Arizona Fall League - Peoria at Mesa 10-25-12

[TCAnelle]

Posted at Twinkietown is my write up with pictures and videos from Thursday's AFL game between Peoria and Mesa. There's apparently a limit of one embedded video per post so please see TT post for the videos or follow the links to Youtube.

 

 

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Panorama of field at Hohokam Stadium

After a disappointing Twins season I decided to book a trip to visit some family in Phoenix and catch some Arizona Fall League games. The Twins prospects play for the Peoria Javelinas and today they were facing the Mesa Solar Sox at Hohokam Stadium, the spring training home of the Chicago Cubs.

The stadium is one of the older facilities in the Arizona spring training circuit. It's still a decent stadium and seems comparable to the Twins facility in Fort Myers (at least for the main stadium). Tickets are $7 at the gate (cash only) and parking was free. There were maybe 50 people at the game and that's likely a generous count. The temp at game time was 82 degrees with not a cloud in the sky so it was a perfect day for baseball.

Five major league teams feed each of the six AFL teams. The Javelinas consists of prospects from the Reds, Twins, Phillies, Padres and Mariners. The base stealing wonder, Billy Hamilton, lead off for Peoria today but unfortunately went 0-6 so I didn't get to see any of his record breaking speed. His OBP is only .289, but he does have six stolen bases in 9 AFL games so maybe I'll see it tomorrow.

Four Twins prospects saw time in today's game. Dan Rohlfing started at catcher and Nate Roberts covered left field. Michael Tonkin and Logan Darnell pitched in relief.

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Rohlfing made his AFL debut today, taking Chris Herrmann's place after Chris injured his shoulder. Dan was 1-3 with 2 RBI (one on a bases loaded HBP). He seemed comfortable catching the non-Twins catchers and combined with Peoria starter Tim Crabbe (Reds) to not allow a hit through the first four innings.

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Nate Roberts continued his torrid AFL run with a 1-2 day with 2 HBP and a BB. His triple slash is now .526/.667/.684. Small sample size applies since that's in only 7 games but in 76 games in Beloit his line was .299/.433/.427.

 

Michael Tonkin continued his scoreless streak (no runs, earned or unearned in 6.1 innings). He struck out the first batter faced. The second batter reached on an error, but a fly out and line out to Hamilton in CF preserved his scoreless streak. He's allowed three hits, walked one and struck out five so far on the AFL season.

 

 

Logan Darnell followed Tonkin with a scoreless 8th. The first two batters he faced reach with a single and a double, but he was then able to induce a ground out, followed by a strike out and a fly out to CF. He's allowed two runs (both earned), nine hits, two walks, and gotten six strikeouts in 7.2 AFL innings.

The final was Peoria over Mesa 8-2.

Tomorrow Peoria plays Salt River at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.

Full picture set from today is available on Flickr