Thornton to Play in AZ Fall League
Ventura College baseball is proud to announce that former Pirate Zack Thornton '08 has been selected to play in the Arizona Fall League. Thornton will spend the fall pitching for the Scottsdale Scorpions comprised of prospects of the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants organizations. The AFL is considered to be a finishing grounds for top prospects in the minor leagues.
BASEBALL: Ventura College baseball is proud to announce that former Pirate Zack Thornton '08 has been selected to play in the Arizona Fall League. Thornton will spend the fall pitching for the Scottsdale Scorpions comprised of prospects of the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants organizations. The AFL is considered to be a finishing grounds for top prospects in the minor leagues where the 30 MLB organizations are grouped together to form six franchises spread across the Arizona Spring Training Complexes each roster comprised of the top prospects from MLB organizations.
Thornton was a member of the 2007-08 Pirate baseball teams where he was a top performer on the mound. In 2007 he worked in relief where he was the Pirates' top set up man in front of closer Jeremy Berg (currently pitching in Triple-A for the Angels organization). In 2008 Thornton took over the role of the Pirate ace and went on to have an outstanding season in which he went 11-1 with an ERA of 1.19 for the season. His performance earned him All-Western State Conference honors and All-American status. As well, it put Thornton on the radar of NCAA Division I colleges and MLB clubs.
Thornton signed a letter of intent to pitch for legendary college coach George Horton at the University of Oregon, but in June of 2008 Thornton saw his name called in the later rounds of the MLB draft by the San Francisco Giants. Thornton elected to honor his scholarship to Oregon where he pitched in 2009 and 2010 the first year again spent in relief and his senior year Thornton worked as the Ducks Sunday starter on a team that went to the NCAA Regionals and came within one win of advancing to the NCAA Super Regionals. In June of 2010 Thornton was selected by the Oakland Athletics in the middle rounds of that years draft.
Thornton spent two-plus dominant years in the Athletics organization, including a 2011 All-Star selection while pitching in the Midwest League for the Burlington Bees franchise. In the 2012 off-season, Thornton was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise where his rise towards "the show" took a major step forward. Beginning the year for Single-A Bradenton (Fla.), he earned promotion to Double-A Altoona (Penn.) before finally reaching Triple-A with Indianapolis, leaving him just one step away from Major League Baseball. Thornton appeared in 43 games with a record of 7-3 with a 2.63 ERA and five saves. He threw 75.1 innings and struck out 90 hitters with a .204 average against him. This performance, along with his power fastball and off speed assortment provided the Pirates the push needed to send Thornton off to Arizona for the AFL to challenge the top prospects in Minor League baseball.
Thornton will be the second former VC Pirate to compete in the AFL with Justin DeFratus, a current member of the Philadelphia Phillies organization, spending a fall there in 2010 before his MLB debut in the 2011 season.
The Pirate baseball family will be rooting for a strong showing from Thornton as he takes the next step to achieving his goal of pitching in the Mjor League Baseball.