Arizona Complex League Brewers

History

The Arizona League Brewers were one of four teams in the inaugural Arizona League season of 1988, a short-season Rookie classification league for recently drafted high school and Latin American players. They played at Compadre Stadium in Chandler, Arizona, the Brewers' spring training site. Their first game was a 13–11 win over the AZL Mariners/Red Sox on June 23, 1988. Managed by Alex Taveras, they won the first AZL championship with a 40–18 record. Jeff Nate led them to a second title in 1989 at 40–15, and Taveras returned to guide a third consecutive championship in 1990 with a 36–17 mark. The Brewers had winning records each of the next five seasons but did not win the league. After 1995, Milwaukee moved its Rookie affiliation to the Ogden Raptors in Utah, returning to the Arizona League in 2001. From then they played at Maryvale Baseball Park, later American Family Fields of Phoenix. Teams from 2001 through 2009 posted losing records, though Hernán Iribarren (2004) and Lorenzo Cain (2005) won the AZL Most Valuable Player Award. In 2010, manager Tony Diggs led the team to a Central Division title and a playoff championship, the fourth league crown, and Diggs won Manager of the Year. The Brewers had losing records from 2011 to 2016. Rafael Neda's 2017 team won the First Half Central Division title but lost in the quarterfinal to the AZL Cubs.