AZUSA, Calif. -- Although the Major League Baseball playoffs signal the end to the conventional baseball season, several former Azusa Pacific players are continuing their professional development in baseball’s fall and winter leagues.

Former Cougar outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Brandon Sisk, teammates at Azusa Pacific in 2006, were both assigned by their MLB affiliates to the prestigious Arizona Fall League, which is currently underway. Nieuwenhuis, an outfielder who reached Triple-A in his third professional season within the New York Mets organization, has a pair of multi-hit games already in his first week of fall league action with the Mesa Solar Sox. Sisk was signed by the Kansas City Royals in 2008 as an undrafted free agent, and he spent the entire 2010 season with Northwest Arkansas, the Royals’ Double-A affiliate. He opened up fall-league action with 3.2 scoreless innings in a pair of appearances, including a 2-inning performance with 3 strikeouts against Nieuwenhuis’ Mesa squad.

The former college teammates faced each other on Friday, Oct. 15, and Sisk wrapped up his 2-inning outing by striking out Nieuwenhuis, who went down swinging.

Nieuwenhuis, the Mets’ 2008 third-round selection, batted .289 with 35 doubles, 16 home runs, and 13 stolen bases at Double-A Binghamton, resulting in his promotion to Triple-A Buffalo for the final 30 games of the season. Despite missing the final month in Double-A, Nieuwenhuis still appeared among the Eastern League leaders in numerous categories, finishing sixth in doubles (35), eighth in slugging percentage (.510) and OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage with .847), ninth in runs (81), and 17th in home runs (16) and batting average (.289). He did so in just 94 games at Double-A before his promotion, and he played in the mid-season Eastern League All-Star Game. He hit 8 more doubles in 30 games at the Triple-A level, giving him 43 doubles on the year, which was the fourth-highest season doubles total in all of minor league baseball.

Sisk, the 2009 Royals’ minor league pitcher of the year, was a 2010 Texas League All-Star, throwing a scoreless inning with 2 strikeouts in the Double-A league’s midseason All-Star Game. He entered the All-Star break with a 4-2 record with 6 saves and a 2.98 ERA, and he finished the season with 9 saves, a 4.46 ERA, and 63 strikeouts in 68.2 innings. This year’s stint in the Arizona Fall League is Sisk’s second, as he threw 8 innings with a 2.25 ERA and 7 strikeouts in the prestigious league in 2009.

Another member of the Cougars’ 2006 squad, Stephen Vogt, earned Florida State League (Class A Advanced) mid-season and post-season All-Star recognition. Vogt, a 2007 12th-round selection of the Tampa Bay Rays, was also honored with the organization’s 2010 Erik Walker Community Champion Award, which is given by the Rays annually for teamwork, sportsmanship and community involvement. Vogt spent the entire 2009 season with the Rays’ Class A Advanced affiliate Charlotte Stone Crabs, where he led the Florida State League in batting average (.345), slugging percentage (.511) and OPS (.910), and ranked second in on-base percentage (.399) and sixth in doubles (31).

Vogt helped lead Charlotte to the Florida State League championship series, where the Stone Crabs were defeated in 4 games by the league champion Tampa Yankees. He, too, is continuing his development by playing for the Cartegena Tigers in the Colombian Winter League, which opens up a 2-month season this weekend.

The 2010 season marked a pair of firsts for Azusa Pacific products in professional baseball. The 9 former Cougars who played for MLB affiliates this season is an all-time high, and having multiple All-Star representatives in the same season is also a first for the program. Azusa Pacific is 1 of just 3 NAIA baseball programs that have had multiple selections in at least 3 of the past 4 drafts, and Azusa Pacific has produced 33 MLB draft selections all-time, the second-highest total of any NAIA program.

Three players from Azusa Pacific’s 2010 squad moved into the professional ranks. Ryan Delgado, a 32nd-round pick of the Atlanta Braves, hit .301 (46-for-153) at Rookie-level Danville, registering 14 doubles and 6 home runs, and Brice Cutspec enjoyed similar success in the San Francisco Giants organization as a non-drafted free agent, batting .296 (42-for-142) with 9 doubles and 3 home runs for the AZL Giants in the Rookie-level Arizona League. Left-handed pitcher Peter Gehle was a 27th-round selection of the Chicago White Sox, and he posted a 3-3 record with 1 save and a 3.91 ERA in 19 relief appearances for the Great Falls Voyagers in the Rookie-level Pioneer League. He logged 46 innings of work and finished with 42 strikeouts.