Championship Weekend: Saguaros, Team USA through to finals

On Monday, I told you about the near-certainty that the Surprise Saguaros would play for the Arizona Fall League championship. As it happened, they clinched the AFL West Division later that afternoon. Surprise finished the AFL regular season with the league's best record at 19-11, and they'll square off against the 18-12 Scottsdale Scorpions in Scottsdale at 12:08 central time. Starters for the game have not been announced, but Adrian Houser, who last threw 3.2 innings on Monday, could get the nod. That game will air on MLB Network, and it will be your final opportunity to watch Brewers players play live baseball for some time.

That is, of course, unless you've got the strength of will to be up at 4 am on Sunday, when Brett Phillips will lead Team USA in the Premier 12 championship game in Japan. The Americans advanced to the tournament final with a 6-1 win over Mexico early this morning. Phillips, bumped up to the two-hole after hitting sixth for most of the tournament, went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a walk. Mexico took an early lead in the top of the fourth, but Team USA immediately responded, scoring five runs -- all with two outs -- in the bottom half of the frame to take control of the game. The championship game, like the rest of the tournament, will be streamed live.

The Americans will meet South Korea, who bounced the hosts on Thursday morning in dramatic fashion, in Sunday's final. Trailing Japan 3-0 in the top of the ninth, South Korea's first six hitters reached as they tallied four to take the lead before shutting the door in the bottom half of the inning. South Korea features a number of potentially soon-to-be Major Leaguers as well, most notably 1B Byung-ho Park, who was posted earlier this month and will be negotiating with the Twins. The Lotte Giants have a pair of players on the South Korean national team who could soon be in the big leagues as well: OF Ah-seop Son will be posted first, with the bidding on that set to take place soon. According to KBO rules, a team may only post one player at a time and may only send one player per year to MLB, so his teammate 3B Jae-Gyun Hwang will only be posted if Son fails to sign with an MLB team.