Welcome to the first installment of Fantasy Gameday’s coverage of the Arizona Fall League. A quick look back to 2007 reveals about 17 participants that were likely rostered at one time or another in 12 team mixed leagues this past year. The 2008 class is a strong one, boasting 27 former first round picks, seven former top ten picks, 13 former Futures Game selections, and 22 players with major league service time. For a comprehensive look at the full rosters check out this Baseball America article.

Games started Tuesday October 7th, with Max Scherzer and Phil Hughes pitching in separate games. Scherzer was dominant, going seven full innings on 78 pitches, allowing one run and four hits. He struck out four without a walk. Hughes also was unscored upon, but while only allowing a single hit he walked five in five innings. Yankee top prospect Austin Jackson hit third and provided the offense with four RBI. On Monday Scherzer and Hughes face off, look for a short update following the action.

On Wednesday White Sox stud pitcher Aaron Poreda made his first appearance. He allowed two hits in his inning of work while striking out two. After throwing 161 innings between high A and AA he is likely to only be used in relief. Jose Contreras’ achilles injury leaves a hole in Chicago’s rotation that Poreda should compete for in the spring. The offensive star of the day was Florida’s Logan Morrison: 3-4, 2R, 2B, HR, 3 RBI.

Thursday and Friday’s games were largely offensive shootouts. Matt Wieters of Baltimore and Was Hodges of Cleveland are teaming up in the middle of the order for the Suprise Rafters. So far Wieters is 7-13 with a double, a triple, and four walks. Hodges is 5-13 with two home runs and six RBI. The Yankees’ Juan Miranda was 6-8 with five extra base hits over two days. He spent the whole year at AAA, and at 25 may enter the first base equation next year. The Mets’ Daniel Murphy is readying himself for a run at the second base job and Friday went 2-2 with a double, home run, and two walks. Also on Friday, Florida’s “fastest baserunner” John Raynor hit for the cycle and stole a base. Good pitching was in short supply these two days, but a few stood out. Eddie Kunz of the Mets and Ross Detwiler of the Nationals both made scoreless relief appearances. Milwaukee’s 2006 first rounder (16th) Jeremy Jeffress started Thursday, 3 IP, 2H, BB, R, 4K, 4 ground outs. Brooks Brown, a supplemental first round pick of Arizona (34th), started Friday, 3 IP, 3H, R, BB, K. Opposing him was Clay Buccholz who in three innings only gave up a walk, with three strikeouts. In the worry column, Casey Weathers (COL) left his game Thursday with elbow problems, the extent of which are not completely known yet.

On Saturday Shawn Bowman (NYM) and Sean Doolittle (OAK) capped off impressive opening weeks. Bowman is 6-11 with 2 HR and 2 2B. Doolittle is 6-20, also with 2 HR, and 3 2B. Doolittle is younger than Bowman, but has more AA at bats and a better chance of entering the A’s outfield picture than Bowman has of supplanting Carlos Delgado in 2009. 2008 eighth overall pick Gordon Beckham (CHX) played at second base. Seventh pick Brian Mutusz started and threw a hitless three innings (1 BB, 1 K). He was followed by Gilbert de la Vara (KC) for two innings (1 H, 3 K). Gaby Hernendez, acquired by the Mariners for Arthur Rhodes, had a good effort as a starting pitcher as well: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 3 K. He finished the year in AAA, but needs to show success before being considered for the major leagues.

A theme of week one was high scoring. Short appearances tend to reflect harshly on pitchers as 17 currently have ERAs over 6.00. The bottom four teams’ ERA range from 4.40 to 5.77. Its entirely possible with the minor league season ending in early September, that there is some rust to be kicked off. Any player you want more information on, just leave in the comments section and I will dig up all that I can.