Rochester, Minn. – Twenty eight former Northwoods League players will be competing over the next two months in Arizona against the top players in Minor League Baseball.
There are six teams in the Arizona Fall League: the Scottsdale Scorpions, Mesa Solar Sox, Salt River Rafters, Glendale Desert Dogs, Peoria Javelinas and Surprise Saguaros. The names of the teams were picked by Major League Baseball to reflect the Southwestern desert traditions in the state.
The teams are broken into two divisions, East and West and each Major League Baseball team sends six top prospects to the Arizona Fall League. Most of the players are Double-A and Triple-A Minor League players. Each team can choose to send one player considered a Class A player.
The 2014 All-Star Game in Minnesota featured a former AFL alum in the American League's winning pitcher, Max Scherzer who pitched in the Northwoods League in La Crosse with the Loggers in 2004.
The former Northwoods League players and their AFL team are as follows:
| Glendale Desert Dogs | Salt River Rafters | Mesa Solar Sox | |||
| Player | Team/Yr. | Player | Team/Yr. | Player | Team/Yr. |
| Mike Thomas | Green Bay '10 | Tyler Heineman | Wisconsin '11 | Austin House | Rochester '11 |
| Nick Ramirez | Rochester '09 | Chris O'Dowd | La Crosse '10 | Derek Self | Madison '09 |
| Scott Schebler | Green Bay '10 | Chad Wallach | Rochester '12 | Nate Smith | St. Cloud '09 |
| Blake Smith | Alexandria '07 | Andrew Aplin | St. Cloud '10 | Tony Renda | St. Cloud '09 |
| Michael Strong | Rochester '10 | Cal Towey | Eau Claire '10 | ||
| Surprise Saguaros | Arik Sikula | Rochester '09-'10 | |||
| Peoria Javelinas | Player | Team/Yr. | Matt Grace | Alexandria '08 | |
| Player | Team/Yr. | Nick Howard | Madison '12 | ||
| Zach Cooper | Waterloo '09-'10 | Ben Klimesh | Rochester '11 | Scottsdale Scorpions | |
| Louis Head | Eau Claire '09 | Aaron Kurcz | Alexandria '09 | Player | Team/Yr. |
| Sam Selman | Mankato '10-'11 | Samuel Wolff | Wisconsin '10 | Ryan O'Sullivan | Eau Claire '08 |
| Hunter Dozier | Willmar '12 | Seth Mejias-Brean | La Crosse '10 | ||
| Jordan Smith | Willmar '10 | John Hicks | Madison '09 |
More information on the Arizona Fall League can be found at: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/afl/