordinator Jerry Nyman (all four were leftovers from Naimoli/Lamar) are gone as well.

Nevermind the second part, didn't see the new thread on that.

So, Mike, you gonna come out here and catch some Aloha Baseball?

Any primates who make it this far, the first round of Mai Tais are on me.

So, Mike, you gonna come out here and catch some Aloha Baseball?

I'd love to, but there's not much chance of it.

-- MWE

The Brewers released the Scottsdale Scorpions roster several weeks ago (though a few decisions hadn't been made by some of the other teams involved). You can see my crappily-formatted version of that roster here.

The Braves are sending 1B Kala Ka'aihue to Hawaii, along with INFs Eric Campbell and Van Pope and C Clint Sammons. Ka'aihue, a native of Kailua who batted .281/.407/.550 at Rome and Myrtle Beach this year, has a broken left hand which ended his season on August 18, and will have to get medical clearance to play. Campbell, Pope, and Sammons are all top-30 prospects.

-- MWE

The Puerto Rican league schedule was pretty hard to find when I was scheduling a trip two years ago. If you find one team's schedule on its web site, you can probably piece together the home dates for the rest of the teams because, generally, the teams alternate home and road games, with double headers (7-inning games) on Sundays. The league is dark on Mondays and on Christmas Day (maybe Christmas Eve, too). At least that was the schedule the last two years. This site had some decent information about the teams and the parks. I went to four of the parks on my trip in 2004.

The Dodgers are sending six prospects to Hawaii: 1B Cory Dunlap, OF Xavier Paul, 3B Blake DeWitt, Ps Wesley Wright and Zach Hammes and C Anthony Harper. San Diego is sending 2B Peter Ciofrone and SS Sean Kazmar, and the Diamondbacks are sending OF Chris Rahl and P Kyler Newby.

-- MWE

More Hawaii news:

The Brewers are sending P Joe Thatcher and OFs Lorenzo Cain and Darren Ford.
The Blue Jays are sending OFs Ryan Patterson and Eric Nielsen.

-- MWE

Phillies have announced their 7 players on the Peoria Saguaros:

http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/content/printer_friendly/phi/y2006/m10/d13/c1710950.jsp

A wide array of pitching prospects (Joseph Bisenius, Gio Gonzalez, J.A. Happ, Kyle Kendrick, Zack Segovia); AA catcher Jason Jaramillo; and (former?) prospect Gavin Floyd.

The pitchers are getting smoked to date in the AFL. They are getting smoked by AFL standards!

The pitchers are getting smoked to date in the AFL. They are getting smoked by AFL standards!

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Teams aren't sending as many top pitching prospects to the AFL any more, because of the environmental effects and because they want to limit innings for their best guys. Sure, you get the occasional Hochevar (who was lit up yesterday) or Phil Humber, but those guys are there because they "didn't" pitch that much in the regular season. Mostly, though, you get B-/C+ guys; the Marlins, for example, sent four pitchers of which only one, Adam Bostick, is more than a long shot to get a big league job.

Team do send their best hitting prospects to the AFL, though. Combine that with the hitting environment and you get what you are seeing now.

-- MWE

All the points made in #12 apparently do not apply to the Phillies, as I think their top four pitching prospects are all in the AFL (if you consider Gavin Floyd to still be a prospect...he certainly isn't a major-leaguer), along with a total of one top hitting prospect.

Of course, it may be that the Phillies only have one top hitting prospect. But still, I think 12 being posted after my #10 is pretty funny.

Mostly, though, you get B-/C+ guys
doesn't this negate the whole point of the exercise?

Niemann did have a good start
Drays with Kazmir, Niemann, Hammel have the start of a good rotation.
If they can strike paydirt with one of Jackson, McClung or Tiffany...watchout Orioles?

where is Townsend?

All the points made in #12 apparently do not apply to the Phillies, as I think their top four pitching prospects are all in the AFL (if you consider Gavin Floyd to still be a prospect...he certainly isn't a major-leaguer), along with a total of one top hitting prospect.

That says more about the state of the Phillies' pitching prospects than anything else. I'd put Carrasco ahead of all of those guys but Gio, and Outman would be right in there along with Maloney.

The Phillies move their pitching prospects about as slowly as any organization. In most organizations, Outman and Maloney would have been promoted to high-A (and Carrasco might even have made a couple of token appearances there), and Pfinsgraff and Brauer would have been at Lakewood a month earlier than they were. Brauer just dominated the NY-P, but still made it to mid-August before being bumped up.

-- MWE

Townsend had TJ surgery a year ago. He pitched some in instructional league, but the Rays decided not to send him to the AFL.

-- MWE