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Chicago sending P.G.'s Young to Arizona Fall League

Jared Young thought the month of September would be a time to come home to Prince George and take a breather from baseball after a long hot spring and summer playing for the Tennessee Smokies, the Chicago Cubs' double-A Southern League affiliate.
Jared Young 2019
Chicago Cubs prospect Jared Young is back home in Prince George after spending the last two months playing in the Arizona Fall League for the Mesa Solar Sox.

Jared Young thought the month of September would be a time to come home to Prince George and take a breather from baseball after a long hot spring and summer playing for the Tennessee Smokies, the Chicago Cubs' double-A Southern League affiliate.
Think again.
When Young completes the Smokies' 140-game schedule on Monday, he'll be coming home for just a few days to spend with his family in College Heights before he boards a plane to Arizona.
The Cubs have included Young on their list of six players they will send to the Arizona Fall League to play in September and October. The six-team league includes a select group of 180 players from the 30 Major League Baseball teams, each of which is limited to six players.
Young, 24, will play as an infielder for the Mesa Solar Sox, a team made up of the top prospects from the Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Oakland A's, Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Angels.
Based in Mesa, Ariz., the Solar Sox will play a 30-game schedule that starts Sept. 18 and wraps up with the championship game on Oct. 26.
An estimated 60 per cent of the players in the Arizona Fall League eventually end up on major league rosters. In the league's history it has sent more than 2,900 players to MLB. When the major league season began in April, 391 of the 750 players on opening-day rosters were AFL alumni. Seven of the last eight MVP award winners over the past four years in American League and National League, including Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Kris Bryant, Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Donaldson and Mookie Betts, played in the AFL.
The other AFL teams  and their major league affiliations are the Glendale Desert Dogs (Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee, St. Louis), Peoria Javelinas (Boston, Houston, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle), Salt River Rafters (Arizona, Colorado, Miami, Minnesota , Tampa Bay), Suprise Sagueros (Baltimore, Kansas City, New York Yankees, Texas, Washington) and Scottsdale Scorpions (Toronto, Atlanta, New York Mets, Philadelphia, San Francisco).
Cubs pitching prospects Keegan Thompson, Jordan Minch and Erich Uelman were also picked for the Solar Sox, as were catcher Miguel Amaya and infielder Nico Hoerner.
This is Young's third season playing in the minors. The Cubs drafted him in the 15th round in 2017 and he started his pro career playing rookie ball in te Northwest League in Eugene, Ore. In 2018 he started the season playing in the single-A Midwest League in South Bend, Ind., and was called up at mid-season to the Cubs single-A advanced affiliate in Myrtle Beach, N.C., playing in the Carolina League. He hit a combined .300 that season and was selected as Chicago's minor league player of the year, which earned him a promotion to Tennessee.
Heading into his game Friday in Mobile, Alab., Young was hitting .233 with 102 hits, including 19 doubles and five home runs in 119 games. His 55 RBI ranks second on the Smokies. His batting average has been on the rise lately with 10 hits (three for extra bases) and a .256 average over the past 10 games. He's played 82 games at first base (.997 fielding percentage) and played 42 games as an outfielder (.980 fielding percentage).
The Smokies (55-80 overall, 22-44 in the second half) are wrapping up their season this weekend in Mobile, where they began a five-game series Thursday with a 4-3 victory over the BayBears.