Hochman: ‘That’s when things started clicking.’ Against Trout, Harper and Taveras, Arenado won ’11 Arizona Fall League MVP

At the time, the Fall League was generally filled with players a season or two away from the majors. The average Fall League age in 2011 was 22.2. But Vuch and the Cardinals made an interesting decision at the time. Taveras was only 19. But he hit .386 in Low-A in 2011. Vuch remembered how Lee Thomas, the farm director in the 1980s, had outfield prospects Ray Lankford and Bernard Gilkey skip High-A and go straight to Class AA. Jupiter was the home site of the Cards’ High-A club, and the park wasn’t too conducive to hitting. So the Cardinals sent Taveras to the Arizona Fall League, hoping it would give him enough experience and confidence to catapult him to AA.

“We thought we were being kind of the exception to send a young guy like Oscar out there,” Vuch said, “and it turned out there were three other kind of prominent-type young players out there.”

In addition to the 20-year-old Arenado was the 20-year-old Trout, who struggled that fall (.245 average and one homer in 25 games). But Harper, who turned 19 during the Fall League, hit .333 with a 1.034 OPS.

As for the late Taveras, he just hit and hit. His batting average was .307 that fall. And he indeed dominated Double-A the next season, winning the Texas League MVP over, yep, Arenado. Taveras made his MLB debut in 2014. He died that fall in a car crash.

“He was a joy to watch — he was like a virtuoso as a hitter,” Vuch said. “The best memory if I have of that Fall League was a week before I got out there — I was talking to (instructor) Brent Strom about it, and he sent me some video. For some reason, Aroldis Chapman was out there pitching. He was only out there for a week or so — he had been in the big leagues that year, huge arm, 100-something mph. And Oscar was facing Chapman — intimidating especially on left-handed hitters. Oscar basically Charlie Brown’s it — line drive right up the middle, Aroldis goes sprawling to get out of the way. Aw man, Oscar is on first base with a big smile — and immediately gets picked off.”