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2001 season October 28, 2001 This week's AFL games saw some great individual performances and a couple of outrageous hitting outbreaks by AFL teams, making one wonder whether those games had been moved to Colorado's Coors Field instead of being held in Arizona. It was bittersweet week, too, as we bid farewell to nearly 20 players going off to represent their countries in the upcoming World Cup tournament in Taiwan. In fact, 14 of the 24 players on Team USA were plucked out of the Fall League, which will undoubtedly reduce the caliber of talent here for the last three weeks of the season. But there's still baseball to be played and the weather is wonderful, so Play Ball!
Farewell to our favorites: Everyone's favorite Fall Leaguer, Orlando Hudson (Blue Jays - 2B), played three games this week before leaving for Tucson to join Team USA. The "O" collected seven hits, including his fifth triple of the season, and stole his eighth base. Hudson gave the crowd a scare in his last game on Thursday evening when he collided with right fielder Gabe Gross while catching a popup beyond second base. But he was okay after taking a few moments to catch his breath. Hudson finished the year with a .426 batting average, .524 on-base percentage and .750 slugging percentage. We'll miss you, Orlando! ... Hudson's roommate, Scott Cassidy (Blue Jays - P), also had a strong final performance, pitching four no-hit, scoreless innings, despite an uncharacteristic five walks. The Syracuse native walked only one batter in his other 16 innings of AFL action ... One of the big surprises in this AFL season was the stellar pitching of Jason Stanford (Indians - P), who threw six strong innings on Tuesday, giving up only one run while striking out eight batters. The southpaw finished with a 1.42 ERA in his five starts, striking out 19 in 19 innings with only two walks. Like Cassidy, he'll pitch for Team USA in Taiwan ... The Scottsdale team took the biggest hit from Team USA, also losing middle infielder Zach Sorensen (Indians - SS), who finished with a .371 batting average. Sorensen hit his only AFL homer this week ... Joe Borchard (White Sox - OF) hit his first homerun in his farewell appearance, raising the switch-hitter's final AFL average just over the .200 mark.
New kids in town this week: Matt Belisle (Braves - P), who missed all of the 2001 season with an injury, came in on Friday and pitched five strong shutout innings ... Former number one pick and Arizona native Ben Diggins (Dodgers - P) made his first start in yesterday's game for the Phoenix Desert Dogs ... Another player with a local connection, Jason Bulger (Diamondbacks - P), who was Arizona's number one choice in the most recent free agent draft, made his professional debut on Friday night with a scoreless inning ... San Francisco sent Tony Torcato home early in order to give some at bats to fellow prospect Carlos Valderrama (Giants - OF). The Venezuela native singled in his first plate appearance this week.
Doin' yardwork: Austin Kearns (Reds - OF) and Mike Restovich (Twins - OF) both hit long shots on Friday night for their Grand Canyon team. The latter slugger has been hitting better as the season progresses, hitting the ball hard both out of the park and to the fence. Restovich, a muscular 6-4 and 233 pounds, runs surprisingly well for a big guy. He's hitting .301 with four homeruns and three stolen bases ... I like what I've seen of Freddy Sanchez (Red Sox - 3B). He's got very nice bat control and hardly ever strikes out. Just when I was commenting to a friend that he hadn't shown any power so far, Sanchez jolted an opposite field shot into the right field bullpen at Scottsdale. He added a double later in the week, and is now hitting .369 with a .453 on base percentage and a respectable .446 slugging percentage ... Mario Valenzuela (White Sox - OF) had a week to remember, hitting three homeruns in consecutive at bats on Monday, then following with another big blast on Tuesday. The native of Mexico is tied for the lead league with six homers ... Hank Blalock (Rangers - 3B) hit a pair on Monday and another on Friday to also give him six homeruns for the year. Blalock is one of the best pure hitters to come to the AFL in recent history (watch this space for an interview with the Rangers farmhand next week!) ... Blalock's two-homer game came in Peoria's 23-3 drubbing of Maryvale. In that same game, Drew Henson (Yankees - 3B) hit for the cycle, including his third homerun of the season.
Baseball celebrities in the crowd: The baseball world descended on Arizona this week with the World Series coming to Bank One Ballpark, and a few dignitaries made it out to Fall League parks. ESPN's Peter Gammons was at Scottsdale on Wednesday night ... Toronto exec and former pitcher Dave Stewart was in the stands on Friday night, looking very jovial as he chatted with fellow baseball people and fans. Now that I've finished my report for the week, it's off to the BOB for Game Two of the World Series. But then I'll be back in the small stadiums for another week of Arizona Fall League action. Until next week ....... --- Bill Mitchell
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