AFL Mailbag: How it all works

Figuratively, not literally, of course. Over the duration of the Arizona Fall League, though, we will be trying to answer all of your Fall League-related questions.

The questions for this first AFL Mailbag were originally answered on Tuesday's AFL on ATM (Tuesdays and Fridays on MLB Radio, 12-1 p.m. ET). If you have an AFL question you want us to answer, email them in now, tune in to the show and check back here every Wednesday for our response.

I was wondering why Alex Gordon chose not to go to the Fall League, and why he's not playing left or right field out there. I'm wondering where he's going to get the experience because he's going to have to move to a corner outfield position. -- Tony, Kansas City

Jonathan: I don't think it was a matter of choice. He wasn't chosen to go. He played in the AFL last year.

Lisa: I'm not sure why he wasn't sent. One thing that is possible, teams kind of pick spots. Even if the Royals had wanted to send him, it's possible they didn't get a corner spot. He didn't play for Team USA; that was something he chose not to do. But I don't think playing in the AFL was his decision. I don't know what the situation was. Maybe they felt he had a long season, and a good season, and they had other guys they needed to get work done.

Jonathan: It is a valid question, but I think it was the length of the season. Maybe they're not ready to move him yet, which means he probably starts next season in Omaha. If you move him to a corner outfield spot, what do you do then with Billy Butler? He's at instructs working on playing the outfield so he can be ready for the big leagues. Maybe they figure out some sort of rotation with third base, first base and DH with Gordon, Mark Teahen and Ryan Shealy.

We received this explanation from someone in the Royals organization on Wednesday:

"With the year he had, we didn't think it was worthwhile for him to go. It was his first full season and he hadn't had any kind of break. What could he accomplish by going there?"

The Royals went on to say that there are no plans to move Gordon to the outfield and decisions regarding who's going to play where will be made when the time comes.

My question is how are AFL team affiliations determined? I noticed the Yankee prospects are playing on the Peoria Saguaros this year after many years of being on the Grand Canyon Rafters. -- Jon, New Jersey

Lisa: If a team has a Spring Training home in Arizona, they play at that stadium, but other than that it's kind of random. For example, the A's are always at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The Cubs are always on Mesa. The Mariners and Padres are always in Peoria and the Giants are always in Scottsdale. I'm sure there's some sort of method to it, but that's the only given, that an Arizona Spring Training team will get to play at their home stadium.

Why can Chris Lubanski only play on Wednesdays and Saturdays?

Jonathan: That's the taxi squad. Every year, every roster has taxi squad players. I'm not sure if there's a limit. Usually guys are added because an organization wants the player to get some playing time, but is added late -- or the organization doesn't want to play every day. It looked for a little while that Lubanski was going to be headed to Hawaii. Most of the players in Hawaii are Class A-level players, so they wanted Lubanski -- who spent the season in Double-A -- to get the challenge of the AFL instead. He'll get to take batting practice every day and he'll work on his routes in the outfield daily while getting in the lineup twice a week. But if a guy gets hurt, or reaches a certain limit -- that's more with pitchers -- and goes home, a player can be taken off of the taxi squad and play every day.

Lisa: There are also situations like Dan Uggla's last year. He was a taxi squad guy, but someone on another team got hurt and he was sent over so he could play every day. That will happen sometimes because all of the teams are so close to each other, it's not a big issue to play for another team. Also, there might be guys -- we don't know this at the beginning, but the organizations do -- who might be getting married or have to go home for family business. They're coming here for the season, but maybe they have to go home for a week. The taxi squad guys will then fill in. It's rare for a taxi squad guy to only play those two games a week for the whole season. A lot of the regular players only play a few times a week, so being on the taxi squad isn't all that different.

Michel Abreu of the Mets. What's his ceiling? What's his real age? -- Alberto

Lisa: The two may be connected.

Jonathan: It's hard to know for sure. He's listed as being 26, he'll turn 27 in January and he's from Cuba. Being from Cuba, unfortunately, you automatically wonder about the age. Ceiling-wise, he's a little bit older, so the numbers he put up in Binghamton are nice, but they definitely fall under the category of "prove it to me at a higher level."

Lisa: I'll say this, though. There have been a lot of Cuban players who have come over and been highly touted and not put up those numbers. Older, younger, same age -- even if it's a little suspect, it's a nice story. I'd like to see him play. I was impressed by his numbers, especially because this is his first year here. We saw how good the pitching was in the Eastern League and he pretty much tattoed everybody.

Jonathan: That's why you send a guy out to the AFL, to see what he's about. But just because he puts up big numbers does not mean it will translate next year (just ask Eric Duncan). It's just something else to put in his file. If he has a good fall league, then maybe you say, "Okay, maybe we've got something here." If he doesn't have a good fall league, then you say, "We'll have to re-evaluate in the spring." Remember, he's only going to get about 100 at-bats.