| By Jason A. Churchill |  | By 07-12-2009 |
The 11th annual All-Star Futures game is in St. Louis today and the rosters are fairly stacked, as usual, if you haven't seen them already.Rules state that each team has to have at least one player, so the roster isn't necessarily a collection of the top 50 prospects in the game, and some of the top names are currently on their way to exhausting their prospect status as members of the 25-man big league roster.
The Seattle Mariners will have two representatives, as will 19 other teams, with outfielder Tyson Gillies (Canada) and third baseman Alex Liddi (Italy) heading to St. Louis as members of the World roster.
But I thought I'd point out some of the names to keep the closest eye on as you watch the Futures Game.
Bats
Atlanta's Jason Heyward, St. Louis' Brett Wallace, Florida's Mike Stanton, Carlos Villalona of the Giants and White Sox infielder Dayan Viciedo stand out for me. Pedro Alvarez (Pitt) also fits this mold, but he's as well known as any prospect, and I think he's vastly overrated, anyway.
Heyward might be the game's best hitting prospect, offering plus power, well above-average strike zone judgment and solid pitch recognition. He's also more than adequate in right field with an above-average arm.
He's been referred to as a young Jermaine Dye in the field with Fred McGriff power and the ability to hit .300.
Wallace was probably the best pure bat in last June's draft and Stanton is the likely owner of the most raw power of any player in the minors. Villalona should be a .280/.350 bat with 30-homer power for San Francisco, and Viciedo, a Cuban defector, possess similar raw power but his approach is unrefined.
1. Heyward
2. Wallace
3. Stanton
4. Viciedo
5. Villalona
Catchers
Houston's Jason Castro (No. 10 overall selection in 2008 Draft), Chicago's Tyler Flowers, Jesus Montero of the Yankees and Cleveland's Carlos Santana will serve as the backstops for each roster.
Flowers is no sure thing to stick behind the plate, but has the power to profile adequately at first base should he have to move. Montero is certain to become the next Yankees prospect to either be traded, or become the DH in the Bronx in a few years. He will not catch at the big-league level, but he can hit and has shown improvement in the area of making contact this season with just 31 Ks in more than 260 plate appearances.
Castro, a left-handed hitter, has no glaring weaknesses defensively, and tore up the Cal League (.309/.399/.517) before being sent to Double-A Corpus Christi.
Santana might be the best catching prospect in the game (with San Francisco's Buster Posey being the other candidate -- he's not in the Futures Game but did just get promoted to Triple-A Fresno) and the former Dodgers prospect has had a good year at the plate hitting .268/.402/.512 with 17 doubles, 11 home runs and 50 walks against 35 strikeouts.
Santana came over in the trade for Casey Blake last summer.
Arms
Imagine a pitching staff of Chris Tillman (Baltimore), Jarrod Parker (Arizona), Neftali Feliz (Texas), Mat Latos (SD), Kyle Drabek (Philadelphia) and Brian Matusz (Baltimore)... I think there are clubs that would swap their current rotations for the above group in a heartbeat - even some contenders.
Parker has touched 98 on the gun this season while Feliz is being groomed as a reliever in Triple-A right now so he can help the Rangers with his 100-mph heat, developing slider and plus changeup.
Drabek has returned to form after Tommy John surgery, touching 95 and ripping off plus breaking balls all spring and summer. Matusz and Tillman are both on target to see time in the bigs this season -- Tillman is 5-4, 2.59 ERA, 70 K, 18 BB, 4 HR in 66 innings at AAA Norfolk, while Matusz breezed through Carolina League and is 2-0, 0.79 ERA, 15 K, 11.1 ip in Double-A Bowie.
Latos, San Diego's lone prospect with star-like upside, has displayed plus control of his mid-90s fastball and his slider has been a plus pitch for most of the season. He's taken a rather large jump in status this season, much to the liking of Friars fans.
Missing
We're already getting the chance to see Colby Rasmus, Andrew McCutchen, Matt Wieters, Derrick Holland and David Price in the big leagues, so we won't be seeing them Sunday. But there are some guys that didn't make the Futures Game that I think should have, though usually the reasons for the omission is usually not a sleight against the player but more out of necessity; occasionally, the player's organization prefers he doesn't play, or there is a need to get another organization's player in the game. Someone has to be left out.
Seattle's Michael Saunders comes to mind, but he's battled a recent hamstring injury. Philadelphia's top two outfield prospects Dominic Brown and Michael Taylor are among the Top 40 prospects in baseball and were not selected. Texas 1B Justin Smoak is among the Top 15 prospects and was not picked. Buster Posey is deserving, as is Atlanta's Freddie Freedman, but neither made the squad.
But don't miss the Futures Game is you like getting a look at tomorrow's stars, because there are about 10 of them in this game, if history repeats itself.
Personally, I'm most interested in seeing more of Feliz, Santana and Parker, and seeing Tillman after a year and a half in the Orioles organization will be entertaining, too. Especially since he's probably fewer four weeks from making his big-league debut.
scouting-the-futures-game-rosters
Comments
The following 11 comment(s) for this article are shown below:
| 1. By: 01v-dubs on 07-12-2009 18:29:36 I know he's not a big time prospect, but Gilles is sure fun to watch, he's also really easy to root for. |
| 2. By: Slack on 07-12-2009 21:51:47 I was really impressed with Gillies in his interviews. Anyway, I have a question about TIllman. He was throwing in the mid 90's in his stint today and I was wondering if that was just because it was a one inning stint. He is usually in the low 90's while reaching 95 at times if I am not mistaken, right? |
| 3. By: Jason A. Churchill on 07-12-2009 23:34:38 Not sure what game you were watching, but even the TV guns had Tillman at 90-93 with the four-seamer, 88-90 with the two-seamer and about 80 with the CB. I haven't asked any scouts in attendance where they had him, but it's not going to be HIGHER in velo. |
| 4. By: Slack on 07-13-2009 11:12:04 My bad, Jason. I probably made a mistake when I checked Gameday. I didn't see any of the live game until the third inning and before I tuned in live, I back tracked on Gameday to see the readings on Tillmans fastball and I thought I saw it in the mid 90's. I thought it was kind of strange so I thought I'd ask. Maybe I got it confused with Drabek. Either way, my bad. |
| 5. By: Gustafson on 07-13-2009 12:21:26 Jason, slightly off topic. RRS had great results last night with Tacoma. Any word on his velocity? |
| 6. By: Lonnie on 07-13-2009 12:30:36 Personally, I hate this trade. Hannanananahan isn't worth Souza and never will be. Maybe I've gotten wrapped around the Souza-axel a bit too much as I've watched him play and succeed this year and I was really pulling for the guy to be a difference maker. Blech... Lonnie |
| 7. By: Jason A. Churchill on 07-13-2009 12:49:44 At best, Souza is what Batista is currently - a middle reliever - and even if all Hannahan does is replicate his most recent defensive numbers at third base and give next to nothing offensively, it gives the club a better chance to win the division than they had before. Souza isn't a mid-rotation starter. He's something the Mariners have several of, and the game of baseball has too many of. So many that they don't make much money and grow on trees and overflow the draft. They basically got Hannahan for free. No way can you hate a trade when you didn't give up anything, regardless of how bad Hannahan plays. Re: Gus RRS was 86-89 yesterday, touching 90. |
| 8. By: Docmilo on 07-13-2009 21:34:24 I assume that's Tillman's version of a knuck curve. Was he throwing that with the M's organization? Wasn't that pitch a big part of the last big O's starter Mussina's arsenal? |
| 9. By: rjfrik on 07-13-2009 22:09:13 I remember a couple of weeks ago you tweeted that Hardy went 4-4 and don't start advocating a trade for him. Well I read over at USSMariner that dave is advocating trading Bedard and Washburn for Hardy straight up. Curious what your thoughts on a trade like that would be. I think most M's fans would not be happy. Don't you think we could get more then just Hardy? |
| 10. By: Jason A. Churchill on 07-13-2009 22:49:02 Docmilo, He's had that KC for a while, but yes, Mussina had perhaps the best KC ever. re: Hardy/rjfrik Dave likes the Hardy idea because he' a big upgrade, and while that's true, the majority of that upgrade is offensively, where Hardy just doesn't impress me. Would he make the M's a lot better? Sure he would. But that doesn't mean trading Wash AND Bedard for him is a good idea, and in the end I'm not sure a deal like that makes the 25-man better. I just don't want to put all my SS eggs in Hardy's basket. I know scouts and coaches in that org that just don't trust him and question his staying power, as well as his feel for the game, which would suggest if anyone would struggle switching leagues and coming into Safeco, Hardy is a great candidate to do so at the plate. He's just not worth it for me. He'll likely make 7-9 million via arby in 2010 and then be a free agent. I think the Mariners can do better, both at SS and in return for Washburn and Bedard. I like the Brignac idea a heckuva lot more. |
| 11. By: Edman on 07-14-2009 01:08:19 I'm not really sure the value of upgrading a bat at SS. There are other places the could upgrade offensively that won't cost both Bedard and Washburn. And, I find it funny that Dave is quick to point out that Washburn and Bedard are done at the end of the year. But fails to mention that Hardy doesn't come here and provide security at short for even three years. Cedeno has done the job defensively. I'm not sure Hardy is that big a step beyond the defense we've seen from Ronny. At this point, I'm not concerned with who brings back what draft picks. Let's be honest, someone signing Bedard, even if he was a type A free, isn't going to bring any better than a 16th overall pick. It's not like we're gonna get another Ackley. The idea that Morrow can simply step up and cover the same ground Bedard did, isn't at all realistic. Morrow hasn't gone any deeper in games, shown any greater ability to stay healthy, and often leaves a bigger hole to dig out of. As much as I'm not in favor of trading either while we're in the race, if you make a trade, get someone like Brignac, who can give you several years of service. |
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