Arizona Fall League Starts Today, Atlanta Braves Pitcher Gets The Opening Day Start
By Jeff Schafer
The opportunity for young (or older) major league baseball prospects to play more baseball continues through the winter months courtesy of the Arizona Fall League…other leagues also allows players to continuing working on their games – Dominican League, Puerto Rico, Australian Baseball League, Mexicana, Venezuela, and the Caribbean Series.
This is the 24th season of the Arizona Fall League and it opens today (October 13th). The Atlanta Braves send seven of their prospects to play for the Peoria Javelinas.
Pitchers Mauricio Cabrera, Lucas Sims, Andrew Thurman and Daniel Winkler. Catcher Joseph Odom, infielder Johan Camargo and outfielder Connor Lien.
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Sims will get the opening day start for Peoria as he takes on the Surprise Saguaros. The affiliations that are a part of the Surprise are the Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers. Pretty solid group of teams the Surprise pulls from.
Sims was selected by the Braves in the 1st round (21st overall) of the 2012 MLB Draft out of Brookwood High School in Snellville, Georgia. In 2015, he jumped from Rookie Ball, to Carolina A+, to Double-A Mississippi. He had a combined 7-6 record in 2015 with a 4.37 ERA in 20 games started.
Just before being called up to Mississippi earlier in the year, he was one of six Carolina Mudcats injured when the bus carrying the team went off the road and overturned in the early hours of May 12 on their way to play in Myrtle Beach. He was out for about a month with a hip contusion. This slowed Sims season down, but eventually was called up to Mississippi.
A few names you may recognize for Surprise are Jurickson Profar from the Rangers, Bubba Starling from the Royals, Alex Reyes of the Cardinals (#18 top prospect in MLB), Brett Phillips of the Brewers (#35 top prospect in MLB), and Lewis Brinson of the Rangers (#71 top prospect in MLB).
The #5 top prospect in the MLB will be playing in the Arizona Fall League with the Glendale Desert Dogs. He’s the Phillies top prospect, shortstop J.P. Crawford.
Peoria gets their players from the Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres, and Seattle Mariners.
The first pitch is set for a 2:35 PM ET.
As Fred wrote about a week ago, Hector Olivera and Dian Toscano will play in the Puerto Rico Winter League. This league starts on October 30th and Olivera and Toscano’s first game will be the next day on October 31st.
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