Seven alumni of the Perfect Game/Aflac All-American Classic and 17 Perfect Game National Showcase alumni are on one of the two 26-man rosters for Saturday’s MLB Arizona Fall League Rising Stars Game at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale, Ariz.
A total of 39 Perfect Game graduates are included among the 52 players chosen for the seventh annual exhibition, held to showcase the AFL’s top players from the season just completed. The game will be televised live on the MLB Network and at MLB.com at 8 p.m. EDT.
The Eastern Division team will start right-hander Jarred Cosart, a top Houston Astros prospect who participated in the 2007 PG/Aflac All-American Classic and the 2007 PG National Showcase. The Western Division starter will be Minnesota Twins prospect Kyle Gibson, a right-hander who played in the 2004 PG WWBA Kernels Foundation Championship with the Indiana Bandits.
Infielders Kaleb Cowart (L.A. Angels), Ricky Oropesa (San Francisco Giants) and Jonathan Singleton (Houston Astros), and outfielder Brian Goodwin (Washington Nationals) join Cosart as PG/Aflac All-Americans on the East Division team. Catcher Mike Zunino (Seattle Mariners) and infielder Hunter Morris (Milwaukee Brewers) are PG/Aflac All-Americans on the West Division squad.
Morris played in the 2006 Classic; Cosart and Oropesa were at the 2007 event; Singleton, Goodwin and Zunino were included in 2008; and Cowart played as recently as 2009.
Zunino, a consensus All-American following his junior season at the University of Florida, was selected by the Mariners with the third overall pick in the 2012 MLB amateur draft and split the summer between Class A Everett in the Northwest League and Double-A Jackson in the Southern League.
A native of Cape Coral, Fla., Zunino attended 22 Perfect Game events between 2005 and 2009, including the PG/Aflac All-American Classic, the PG National Showcase and PG World Showcase, all in 2008.
“It opened me up to new experiences and let me see how other people played from around the country and the state of Florida,” Zunino said of his association with Perfect Game in an interview with PG last spring. “It gave me a gauge to sort of see myself compared with everybody else, and it was one of those deals where you see you have a lot of work to do when compared to other people.
“You try to be the best you can be, the experience really showed me that everybody’s working hard across the country and I needed to that also.”
What follows is a list of the PG alumni that will be playing in Saturday’s Arizona Fall League Rising Stars Game. The list includes the player’s position, the MLB organization he is with and a couple of his PG event highlights:
East Division:
Chase Anderson, RHP, Arizona – PG WWBA
Mike Belfiore, LHP, Baltimore – ’05 PG National Showcase, PG WWBA
Jarred Cosart, RHP, Houston – ’07 PG/Aflac All-American Classic, ’07 PG National Showcase, ’08 PG World Showcase, PG WWBA
Trey Haley, RHP, Cleveland – ’07 PG National Showcase, PG WWBA
Heath Hembree, RHP, San Francisco – PG WWBA
Mark Montgomery, RHP, N.Y. Yankees – ’06 Atlantic Coast Underclass Showcase
Tony Zych, RHP, Chicago Cubs – ’07 PG National Showcase, ’07, ’08 PG Pitcher/Catcher Indoor Showcase, PG WWBA
Austin Romine, C, N.Y. Yankees – ’05 Cal Top Prospect Showcase
David Adams, INF, N.Y. Yankees – ’04 PG National Showcase, ’04 PG Showcase-Aflac, PG WWBA
Kaleb Cowart, INF, L.A. Angels – ’09 PG/Aflac All-American Classic, ’09 PG National Showcase, ’08 PG Showcase at Aflac, ’07 PG National Underclass Showcase, PG WWBA, PG BCS Finals
Ricky Oropesa, INF, San Francisco – ’07 PG/Aflac All-American Classic, ’07 PG National Showcase, PG WWBA
Chris Owings, INF, Arizona – ’08 PG Wrigley Classic, PG WWBA
Anthony Rendon, INF, Washington – PG WWBA
Jonathan Singleton, INF, Houston – ’08 PG/Aflac All-American Classic, ’08 PG National Showcase, ’07 PG Rising Juniors Showcase, PG WWBA
Gary Brown, OF, San Francisco – ’07 PG California All-Star Game
Nick Castellanos, OF, Detroit – ’09 PG National Showcase, ’09 PG World Showcase, PG WWBA, PG BCS Finals
Brian Goodwin, OF, Washington – ’08 PG/Aflac All-American Classic, PG WWBA
Joc Pederson, OF, L.A. Dodgers – ’08 PG 2010 Grads National Showcase, PG WWB, PG BCS Finals
George Springer, OF, Houston – ’06, ’07 PG Northeast Top Prospect Showcase, PG WWBA
West Division:
Michael Brady, RHP, Miami – ’04 PG Underclass National Showcase, PG WWBA
Kyle Gibson, RHP, Minnesota – PG WWBA
Johnny Hellweg, RHP, Milwaukee – PG WWBA
Kevin Quackenbush, RHP, San Diego – ’06 PG National Showcase, PG WWBA
C.J. Riefenhauser, RHP, Tampa Bay – PG WWBA
James Simmons, RHP, Oakland – PG WWBA
Michael Tonkin, RHP, Minnesota – ’07 PG National Showcase, PG WWBA
Tommy Joseph, C, Philadelphia – PG WWBA
Mike Zunino, C, Seattle – ’08 PG/Aflac All-American Classic, ’08 PG National Showcase, ’08 PG World Showcase, ’06, ’07 PG National Underclass Showcase, ’07 PG Aflac Showcase, PG WWBA, PG BCS Finals
Michael Almanzar, OF/INF, Boston – PG WWBA
Nick Ahmed, INF, Atlanta – ’07 PG Northeast Top Prospect Showcase, PG WWBA
Cody Asche, INF, Philadelphia – ’08 PG World Showcase, PG WWBA, PG BCS Finals
Nick Franklin, INF, Seattle – ’08 PG National Showcase, ’08 PG World Showcase, PG WWBA, PG BCS Finals
Chris McGuiness, INF, Texas – PG WWBA
Hunter Morris, INF, Milwaukee – ’06 PG/Aflac All-American Classic, ’06 PG National Showcase, PG WWBA, PG BCS Finals
Kolten Wong, INF, St. Louis – ’07 PG National Showcase, ’07, ’08 PG Hawaii Showcase Tournament, ’06 PG Hawaii Showcase
Bryce Brentz, OF, Boston – PG WWBA
Brian Fletcher, OF, Kansas City – ’06 PG National Showcase, PG WWBA
Billy Hamilton, OF, Cincinnati – PG WWBA
Christian Yelich, OF, Miami – ’09 PG National Showcase, ’08 PG Showcase at Aflac, ’08 PG 2010 Grads National Showcase, ’08, ’09 PG California Underclass Showcase, PG WWBA