Arizona Winter League

For the past two years, the Arizona Winter League has positioned itself as a fun evening out in Yuma. For the 2009 season, it might position itself as a fun evening out in Yuma and San Luis.
The Golden Baseball League, which runs the AWL, is in talks to add San Luis as a site for expansion. Not only would a San Luis team play in the league - which is based at Desert Sun Stadium in Yuma but also plays in Blythe and Palm Springs - but the city would also host games.

El Centro, Calif., which has hosted GBL games this season, may also be added to the AWL as it expands from six to eight teams, potentially.
Whether or not the league expands, commissioner Kevin Outcalt said the 2009 edition of the AWL should be similar to the past two years, when 134 players combined were issued contracts after the season to play for the GBL, other independent leagues or even big league clubs.

"It's just the fact that the quality of the player coming into the winter league is continuing to increase," Outcalt said. "There just aren't that many other places for players to showcase themselves January through March. Teams, organizations or independent league teams are looking hard at that point. So everything works out well for those players if they do good." Two players from 2007 are currently pitching in the major leagues. Sergio Romo, who pitched for the Yuma Scorpions and also played for Arizona Western, has earned a spot in the San Francisco Giants bullpen, while Scott Richmond - the 2007 AWL Pitcher of the Year for the Canada Miners - has cracked the starting rotation of the Toronto Blue Jays.

"I think you see professional-level players, ones that are current professionals or soon to be," Outcalt said. "Secondly, you got the intimacy with well-known players and managers."

Instructors will be ex-major leaguers who currently coach or manage professional teams such as Mike Marshall, Les Lancaster, Cory Snyder, Jeffrey Leonard, Brent Bowers, Garry Templeton and others. Outcalt said he is trying to bring in some other "big names," but said he couldn't comment on who they were.

The league is slated to start Jan. 26 and run until March 1.