AFL season over; Some promise shown by Astros' farmhands

Isn't that what this was all about? A short, post regular season league, of what basically amounts to exhibition games. We learned a little bit more about what we have at our highest levels of minor leagues. Here's how the final three games panned out for everyone:

Tuesday, 11/18: Our hitters continued the trend, with only Chris Johnson collecting a hit in a 1-0 win for Scottsdale. Sergio Perez started the game and was sharp in his three innings of work, striking out three in three innings of work. Bud Norris closed out the win, collecting a two inning save. He did give up two hits and two walks, while striking out none, but we'll take it.

Wednesday, 11/19: Drew Sutton would see his final action of the fall in this game, as he went 0/4 with a couple of strikeouts. Brad James saw his fall mercifully come to a conclusion, but he managed to lower his ERA to 10.64, due to a scoreless inning of relief.

Thursday, 11/20: You thought this was going to be an all pitch, no hit review? Brian Bogusevic saw to it that you would be WRONG. Bougy went deep for the first time this fall, while scoring three runs. Chris Johnson doubled in his five ABs.

Post season acknowledgments: MLB.com highlighted both Drew Sutton and Brian Bogusevic as AFL players who should make some noise in 2009. Sutton did play five positions this fall which is nice for a guy who probably won't turn out to be any more than a pretty good major leaguer. What about the comparison to Geoff Blum? Is it warranted at this point? Bougy got the usual, "used to be a hitter, then he was drafted as a pitcher, now he's back to hitting" line we've seen time and time again. Chris Johnson was pretty bad at AAA Round Rock, posting a .218/.252/.287 line in 101 ABs, so it was nice to him capitalize in the fall.

As far as our pitchers are concerning, the sample size doesn't allow many inferences to be drawn. Sergio Perez was inconsistent as a starter (note the K/BB ratio) but had some nice performances at the end. Bud Norris allowed 27 base-runners in only 19 innings of work, so his 1.89 ERA has some luck factoring into it, for sure.