(Rochester, Minn). – Six former Honkers and a total of 28 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 Honkers (bolded) and Northwoods League players and their AFL team are as follows:
| Glendale Desert Dogs | Salt River Rafters | Mesa Solar Sox | |||||
| 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 | Alexandria '11 | ||
| Blake Smith | Alexandria '07 | Andrew Aplin | St. Cloud '10 | Tony Renda | St. Cloud '09 | ||
| Michael Strong | Rochester '10 | Cal Towey | Eau Claire '10 | ||||
| Surprise Saquaros | Arik Sikula | Rochester '09-'10 | |||||
| Peoria Javelinas | Nick Howard | Madison '12 | Matt Grace | Alexandria '08 | |||
| Zach Cooper | Waterloo '09-'10 | Ben Klimesh | Rochester '11 | ||||
| Louis Head | Eau Claire '09 | Aaron Kurcz | Alexandria '09 | Scottsdale Scorpions | |||
| 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/
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The Rochester Honkers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 21st season of summer collegiate baseball, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 115 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (DET), Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (WAS), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Allen Craig (BOS) and Ben Zobrist (TB). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League YouTube channel. For more information, visit www.rochesterhonkers.com.
