AFL experience should benefit a number of young Mariners

The Arizona Fall League season will come to an end Saturday when the last pitch of the championship game is thrown. Two weeks ago, I took a detour from my planned vacation to catch a few games and checked in with a number of Mariners minor leaguers who were still playing in Arizona. It was the first time I have been in Arizona for the fall league and I was interested to learn more about it after following the games and numbers for years.

A quick primer: The AFL is made up of six teams that play at the spring training facilities of a number of teams in Arizona. Each team is made up of representatives from five organizations with each sending seven players. There are rules as to who is eligible, but for the most part the players are from Double-A and Triple-A. Foreign players are allowed as long as they are not on their country’s protected-player list. The teams play 30-32 games and there is a “Fall-Stars” game as well.

A large majority of the players are top prospects who are there to get extra work against superior competition. Others are young players who missed time during the season and are there to get additional innings or at-bats. Sometimes teams send players to the AFL to help work them through a position or mechanical change.

The six teams play Monday through Saturday with two games being played during the day and one at night. The games looked and sounded very much like spring training games, only with much fewer fans in the stands. The crowds I saw were made up mostly of scouts, friends and families of the players and a number of die-hard fans, many of which were scoring the games in notebooks.

The Mariners traditionally play for the Peoria Javelinas, but with the stadium at the Peoria Sports Complex undergoing renovations they were moved to the Surprise Saguaros this year. The team was represented by Taijuan Walker, D.J. Peterson, Patrick Kivlehan, John Hicks, Matt Anderson, Matt Brazis, Scott DeCecco and Stephen Landazuri.

I have received a number of questions about Peterson, who after a strong year in the minors that included 111 RBIs has hit just .164 in the fall league. I am not terribly concerned about this. Peterson is at the end of his first full season of pro ball and he is coming off an offseason where his workouts were limited because of injury. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an element of fatigue that set in. I think a bigger problem has been the fact that the fall-league rosters have 35 spots. There is less playing time to go around.

“It’s very different,” he answered when I asked how the fall league compared to other leagues he has played in. “The competition is very good but you don’t play every day so it is hard to get into a routine and get on fire and get going. That’s the toughest thing for me is not playing every day, not getting in a good groove and only playing three days a week tops. But all the pitchers here are very good. They all know how to pitch, they’re all spotting, they all have good off-speed. It’s a good league. A lot of good pitchers here.”

While the hits haven’t been there for Peterson, he has been able to stay in his approach regardless of the number of unfamiliar pitchers he has seen. His walks are up and his strikeouts are down.

“To know what they are giving me, adjust to that, and what they are not giving me and knowing what their game plan is, that’s important,” he said. “The zone is a little better here, the umpires are good, the pitching is more consistent. It is a little easier to get those walks and see more pitches.”

Hicks, who finished last season at Triple-A Tacoma, has embraced the opportunity to see pitchers on both ends, catching and facing them. He realizes that he could see these pitchers again and keeps a mental notebook of what he has seen. One pitch from one pitcher has stood out among the rest.

“You don’t see it a ton in minor-league baseball but (Reds prospect) Ben Klimesh has a split-finger that is really good,” he said. “I think that is probably one of the best pitches I have seen. A lot of guys have a ton of (velocity). You see guys throwing 98, 99, but most all of these pitchers have at least one pitch that’s kind of like, that’s a big-league pitch right there. You really get something out of it.”

There was a new twist for both the pitchers and hitters this spring as MLB experimented with procedures to speed up the game. The most obvious was the 20-second clock. Pitchers had 20 seconds to throw each pitch and the countdown could be seen by all on monitors in left and right-center field. The new rule was barely noticed by Peterson.

“It’s more for the pitcher. I don’t think it has affected the hitter very much,” he said. “You just get in the box and he has 20 seconds to throw. It doesn’t really do too much to the hitter. You still have time to spit in the glove, undo the batting gloves …”

While Peterson isn’t worried about the clock, Hicks saw others who were while behind the plate.

“I think you will notice at times the hitters will feel they are being quick-pitched just because the pitchers want to work so fast because they don’t want to worry about the clock. At times you will get in the box, it will seem like the guy is already in his windup.”

The countdown is nothing more than that. A silent countdown with no sound to indicate zero. Whether or not a pitcher is penalized is up to the umpire. Hicks said that he only saw that happen three or four times. It will be interesting to see how the experiment plays out, if MLB feels time was saved. The countdown was used in two of the three games I was at and it was barely noticeable.

If speed-of-game measures are used in spring training, Peterson and Hicks will have a jump on their teammates in getting comfortable with them. They will also have the benefit of a month and a half of seeing plus pitching on a daily basis. That is the biggest thing they should take from the AFL. It is not something they can get in the minor leagues. They have also pushed through an extra month of baseball, played closer to 162 games than the 142 in the minors. It’s a valuable opportunity and all who played in the AFL this fall should take something from it.

I will have more from the AFL in the coming weeks in podcast form, including interviews with Peterson, Hicks and Kivlehan.

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