I watched the Future's Game--my favorite spectacle of the year--and came away with the following impressions:
* Mike Stanton looks positively gargantuan...in a good way. Too bad he really didn't get a chance to swing it, nevertheless, I heard he put on an absolute show in BP (like Justin Morneau circa 2002).
* Dayan Viciedo looks equally gargantuan...in a fat way. Is it worse that I now feel 'reaching his ceiling' might mean becoming Eduardo Perez, or that I don't think there's even a chance this kid will ever reach that level? True, AA was a pretty ambitous assignment for Dayan, but its still hard to overlook that sub-.400 SLG. Hope I'm wrong.
* Speaking of which, kudos to the White Sox prospects for making the game's only errors, including one on the game's first play by Mr. Tyler Flowers. On the bright side, they each collected hits, in Viciedo's case, a pivotal double in the seventh and final inning. Back to business...
* Tyson Gillies looks like Michael Johnson. But with some serious skills; the kid can handle the bat and looks to have above average defensive tools to boot...I would have liked to have seen him in center. Additionally, the hearing aid story did not, nor under any circumstances should it have, [brought] tears to Rick Sutcliffe's eyes.
* Neftali Feliz looks like a closer. His fastball is one of the best in all of baseball (major league, minor league, Japanese major league...whatever), though I wonder how well he will ever command it. It will certainly take a while before he can command his breaking stuff, but in a relief role (which he has recently assumed for the AAA Roughriders, at least temporarily) this won't be such a big deal. He pitches like the lovechild of Carlos Marmol and Ubaldo Jimenez, and frankly I could see his career playing out either way. Nevertheless, my gut tells me closer as of now. That would be exceedingly unfortunate for Texas, who at least needs to try him as a starter...young dynamos with the ability to maintain their velocity late into games are a rare commodity, and they should all be tried in the rotation before being relegated to relief duty.
* My favorite prospect in all of baseball, Buster Posey (SF), was absent from the event, due to the rule limiting each team to a maximum contribution of two players. Following World Team 1B Yonder Alonso's injury, the Giants were essentially forced to send Angel Villalona to the game along with Madison Bumgarner, the top pitching prospect in the minor leagues. (Mad Bum didn't get the chance to throw however; as he was warming up, a four-hour rain delay halted festivities. Half an hour after the tarp was pulled over the field, there was zero chance of Bumgarner getting back up.) The ramifications of including Villalona on the World roster extended beyond the exclusion of Posey (who I believe to be a better catching prospect than fellow A-listers Carlos Santana and Jesus Montero, the latter of whom will likely move out from behind the plate before reaching the bigs). Likewise, Tim Alderson, an elite prospect in his own right, was nowhere to be seen. Ditto for Texas wunderkid Justin Smoak, though for different reasons (nursing an injury, the BA selection committee left him off, not wanting to deal with the circus of producing a last-minute replacement should he withdraw). Pity.
* Jason Heyward could well grow into a more-athletic Jermaine Dye, a much better comp than most would credit it as. He, along with Stanton, is a gigantic human being, a statement that holds true even though he currently lacks his full repertoire of "man muscles," a term I was unfamiliar with until last week, when I saw it in print a staggering three times! He has assumed Weiter's vacated throne as the top prospect in all of baseball.
* Ranking the top pitching performances, from most-to-least promising as it pertains to their big-league careers: Neftali Feliz, Chris Tillman (despite the less-than stellar results), Matt Latos, Kyle Drabek, Casey Kelly, Jhoulys Chacin, Brad Lincoln.
In other news, the future of the White Sox, Gordon Beckham, had another two hits last night, pushing his season average to .281. He's fast becoming my favorite player on the White Sox, and has a chance at becoming a legitimate big league star once (a) he is given a permanent positional assignment (my guess would be second; his finer attributes as a defender are being squandered at third, where he's looked lost at times) and (b) starts driving the ball (remember that just over one year ago he was still using a metal bat; the power will come).
Also, has anyone else noticed that the Hawk has started to double dip on the YESSS proclamation following every home run? It works in certain contexts--like when Paulie jacks his third bomb of the night, or Thome hits a go-ahead grand slam to log his fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh RBI of the evening--the rest of the time it just feels like a bit of DJ withdrawal (current broadcast partner Steve Stone has thus far resisted the temptation to join in the iconic call). Hang in there Ken; and by the way, that "You can put it on the board...YESSS...HELL YESSS" you dropped on us the other night was f*cking awesome. Almost as awesome as President Obama Barack'n the Sox Starter jacket out to the mound in St. Louis. Go Sox.
Rumblings also have Chicago looking to move a big contract or two. Question is, do the White Sox want to unload payroll while still (a) selling [relatively] high and (b) improving their ballclub, possibly even in the short term? Paul Konerko and Jim Thome don't have enough value to command a prospect yield worthy of their still-formidable skill sets and Jermaine Dye is far too good to give up. So don't even think about that, even with the return of Carlos Quentin on the imminent horizon. The guy who should go is Bobby Jenks. And soon. The ERA+'s of Thornton (152), Linebrink (149), Dotel (140), Carrasco (130), Poreda (188) and Pena (153 with ARI) suggest the Sox will be just fine without Jenks (120). Some club (Tampa Bay, Chicago (NL), Texas) must need an elite reliever, and [foolishly] believe that Jenks still fits that bill...right?
