Notes on the O's in Arizona Fall League, Sasaki signing odds and Select-A-Seat day

With eight players, a manager and a strength coach from the Orioles organization, the Surprise Saguaros are chasing an Arizona Fall League championship.

The six-team AFL will see its regular season end tomorrow. On Friday, the second and third place teams meet in a playoff semi-final game. The winner will advance to meet the No. 1 seed on Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET.

After a loss yesterday, Surprise remains in first place at 16-10 (.615) by one game over Glendale and Salt River (both 16-12, .571) with two to play. These are the likely playoff teams.

Surprise is managed by Roberto Mercado, who managed the O's Double-A Bowie team this year. 

A look at the eight O’s organization players on the Surprise roster:

* Catcher Creed Willems repped the O’s in the recent Fall Stars game. He is ranked as the club's No. 22 prospect per MLBPipeline.com and No. 25 via Baseball America. In 17 games with Surprise, he is batting .338/.388/.514/.902.

* Outfielder Douglas Hodo III is batting .236 with an OPS of .868 and has nine stolen bases in 11 tries. He is tied for fifth in the league in steals.

* Outfielder Jake Cunningham has played in just six games batting .391 (9-for-23) with two homers, eight RBIs and an OPS of 1.075.

* Lefty pitcher Juan Rojas leads Surprise with six starts and has gone 2-1 with a 7.50 ERA. Over 18 innings he allowed 15 earned runs with 12 walks and 11 strikeouts.

* Righty pitcher Zane Barnhart is 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA in seven AFL games, allowing one run in 5 1/3 innings.

* Righty Tyler Burch is 0-0 with a 2.25 ERA in four games, allowing two hits and one run over four innings.

* Righty Preston Johnson is 1-1 with a 3.75 ERA over five games. In 12 innings he allowed five earned runs with seven walks and strikeouts.

* Right-handed pitcher Houston Roth is 0-0 with a 16.62 ERA over five games. He has allowed eight runs in 4 1/3 innings.

The team’s strength and conditioning coach is Chris Frosch, who was with the O’s High-A Aberdeen club in 2024.

Maybe I am missing one, but as best as I can remember, the last time the AFL championship team featured O’s players, it was in 2013 when Surprise won the AFL championship game.

That club was managed by then Bowie manager Gary Kendall, who after his team won that AFL title said, “The Orioles made a statement today.”

For a trip down memory lane, that Surprise club included Jonathan Schoop, Henry Urrutia, Dariel Álvarez and Michael Ohlman on that roster along with pitchers Eduardo Rodríguez, who started the championship game, Tim Berry, Branden Kline and Jason Gurka.

More on Sasaki: Yesterday in this space I wrote about right-hander Roki Sasaki, who will soon be posted to MLB by the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball.

He is a top talent and at age 23, qualifies to sign with MLB only as an international amateur, meaning he will get a very low dollar amount, nothing like what some top free agent pitchers are expected to sign for.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the favorite to sign Sasaki. If they do, their 2025 rotation could feature Japanese pitchers Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Sasaki.

The latest odds on where Sasaki could sign per SportsBetting.ag.

3/1 – Los Angeles Dodgers

4/1 – San Diego Padres

6/1 – New York Mets

7/1 – Seattle Mariners

8/1 – San Francisco Giants

The O’s are listed at 28/1 which means 18 teams have better odds. The O’s odds, for instance, per this outlet, to get Blake Snell are much better at +650 which implies about a 13 percent chance to get Snell.

Select-A-Seat event is this weekend: Recently here I wrote about Saturday's Birdland Member Select-A-Seat opportunity at Oriole Park from 10 a.m. to Noon.

The event is open to the public for fans interested in purchasing a 2025 Birdland Membership or Suite Package. Fans can choose their Camden Yards seat location and learn about the benefits of becoming a Birdland member.

Those interested can RSVP at Orioles.com/SelectASeat. The deadline to RSVP for this event is Nov. 14 at 6 p.m.

Those that purchase a membership at the event will have the opportunity to visit and take photos in the Orioles clubhouse.

For more on the event and to learn more of the perks about being a Birdland Member, click here.

Last night, the O's Anthony Santander won his first career Silver Slugger award and that is covered in this entry.