Salt River Rafters

If you're not familiar what that is, Arizona Fall League Baseball is essentially six teams here in the Valley at local spring training facilities comprised of the top prospects from all 30 baseball teams.

Your team, our team is the Salt River Rafters.

That's where the Diamondbacks prospects are as well as prospects from the Washington Nationals, Rockies, Twins, and Yankees.

So each team is made up of a combination of prospects from different organizations.

And there are six teams, if you are unaware, made up of prospects from all 30 MLB teams.

Our team is the Salt River Rafters.

That's who you root for.

That's who you die for.

You bleed teal and black, I think, is... what our primary colors are but regardless you bleed those colors uh d-backs afl team is also joined by prospects from the washington nationals colorado rockies minnesota twins and the new york yankees so and the league is loaded this year there are 15 of mlb pipelines top 100 prospects playing in the arizona fall league this year including three on the salt river rafters national pitcher harlan saswana we got d-backs infielder dimitrio chrysantis and then we got yankees shortstop dax kilby which is an incredible name dax kilby we talk about lars newbar being a star wars character dax kilby is obviously from the star trek next generation

dax kilby was sent to kill lars yeah

he is an assassin from the future uh the rafters are currently three and one they did have

I guess that's my job to do, huh? I'm to blame.

... be sure to, uh, take advantage of that.

I, I'm laughing 'cause I'm in the East Valley, so, like, I'll go to games in Scottsdale and Mesa and, and Salt River, but I never go out to, like, you know, Glendale and Peoria and Surprise.

[laughs]

Uh, and I believe their first couple of ga- the Salt River Rafters, uh, who house the Diamondbacks prospects, their first couple games are out in the West Valley.

So I'll probably circle back and, and start checking out their games once they come back east.

There you go.

Opening day for the Arizona Fall League is Saturday.

So the Glendale Desert Dogs kick off the year against the Salt River Rafters at 3.30.

So that'll be the first game there.

Um, some, some news too, on the Arizona folly, like you mentioned, we're going to be doing, um, the, the get to know you series.

So Braylon Payne will be my first one.

And I got to pick an infielder here from Salt River.

And I think I'm going to go with Demetrio Crescentes.

Crescentes is a bat to ball guy.

And then I think I'm probably going to pivot to an arm as well since I have two infielders and two outfielders.

And I just got to pick the one I want to get here.

So I'm going to go with Harleen Susana on the Salt River roster.

I think he's the most electric arm probably in the Fall League, touching 103 at times.

But then, after the season, coming up here pretty shortly, is the Arizona Fall League.

Once again, the Colorado Rockies will be joining the tandem that makes up the Salt River Rafters over at Salt River Field at Talking Stick.

And the Rockies will be sending eight players to the Arizona Fall League this year.

And Here is that list.

The Peora Javelinas, Cardinals, Mariners, Orioles, Padres, Reds.

Salt River Rafters are the D-backs, Nationals, Rockies, Twins, and Yankees.

Scottsdale Scorpions, Astros, Brewers, Giants, Rays, and Tigers.

And then rounding it out, the Surprise Saguaros, the Guardians, Mets, Phillies, Rangers, and Royals.

Well, that's not always true.

If you look at the, the Salt River roster, yeah, they have a catcher, Miguel Useche, from the Cubs.

Well, the Cubs play on Mesa.

Um, the other fi- the only other catcher on that roster is Jack O'Dowd from the Rockies, so that meant the Yankees, Diamondbacks, Twins, and Nationals didn't have a catcher to send.

So they, so in order to keep Jack O'Dowd from working every day for six weeks, they had to get a catcher from the Cubs.

You know, I've seen games where it was, uh, my favorite was a Cleveland pitcher, Cleveland hitter, and Cleveland catcher somehow.

Uh, two, three years ago, whatever year Jordan Walker was in the Fall League, Salt River's pitching was so bad that they just pulled a random guy off the backfields from the Padres, and not just for the day, for the rest of the Fall League, and just added him to the bullpen.

Like, these things happen.