Arizona Fall League underway

The Arizona Fall League season has begun, and a handful of Pirates minor-leaguers will play for the Scottsdale Scorpions: Vic Black, Brandon Cumpton, Kyle Kaminska, Tyler Waldron, Matt Curry, Gift Ngoepe, and Adalberto Santos. None of these guys are high-wattage types, obviously, and it's not uncommon to see teams send borderline pitching prospects like Cumpton and Waldron to take their lumps the hitter-friendly AFL. But Black and Ngoepe are interesting, and it will be fun to see what Santos can do after missing much of the 2012 season -- he's hit surprisingly well since being drafted, and would seem to be on track to be a useful hitter if he can keep it up.

Of course, the AFL season isn't long, and it can produce crazy results, especially for hitters -- Robbie Grossman had a banner AFL campaign last year that arguably didn't turn out to mean much. And there isn't anyone on this year's roster worth watching in the way Gerrit Cole was last year. But hey, it's Pirates baseball in October.

Anyway, Scottsdale is currently playing the Phoenix Desert Dogs.