The Arizona Fall League begins Tuesday, with four players from the 2012 Erie SeaWolves scheduled to compete for the Mesa Solar Sox.

Mesa, one of six teams in the league, will debut with a game at the Salt River Rafters. Mesa’s roster consists of minor league prospects from the Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Outfielder Nick Castellanos, catcher James McCann and relief pitchers Tyler Clark and Michael Morrison are players for the Solar Sox who appeared in all or portions of Erie’s recently completed Eastern League season. Other former SeaWolves on Mesa’s roster are pitchers Luke Putkonen and Matt Hoffman.

Aaron Westlake, a first base prospect with Single-A West Michigan, rounds out Detroit’s representatives.

– Mike Copper

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Starting lineups for Tuesday’s Eastern League game between the Akron Aeros and the Erie SeaWolves at Jerry Uht Park:

Akron Aeros (75-52): 1. Tyler Holt CF, 2. Jordan Henry RF, 3. Thomas Neal LF, 4. Nick Weglarz DH, 5. Jesus Aguilar 1B, 6. Matt Lawson 2B, 7. Ryan Rohlinger SS, 8. Michel Hernandez C, 9. Carlos Rojas 3B.

Starting pitcher: RH Toru Murata (2-1, 3.14 ERA).

Erie SeaWolves (54-73): 1. Jamie Johnson CF, 2. Niuman Romero SS, 3. Nick Castellanos RF, 4. Jordan Lennerton DH, 5. Tony Plagman LF, 6. Rawley Bishop 1B, 7. Brandon Douglas 2B, 8. Corey Jones 3B, 9. James McCann C.

Starting pitcher: LH Ramon Garcia (8-9, 4.12 ERA).

– Mike Copper

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Strong Vincent graduate Tom Lawless is back in charge of a minor league baseball dugout.

Lawless, 55, has been named interim manager for the Oklahoma City RedHawks in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. He’ll officially replace Tony DeFrancesco when the Houston Astros affiliate visits the Round Rock (Texas) Express Monday.

The Astros promoted DeFrancesco after they fired Brad Mills following Saturday night’s loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Minute Maid Park. Houston currently holds Major League Baseball’s worst record at 39-83.

Lawless, who played for four teams in eight major league seasons, was serving as Houston’s minor league infield instructor. He was in charge of three different farm teams for the Astros over the previous three baseball seasons.

Oklahoma City was 68-60 in the PCL’s American Conference Southern Division after Sunday’s 5-2 win at Round Rock.

– Mike Copper

Jeanmar Gomez might be pitching his way out of the Cleveland Indians’ rotation.

Gomez took the loss in the Houston Astros’ 8-1 win against the Indians in an interleague matchup Saturday night.

Gomez didn’t allow a base runner until the fifth inning, but after that his start went bad in a big way. He gave up 5 earned runs in 5 2/3 innings and his ERA swelled to 5.18.

The young right-hander dropped to 4-7 with just one win in his past six starts. He’s been giving up the home run ball a lot lately, too, with eight blasts in his past six starts. He’s had just 12 strikeouts in that span.

If Gomez struggles in his next start — Thursday at Baltimore — the AL Central-leading Indians might be wise to demote him to the bullpen (or Triple-A) and give Zach McAllister a shot.

McAllister, a right-hander, went 1-1 with a 3.96 ERA in four starts for the Indians this season before being sent down to Triple-A Columbus in late May. McAllister was called up May 12 to replace Josh Tomlin, who was on the DL for two weeks with a sore wrist.

McAllister, who was in contention for the No. 5 spot in the Indians’ rotation in spring training, is 5-2 with a 2.98 ERA in 10 starts with Columbus.

McAllister has a big frame (6 feet 6 inches, 240 pounds), and he has the potential to be an innings eater. His fastball is in the low-to-mid 90s, but his other pitchers are still works in progress.

–Tony Battaglia

By MIKE COPPER

mike.copper@timesnews.com

Chris Cron regards himself as a teacher of baseball as much as a manager. Maybe more teacher than manager.
It’s why he loves to be hands-on during the Erie SeaWolves’ pregame workouts.
Cron can still be found hitting grounders and fungo-bat fly balls. However, standing behind the mesh netting while tossing batting practice is out for now.
That duty has been delegated to pitching coach Ray Burris while Cron recovers from long-delayed shoulder surgery.
“For me, I did it because I wanted to be able to do normal activities,” Cron said. “I want to be like the people who are reading this article; just get up and reach for a gallon of milk and be able to pour it.”
Doing such a prosaic task without pain is why Cron, like so many in baseball, marveled at what 49-year old Jamie Moyer achieved April 17.
That was the date Moyer — one year, four months and 12 days older than Cron — became oldest pitcher ever to win a major league game. The left-hander went the first seven innings of the Colorado Rockies’ 5-3 victory over the San Diego Padres at Coors Field.
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The Detroit Tigers announced Tuesday that the Erie SeaWolves coaching staff, led by manager Chris Cron, will return for the team’s 2012 Eastern League season.

Also back for his fifth consecutive season is pitching coach Ray Burris, second-year hitting coach Jerry Martin and 12th-year trainer Chris McDonald.

Cron was in the dugout for an Erie team that finished 67-75 this past season. He becomes the first manager to guide the SeaWolves for back-to-back seasons since Tom Brookens (2008-09).

– Mike Copper

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Casey Crosby, Andy Oliver, Rob Waite and Tyler Stohr, who have pitched for the Erie SeaWolves in recent Eastern League seasons, heped the Salt River Rafters clinch the Arizona Fall League’s East Division title over the weekend.

Salt River takes a 21-13 record into the final week of the league’s regular season, which concludes Thursday. The Rafters and the Surprise Saguaros, who were 23-9 before Monday’s action, will meet in Saturday’s AFL championship game.

First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 p.m. EST, with a live broadcast on the MLB Network.

The SeaWolves have another connection to Salt River, as current manager Chris Cron serves as its hitting coach. The 2011 Rafters are comprised of prospects from the Detroit Tigers, Erie’s parent club, plus Houston, Arizona, Colorado and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

– Mike Copper

Starting Tuesday at 1 p.m., the Eastern League will hold an online charity auction to benefit its Harrisburg and Binghamton, N.Y., markets that were affected by severe flooding in September.

Flooding of the Susquehanna River was so bad that it forced the Harrisburg Senators to play all of their postseason games on the road.

An item of local interest is a Jacob Turner autographed baseball. Turner, a former No. 1 draft pick by the Detroit Tigers, pitched for the Erie SeaWolves in 2011 before he was called up to the parent franchise.

– Mike Copper

Detroit Tigers prospect Casey Crosby, who pitched for the 2011 Erie SeaWolves, helped the Salt River Rafters beat the Surprise Saguaros 6-2 in Wednesday’s Arizona Fall League action.

Crosby pitched two innings of hitless and scoreless relief for the Rafters, who improved to 14-6 in the league’s East Division. He lowered his earned-run average to 2.57 over an even seven innings.

– Mike Copper

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Erie baseball fans have a reason, albeit a distant one, to root for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2011 World Series.

St. Louis left-hander Arthur Rhodes, who’s approaching the end of his 20th Major League Baseball season, pitched for the former Erie Orioles early in his professional career. The Baltimore Orioles selected the now 41-year-old reliever in the second round of the 1988 amateur draft.

Rhodes appeared in five games for the 1989 Erie Orioles, who played at Ainsworth Field in the New York-Penn League. He went 2-0 with a 1.16 earned-run average over 31 innings.

Baltimore promoted Rhodes to Frederick (Md.) of the Class A Carolina League later that season, and finally called him up to the parent club in 1991.

Rhodes has a career record of 87-70 in an even 900 regular-season games with eight different teams. Ironically, the Cardinals claimed him off waivers from the Texas Rangers, their opponent in the current Fall Classic, on Aug. 11.

– Mike Copper

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