While all eyes have been locked onto the historic 2016 World Series over the course of the past week, it’s important to remember that there is still baseball being played down in Scottsdale, Arizona, about 30 hours southeast of Cleveland, Ohio – the site for tonight’s Game Seven of a lifetime between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians.
Said baseball is the annual Arizona Fall League, which is obviously nowhere near as exciting as the World Series, but still a pretty cool collection of the top prospects in MLB and the future of the wonderful sport they call baseball competing in an extended season.
Ironically, two former New York Yankees stars have taken center stage during the World Series – Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller, who were both dealt before the trade deadline to the two teams competing for the coveted World Series trophy.
At the same time, two potential future stars of the New York Yankees have taken center stage down in the Apache State, earning rights to play in the Arizona Fall League All-Star Game this Saturday at 8:00 PM ET.
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Shortstop prospect Gleyber Torres and right-handed pitcher Dillon Tate are two promising prospects who were acquired by the Yankees in deadline deals this summer. Interestingly enough, Gleyber Torres was the headline of the trade package that the Yankees received from the Cubs in the aforementioned Aroldis Chapman trade. Dillon Tate, on the other hand, was acquired from the Texas Rangers in exchange for veteran slugger Carlos Beltran.
Torres, still just 19 years old, entered Monday’s AFL action hitting an astounding .303 with three him runs and seven RBI. Prior to Arizona, Torres hit .270 with 11 homers, 66 RBI and 21 stolen bases in 125 games combined with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (CHC High A) and Tampa Yankees (NYY High A).
The power-throwing 22-year-old right-hander Dillon Tate has pitched to a 3.86 ERA while striking out an impressive 11 batters over 9.1 innings pitched. Prior to Fall League action, the former 2015 first round draft pick went 4-3 with a 4.70 ERA in 24 games split between the Hickory Crawdads (TEX Single-A) and Charleston RiverDogs (NYY Single-A).
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With history bound to be made tonight, let’s not forget that the future is certainly looking bright as well!