MUST WATCH: Mark Appel's Video of Salt River Rafters

[Seth Stohs]

Astros prospect Mark Appel played on the same Salt River Rafters team with the Twins minor leaguers. He just posted a video of the team's championship. It's pretty good considering he did much of it on his phone. He does talk to a few of the Twins minor leaguers too. It's 15 minutes, but it's definitely worth the watch!

 

Watch the video here.

 

Quick note - you'll find that Eddie Rosario has a bit of a potty mouth... parental advisory... 

[Steven Buhr]

Just... wow LOL

[ashbury]

Hard to know if there is any irony when he says "we want it bad".  They know it's just the AFL, but competitors are competitors.

[Halsey Hall]

That was pretty good!  Seems they had a lot of fun and meshed as a team.  Something they'll never forget and can take forward with them.  Nice job. 

[Steven Buhr]

I think the, "we want it bad," was certainly somewhat tongue-in-cheek, just as were the comments about how the stadium was filling up with fans for the championship game.

 

At the same time, they absolutely care about winning. No, the losers of the championship game aren't spending the rest of their offseason fixated on how they came SO close to winning it all... in the AFL. But winning any kind of championship gives a sense of accomplishment and you don't get to the point where these guys are in their careers without being pretty competitive.

 

Just from the few days of AFL that I saw this year, I thought it was a great environment.

 

You've got a group of players from different organizations thrown together and each of those players can take some pride in the fact that somebody, somewhere, thinks they are a legitimate big league prospect or they wouldn't be assigned to this league. They know that a significant number of MLB rookies came through the AFL and they also know that the percentage of players on an AFL roster that eventually make it to the big leagues is far greater than the percentage of any other minor league team they have played on to this point. I'm sure they can almost taste it.

 

They know performance is important, but it's almost like extended spring training games in terms of pressure or fan interest. You can see they are relaxed and just kind of having fun playing baseball, kind of the way they did in high school or college. Maybe for the first time since they became professionals. And maybe for the last time that they'll be able to relax and have fun playing the game. The game now becomes a pretty serious job once a guy reaches this level, if it wasn't already.

[ashbury]

I enjoyed the gentle hazing/razzing of a couple of players who seemed to have acquired the reputation for a big head, as well.

 

I'm going to sound like an idiot for saying this, but the overall tone reminded me of my beer-league softball days.¹  Guys are guys, I guess.

 

^{1_{And no, no team I was ever on played for a championship of any type.  What. So. Ever.}}