Three Baseball Alumni Competed in the Arizona Fall League
10/29/2019 3:16:00 PM | Baseball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Three former Southern Miss pitchers got a chance to showcase their talents outside the traditional baseball season as each participated in the six-week Arizona Fall League (AFL), which wrapped up its season last Saturday.
The trio included Kirk McCarty with the Cleveland Indians organization, Bradley Roney with the Atlanta Braves, and Cody Carroll with the Baltimore Orioles.
McCarty, who was a 7th round pick in the 2017 MLB Draft by the Indians, played with the Mesa Solar Sox and posted a 2-1 record with a 3.00 earned run average in six games (five starts). McCarty threw 24 innings and allowed eight runs on 17 hits and six walks with 19 strikeouts and a WHIP (walk + hits divided by innings pitched) of 0.96.
Roney, an 8th round selection in the 2014 MLB Draft by the Braves, went 1-0 with a save over eight relief appearances with a 1.59 ERA for the Scottsdale Scorpions. He tossed 11 1/3 innings and allowed three hits, two runs and seven walks with 16 strikeouts to go along with a 0.88 WHIP.
Carroll,
the only person of the three to pitch in the big leagues, returned from a back injury that sidelined him for most of the regular season. The 22nd rounder by the New York Yankees in the 2015 MLB Draft was traded just prior to the deadline in the summer of 2018 to the Orioles and made his MLB debut shortly thereafter.
Carroll played for the runner-up Surprise Saguaros and appeared in nine games, all in relief. He did not compile a record and over eight innings posted an ERA of 2.08, with seven hits and two runs to go along with seven walks and 11 strikeouts.
The roots of the AFL go back several years, when the MLB wanted to create an easily accessible offseason league. A concern was that some of the best ballplayers left the United States to play winter ball in other countries, such as in the Caribbean and there was no way to monitor them. This league gives MLB a chance to govern and monitor the players in its organizations while also providing a better controlled league that could get proper care and treatment should injuries occur.
There is a two-pronged mission to the AFL. One is for the players to accelerate, and hopefully jump a classification. The other is for the managers and umpires to develop.
The trio included Kirk McCarty with the Cleveland Indians organization, Bradley Roney with the Atlanta Braves, and Cody Carroll with the Baltimore Orioles.
McCarty, who was a 7th round pick in the 2017 MLB Draft by the Indians, played with the Mesa Solar Sox and posted a 2-1 record with a 3.00 earned run average in six games (five starts). McCarty threw 24 innings and allowed eight runs on 17 hits and six walks with 19 strikeouts and a WHIP (walk + hits divided by innings pitched) of 0.96.
Roney, an 8th round selection in the 2014 MLB Draft by the Braves, went 1-0 with a save over eight relief appearances with a 1.59 ERA for the Scottsdale Scorpions. He tossed 11 1/3 innings and allowed three hits, two runs and seven walks with 16 strikeouts to go along with a 0.88 WHIP.
Carroll,
the only person of the three to pitch in the big leagues, returned from a back injury that sidelined him for most of the regular season. The 22nd rounder by the New York Yankees in the 2015 MLB Draft was traded just prior to the deadline in the summer of 2018 to the Orioles and made his MLB debut shortly thereafter.
Carroll played for the runner-up Surprise Saguaros and appeared in nine games, all in relief. He did not compile a record and over eight innings posted an ERA of 2.08, with seven hits and two runs to go along with seven walks and 11 strikeouts.
The roots of the AFL go back several years, when the MLB wanted to create an easily accessible offseason league. A concern was that some of the best ballplayers left the United States to play winter ball in other countries, such as in the Caribbean and there was no way to monitor them. This league gives MLB a chance to govern and monitor the players in its organizations while also providing a better controlled league that could get proper care and treatment should injuries occur.
There is a two-pronged mission to the AFL. One is for the players to accelerate, and hopefully jump a classification. The other is for the managers and umpires to develop.
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