AFL Brief II

Swell news: JP Arencibia took a walk(!) and singled in three trips as the Desert Dogs fell 6-4 to the Peoria Javelinas yesterday. Scott Campbell came in off the bench to pinch hit, drawing a walk and scoring a run... then played short? For a guy who allegedly needs to work on his D he's spending enough time away from his natural home at second.

Pitching-wise, it got a bit ugly for Zach Dials (this year's Fisher Cats closer, pictured at left) in the bottom of the 6th, when he surrendered a triple and three consecutive singles before striking out the next two hitters to leave with a line of 2 R (1 ER) in 2/3 of an inning.

Elsewhere, I encourage you all to pay a visit to The Blue Jay Hunter, where fellow Sardinian Ian Hunter does his year-end Jays recap. I don't want to steal his thunder and will leave it by saying that it's well worth your while to check out his Tim Dierkes interview, where various offseason moves are hashed out with the MLBTR guru, and his chat with the always entertaining Mike Wilner.

Good hunting, lads.

-- Johnny Was

AFL Report

The Phoenix Desert Dogs and their contingent of Blue Jays prospects kicked off Arizona Fall League action yesterday afternoon, falling 3-2 to the Mesa Solar Sox. There's no particular reason for you to care about how the team fares as a whole, but I'll keep you updated on the progress of JP Arencibia, Scott Campbell, Ryan Patterson, Kyle Ginley, Zach Dials and Daryl Harang (yes, he is Aaron's brother).

On that note: Arencibia went 0-2 with a K, Patterson K'd in a pinch hit AB, and Campbell came into the game to pinch run but didn't get a chance to hit. None of the Jays pitchers threw. Done and dusted.

The AFL is considered to be a finishing school for advanced prospects and it was there that local mancrush Dave Purcey served notice in 2007 that the "bust" projections were premature. Each of the aforementioned Jays prospects has something integral to their development to work on: Arencibia needs to start working counts and taking walks, Campbell's looking to rebound from nagging late season injuries, Patterson's looking to show he hasn't stalled at AA, Ginley needs to work on his secondary stuff and succeed against more advanced hitters after some scuffles at A+ ball, Dials is looking to get more innings in, and Harang needs to get those walks down.

Good luck, all.

Related coolness from tomorrow's paper:

Baseball New Zealand has no objection to 2B Scott Campbell suiting up for Canada at the the World Baseball Classic this spring. This is a great news for Campbell, whose tenuous biological link to Canada is roughly on par with Mike Piazza's to Italy, if for no other reason than Canada's first round WBC games will be played at the Rogers Centre in early March. I'm well-chuffed when it comes to international baseball in general, so this is an added bonus for fans who like to keep tabs on Jays prospects. And frankly, haven't we all seen enough of Stubby Clapp for one lifetime?

-- Johnny Was