By Paul Gotham
Call it a case of being in the right place at the time.
Call it a case of when opportunity meets preparation.
Call it whatever one may want, Cory Brownsten is getting a chance to prove himself among the best of the up and coming professional baseball players.
Browsnten will get on an airplane Monday morning and head west. When he lands, the former Monroe Community College Tribune and New York Collegiate Baseball League All-League selection will take his spot with the Phoenix Desert Dogs of the prestigious Arizona Fall League.
“It put a big smile on my face,” Brownsten said when asked how he reacted to the news he was chosen for a roster spot. “I know this is what a lot of minor leaguers players are trying to get to.”
Browsnten, a 2010 15th round draft choice of the Atlanta Braves, was in Florida training at the Braves complex when he found out. Atlanta’s minor league director, Ryan Richardson broke the news.
“I was hitting in the cages when Ryan and our catching coordinator came up and asked how I was feeling,” Brownsten explained. “They asked me, and it was a definite yes.”
The Desert Dogs will be 10 games into a 36-game schedule when Brownsten arrives. An injury created an open spot for the for the Lockport, New York native.
The announcement is another in a string of what has been an impressive three months for a catcher who found himself demoted at the start of this season.
After a standout rookie campaign, Brownsten started 2011 with the Lynchburg Hillcats of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League. A pair of injuries limited his season to 13 games.
Brownsten began 2012 with the Rome Braves of the Class A South Atlantic League. Not only was he demoted, but Brownsten found himself as the team’s back-up catcher for the first half of the season.
“It was tough,” Brownsten said last month when discussing the process of coming back from an injury-plagued season. “Once I was playing three or four days in a row, things got better. First half of the season I wasn’t playing all the time, but in the second half that changed.
Rome went from 18-52 with Brownsten as a backup catcher to a playoff team including a club record 13-game winning streak with Brownsten as the regular backstop. Baseball America rated Brownsten as the South Atlantic League’s Best Defensive Catcher, and the Rome Braves named the Lockport, New York native their Defensive Player of the Year.
“I know I can do it,” Brownsten said when asked about his thoughts as he heads to the AFL. “The door is open. I know my defense is there.”
The AFL, in its 20th season, was created to give Major League Baseball teams easier access to observe and evaluate top minor league prospects in the off-season.
Six teams comprise the Arizona Fall League: along with the Desert Dogs there are the Scottsdale Scorpions, Mesa Solar Sox, Peoria Javelinas, Salt River Rafters and the Surprise Saguaros. Each major league team sends six players to the league. These top prospects come from the Triple-A and Double-A levels with no player having more than one year of experience at the Major League level. On rare occasion a player from Single-A is sent to Arizona. Games take place in the Spring Training homes of the A’s, Cubs, Giants, Mariners, Padres, Rangers and Royals.
David Wright, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard all played in the AFL as have Chris Carpenter, Jimmy Rollins, Derek Lee and Torii Hunter, to name a few. Click here and here for the all-time list of AFL players. The 2011 MLB All-Star game featured 41 AFL alums including Roy Halladay and Jered Weaver.
As a rookie, Brownsten hit .287 with two home runs and 14 RBI in 34 Gulf Coast League games and earned a late season call-up playing one game with the Danville Braves of the Appalachian League.
In junior college, Brownsten earned D2 Defensive-Player-of-the-Year honors to go with a Gold Glove. He garnered first-team All-American, All-District and All-Region hitting .390 with seven home runs, 50 RBI and a slugging percentage of .615. He helped lead Mike Kelly’s Tribunes to a third place finish in the 2008 NJCAA World Series.
Brownsten was named NYCBL second team with Dave Brust’s Webster Yankees in 2008. In 27 games, he hit .272, seven extra-base hits and 19 RBI.
Brownsten went on to the University of Pittsburgh where he earned All-Big East hitting .395 with 17 extra-base hits, including three home runs and 48 RBI. The right-handed hitter walked 16 times, stole three bases in six attempts and finished with a slugging percentage of .530.
Patrick Urckfitz, another MCC and NYCBL alum, pitched with the Peoria Javelinas during the 2010 AFL season. Urckfitz earned a spot in the league’s Rising Stars game.
Best of luck to Cory and congratulations on a fine second half and the Baseball America honor!
Carpe Diem, Cory!