Players Heading To The Arizona Fall League

Zachary Nuding, Mark Montgomery, David Adams, Slade Heathcott, and Austin Romine will play in the Arizona Fall League. The Yankees, along with four other teams, send players to the Scottsdale Scorpions, one of six teams in the AFL. The AFL season lasts about a month and a half, and starts at the end of October.

Zachary Nuding will be there to get a little more work in, as the team was hoping for about 140 innings out of him in 2012, but Zach's only been able to throw 100. Nuding had a nice 3.89 ERA, while striking out 66 hitters, in 85.2 innings, in Tampa.

Mark Montgomery had a great year with high A Tampa and AA Trenton, and the team is looking to see whether he should be sent back to Trenton to start 2013, or go right to AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

David Adams has missed quite a bit of playing time since 2010 due to injury, so this is mostly about getting him more PT. After all, Adams has done pretty well in the few games he has been on the field, hitting .306 with 8 home runs in 86+ games for AA Trenton this year.

Slade Heathcott is another example of a player with a good deal of potential, but not enough games under his belt. Due to shoulder surgery Slade didn't start playing this season until June, and since then had a batting average of .307 to go along with 5 bombs.

Austin Romine hit just .213 in 17 games for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season, and had a low 25% caught stealing percentage. So unlike Heathcott, Adams, and Montgomery, Austin is a player that the Yankees just want to see more of. Seeing their catching situation with the big club, I can totally understand wanting to get a better idea of the guy closest (as far as age) to helping the big club.