Arizona… Parallel League?
A few weeks ago, as Dave was going over the list of players heading to the Arizona Fall League, questions were raised about the again-defunct Hawaii Winter League and whether there was going to be an alternative league in the works for younger/less experienced players. The good news is that ongoing discussions have led to the formation of the Arizona Parallel League for this season. The bad news is, unlike other parallel leagues in winter baseball (Venezuela, Colombia), the league is quite informal, and it’s highly unlikely that much news or statlines will be coming of it.
The gist of it is that the player development people for the teams that have complexes in Arizona all got together and decided that they were going to try for something a little more competitive than instructs. The teams that own the complexes, the Padres and the Mariners in Peoria, for example, will send out teams of roughly twenty players, each team sending five pitchers and five position players. The rules, however, are rather loose and if the Mariners only want their pitcher throwing to their catcher, that’s perfectly fine.
Games will be played at 12:30 pm on every weekday except Wednesday. If you’re already heading down for the Arizona Fall League, you may as well stop by and check it out, as you might see recent college draftees or various guys too young for the AFL, but too old for traditional instructs, so roughly High Desert, Clinton, Everett level.
And before anyone asks, no I don’t have a full list for the instructional leagues yet, just a few names.
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