The Arizona Fall League announced the representatives for the annual Fall-Stars game to be held this Saturday night. Pitcher Adrian Sampson, first baseman Josh Bell and catcher Elias Diaz will represent the Pittsburgh Pirates organization in the game.
The game usually has two players from each team, with a few teams sending one representative due to roster limitations. It normally isn’t based on results, more it’s a showcase of the best players in the league. Tyler Glasnow and Joely Rodriguez have been the two best Pirates players so far and Glasnow is the best prospect from the team as well, but he is scheduled to pitch Thursday, while Rodriguez will follow him on Friday, so neither would be available to pitch in the game.
Bell has struggled defensively with the move to first base, committing four errors in his limited time, but that has to be expected from someone who took up the position last month in the Instructional League. Diaz has played well defensively, receiving praise from numerous people attending the games. Neither has hit well in the league though. Coming into Monday’s game, Bell was hitting .234/.308/.340 in 47 at-bats. Diaz is batting even lower, but he does have a higher OPS with his .222/.344/.333 slash line in eight games.
Adrian Sampson wasn’t listed in the article(linked above) originally, but he made the team as well. He has been pitching in relief, throwing a total of eight innings over six appearances. He has a 3.38 ERA, with five strikeouts and a 1.25 WHIP.
The game will be televised on MLB Network at 8 PM EST.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
http://m.mlb.com/news/article/99771626/afl-fall-stars-game-filled-to-brim-with-talent here is the full roster, just click the link
I linked the MLB article when I posted this article(first sentence) and he wasn’t on the roster then. I added him now, thanks for the update
No problem
Reading this article- two words. HOW! WOW! How does a prospect make an star-game with those numbers and defensive performance? It MUST be each team MUST have X amount of representatives. Diaz I get. He could be a solid back up catcher in future- hit well at Altoona! May be getting tired! Sampson is going to need to trend upward in pitch ability category- not going to over power hitters with his current stuff. Good for them though!
They usually take the best prospects. My initial roster guess was Glasnow and Bell, but Glasnow won’t be available, he’s staying on his regular schedule and pitching Thursday. In that regard, Bell isn’t a surprise at all, he basically made the Fall-Star game by being named to the Scottsdale roster back in August. Sampson is a little bit of a surprise and having three players also is a surprise since there are 50 roster spots and 30 teams to fill it.
Isn’t Adrian Sampson on the team? I looked up the full roster and they had him listed.