Ports Players Heating Up in Arizona Fall League

STOCKTON, Calif. -Several former Ports are continuing their success from the 2009 regular season in this year's Arizona Fall League.  Former players Sam Demel, Justin Friend, Jemile Weeks, Grant Desme and Corey Brown are helping to make the Phoenix Desert Dogs the best team in the League.

The Desert Dogs are looking to capture their sixth consecutive championship this season, and feature the best record in the league at 10-5 thus far.  A major part of that success has been the hot bat of OF Grant Desme, the Ports 2009 Player of the Year.

Desme has hit 10 home runs in 10 games, and is four homers shy of tying the league's single-season record set by Brandon Wood of the Angels organization in 2005.  He is leading the League with a .434 batting average, 10 home runs, 22 RBI and 19 runs--all in 13 games.  Desme put together an 11-game hitting streak as well.  With those numbers, it's easy to see why he was named the Week 2 Player of the Week for the league.

Desme's first full season in professional baseball was in 2009, as injuries kept him from playing more than a handful of games in 2007 and 2008.  In 2009, Desme began the year with Single-A Kane County before joining the Ports after the All-Star Break.  In 62 games with the Ports, Desme posted a .304 batting average, with 12 doubles, four triples, 20 home runs and 51 RBI.  Desme led the team in home runs and finished third on the team in RBI.  Desme, in fact, led the A's farm system with 31 total home runs, and ranked among Oakland organization leaders with 89 total RBI and 40 stolen bases.  

Brown and Weeks have also been showing good skills at the plate this season for Phoenix.  Brown is batting .353 with three doubles, two triples, four home runs and 14 RBI this season.  He's second on the Desert Dogs in homers and third in RBI.    Brown has collected three RBI in each of his last two games, and has hit safely in 11 of his 12 games this season.  He's also had an extra base hit in six straight games for the Desert Dogs.  Brown was named a midseason All-Star with the Texas League in 2009.  He batted .268 with 20 doubles, four triples, nine home runs and 43 RBI for the RockHounds this year. 

Weeks, the A's 2008 First Round draft pick, is hitting .256 with five doubles, two triples and six RBI in 10 games for the Desert Dogs.  He leads Phoenix in doubles.  He had a great year with Stockton before being promoted to Double-A Midland.  Weeks started off the season by hitting safely in each of the first 22 straight games he played in--the longest hitting streak by a Stockton player in 2009, and second longest in the California League.  He batted .400 (36x90) with five doubles, a triple, seven home runs and 23 RBI in that span.

Demel and Friend have been seeing some action for the Desert Dogs as well.  Demel, who split the 2009 season between Double-A Midland and Triple-A Sacramento, has appeared in six games and pitched 5.0 innings so far for Phoenix.  He's struck out five and allowed nine runs on 12 hits. 

Friend, one of the most reliable arms from the Ports bullpen in 2009, is tied for the team-lead with two wins.  With Phoenix, he has tossed 5.1 innings over four appearances this season, striking out five and allowing five runs on three hits.  The Manteca, Calif. native played in 43 games for the Ports--the second highest number of appearances for Stockton this season.  He went 1-4 with five saves and a 2.87 ERA.  He struck out 64 batters in 59.2 innings before being promoted to Double-A Midland in August.

The Desert Dogs also feature prospects from Toronto, Washington, Baltimore and Tampa Bay, in addition to Oakland.  The No. 1 pick of the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, RHP Stephen Strasburg, is also competing with the 2009 Phoenix Desert Dogs.