Plenty of buzz has surrounded Bryce Harper and his full-season debut, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the crowd at State Mutual Stadium in Rome, Ga. The attendance was announced at 4,133, but there were plenty of seats available and some sections had entire rows that were empty. A few lucky fans got a picture and autograph from Harper, but they were club members. The gates didn't open for general admission until an hour before the game and Harper was in the clubhouse by then.

Rome manager Matt Walbeck was at the helm for Double-A Altoona last season when Stephen Strasburg made his debut for Harrisburg and he noticed tonight didn't have quite the same aura.

"It was still an exciting game to watch," Walbeck said. "I think between A-ball and Double-A, it's a different dynamic, but it still wasn't quite the same." [...] Continue Reading »

SURPRISE, Ariz.—At 29, Cuban defector and Rays farmhand Leslie Anderson was the oldest player at Saturday's Rising Stars Game.

He's seen more baseball than any of the other players, and he seemed to know he got all of the changeup Bruce Billings (Rockies) threw him on the 1-0 pitch of their bottom-of-the-ninth showdown.

Anderson connected and threw his arms up in the air as he started rounding the bases. Billings, though, didn't think he got all of it, nor did his first baseman, Brandon Belt (Giants).

"I thought he got in on him," Belt said. "I guess he's a big strong guy, though, and got enough to get it out."

The high fly to right just scraped over the wall, and Anderson's West Division teammates tumbled out of the third-base dugout to greet him at home plate after his walk-off homer gave them a 3-2 victory in the Arizona Fall League's all-star showcase game.

Anderson doesn't speak much English, but his teammates were more than happy to talk about how his game-winning shot earned them an extra $500 bonus for getting the victory.

"It definitely was different from other games out here, more fans, different atmosphere," said lefthander Patrick Urckfitz (Astros), who as a non-drafted free agent was one of the more unlikely Rising Stars roster members. "I signed for $15,000, so for me the extra $500 definitely helps." [...] Continue Reading »

SURPRISE, Ariz.—The Arizona Fall League's Rising Stars Game will feature most of the top players in the AFL, but it doesn't have the one player everyone wants to see.

Bryce Harper, the Nationals' No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 draft, just missed being the youngest player in Fall League history. When made his debut in the AFL, he was four days older than Mets prospect Fernando Martinez was when he played here in 2006.

Harper has bigger tools than Martinez, who has reached the big leagues but hasn't established himself as a regular yet. It's not easy to say when Harper will establish himself, but he has already set himself apart from many of his AFL peers with his hard play and effort, not to mention his tools.

"He plays the game the right way and has baseball instincts," said East manager Randy Knorr, who managed Harrisburg in the Nats' system this season. "He goes hard at all times. He's fun to watch for sure." [...] Continue Reading »

SURPRISE, Ariz. — Jason Adam grew up rooting for the Royals, going to games at Kauffman Stadium and even spending a couple spring breaks in Surprise, Ariz., watching the Royals in spring training.

The 6-foot-4, 225-pound righthander from Blue Valley Northwest High in Overland Park, Kan. was a fifth-round draft pick by his hometown Royals this spring, signing for $800,000 to keep him away from his commitment to Missouri.

Adam did not play this summer after signing, instead making his pro debut in the instructional league. On Oct. 11, he threw three impressive innings against the Indians.

"I felt pretty good," Adam said. "I've had better outings, but it definitely felt like I had decent command of the ball and I was able to get most of my pitches over for strikes, so I was happy."

This was Adam's fourth outing in the instructional league, including one intersquad appearance.

"I like to get ahead with my fastball, it's one of my best pitches," Adam said. "And then, if my curveball is on—which it has been for me lately, which I'm liking—then I like to use that with two strikes to kind of put guys away. It's something they aren't able to hit, but it's close enough to a strike that they have to swing."
[...] Continue Reading »

Baseball America bird dog scout Dave Perkin attended the Futures Game and had these impressions:

• Mike Trout, of course, was the most exciting potential five-tool player in the game. I had him getting down the line in 3.88 seconds. My concerns with him center around some hitting mechanical issues:  His bat starts behind his head, and he sometimes fails to complete his swing across his face or around his head; and finally, I'd like to see him really let that top hand go–use it to whip and fire the bat head. He pushes it a bit now. When he does that, he'll reach his power potential.

• Fellow Angels farmhand Hank Conger had a really tough day catching and throwing, and was visibly upset with himself on that front. He redeemed himself with the homer, but I still have some of the same worries I had from his days as an L.A. area prep. Conger still overstrides, and will often flip that front side open too soon. So you will get the occasional home run but the batting average isn't what it could be. [...] Continue Reading »

ANAHEIM—Here are the starting lineups for Sunday's Futures Game at Angels Stadium. The most notable keys are that Angles low Class A phenom Mike Trout isn't in the starting lineup, and that the starting pitchers are Simon Castro (Padres) and Jeremy Hellickson (Rays).

World Team
2b Brett Lawrie
ss Ozzie Martinez
1b Yonder Alonso
3b Alex Liddi
lf Carlos Peguero
rf Wilkin Ramirez
c Wilin Rosario
cf Gorkys Hernandez
dh Francisco Peguero

Starting Pitcher: Simon Castro [...] Continue Reading »

Normally when a major leaguer makes a rehab appearance in the minors, his presence swallows up all the fans attention.

On Tuesday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Edinson Volquez had to share the spotlight. Volquez may have been making a possible final tuneup before joining the Reds' rotation, but he was followed up by Aroldis Chapman. And as hard as Volquez may throw, and as tough as his changeup can be to hit, the real buzz came when Chapman came in and started generating triple digits on the stadium radar gun (and the BA Stalker gun as well).

In some ways, it was fitting that Volquez and Chapman pitched on the same night. For Volquez, this was likely a last or second-to-last tune-up before he joins the Reds' big league rotation as he returns from Tommy John surgery. For Chapman, the recent move to the bullpen (this was his third outing as a reliever) likely means he'll moving up before long to help bolster a bullpen that has been the team's biggest weakness.

"This guy could change the pennant race," a scout said before quickly adding, "if he can throw strikes." [...] Continue Reading »

At the big league level, players beg out of the home run derby because they are worried about screwing up their swing. But Carolina-California League all-star home run derby champion Jon Gilmore has no such worries.

"We take thousands of swings during the year, so I don't think 20 swings is going to hurt much," Gilmore said. "It's not your game swing. It's kind of like separating your golf swing from your baseball swing."

Gilmore had to go to a tie-breaking swing off in the first round after he and teammate Justin Greene each finished second in the Carolina League with three home runs. Gilmore advanced to the finals by beating Ronnie Welty two home runs to one, then topped California League derby champion Rich Poythress by hitting four home runs (to Poythress' three) in the finals. [...] Continue Reading »

Getting a spot on a minor league all-star roster leads to mixed feelings for a lot of minor leaguers. It's a big honor, but it also means that the only three-day break of the entire season turns into a working holiday.

Juan Perez didn't mind. It may be a long trip from San Jose to Myrtle Beach, but the Giants' center fielder has a memory to remember forever.

Playing in front of his mother for the first time as a pro, Perez went 2-for-4 with a home run, a double, two runs scored and two RBIs as the California League defeated the Carolina League 4-3 in the league's annual all-star game.

While Perez was the MVP, pitching dominated the night. Multiple pitchers, led by Braves' top pitching prospect  Teheran, topped 95 mph on the stadium radar gun. Tehran hit a game-high 98 mph on the gun while striking out two in two innings of work. California League starter Craig Westcott (Giants) struck out the side in the first. [...] Continue Reading »

If you want to keep up with what's happening at the Carolina-California League all-star game, I'm tweeting about the game @jjcoop36.

By Matt Michael

Syracuse, N.Y.—From his first pitch (a 96-mph fastball for a called strike) to his last (a knee-buckling curve for a called strike three), Syracuse righthander Stephen Strasburg looked like a man among boys in his Triple-A debut against Gwinnett Friday night.

Strasburg was so dominating, in fact, that his pitching line would have been the same if the game had been played on a Little League field, because the Braves didn’t hit one ball in the air.

Strasburg allowed one hit—a seeing-eye single up the middle—in six innings and earned the win as the Chiefs blanked the Braves 7-0 before a Syracuse franchise-record crowd of 13,766 at Alliance Bank Stadium. Strasburg also chipped in two RBIs on a run-scoring single in his first Triple-A at-bat and a sacrifice bunt that plated a runner from third in the fourth inning (though the play was not conceived as a squeeze play).

Of his 18 outs, Strasburg fanned six and recorded 12 groundball outs, most of which were slow rollers or choppers. Not one Gwinnett batter hit a pitch from Strasburg to the outfield, even in foul territory.

"If you hit your spots," Chiefs center fielder Pete Orr said, "it makes it tough on hitters to drive the ball to the outfield or hit the ball in the air." [...] Continue Reading »

GREENSBORO, N.C.—Patience, patience, patience.

When Mark Parent was a catcher in the major leagues for more than a decade, he knew he had to be patient when working with young pitchers fresh from the minor leagues.

Today, Parent is manager for the the Phillies' low Class A Lakewood, a team filled with high-ceiling, tooled-up athletes, many of whom are about as raw as they come.

Patience, Parent believes, is the key to developing that type of player.

"It's almost like a circus every night, but controlled," he said. "You never know what's going to happen, but you figure out what happened that night and then you go work on it the next day. That's all we can do." [...] Continue Reading »

Today's Daily Dish has a definite bias towards pitching. We'll cover plenty of hitters over the rest of the week, but here's a look at four pitchers who stood out last week.

Quick Comeback

Kyle Gibson had to wait a long time to make his first pro start. Thankfully his second start came just five days later.

The Twins' 2009 first-round pick missed all of last season with a stress fracture in his forearm, so his Opening Day start against Brevard County (Florida State) was also his pro debut. He allowed five runs, three of them earned, on six hits as he lasted just 3 2/3 innings.

Fort Myers pitching coach Steve Mintz said that Gibson's first start wasn't as bad as it appeared–he gave up a pair of home runs on balls that carried in a stiff wind. But naysayers who had concerns about Gibson's heavy reliance on his slider and last year's forearm injury had reasons to worry. [...] Continue Reading »

"I've seen rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen."

After watching a Springsteen live show in 1974, Rolling Stone rock critic Jon Landau set off a massive amount of hype with that one sentence. At the time, Springsteen had two poorly selling records. Not long after Landau's comments, Springsteen released "Born To Run", was on the cover of Time and Newsweek magazines at the same time and made the leap from unknown singer to rock and roll superstar.

I'm not nearly as talented as Landau, and I'm not a scout with a trained eye, but after watching Royals lefthander Mike Montgomery throw against the Kinston Indians, it was hard not to want to yell something equally audacious. You could watch minor league games every day year after year and never see a better outing. Some of the scouts at Tuesday's game were debating if they had ever seen a minor leaguer pitch any better.

Montgomery dissected, carved up and dominated the Kinston lineup in a 3-1 win for Wilmington. He carried a perfect game into the seventh, allowed just two hard-hit balls all night, didn't walk a batter (he fell behind 3-1 in the count only once) and struck out a career-high 13. And he did it on a 90-pitch limit. He needed just 84 pitches by an unofficial count, throwing 20 balls. [...] Continue Reading »

By Cory Giger, Altoona Mirror

ALTOONA, Pa.—Stephen Strasburg's minor league debut turned into a major spectacle for both the 21-year-old phenom and the Altoona Curve franchise.

More than 70 media members showed up Sunday afternoon at Blair County Ballpark to see Strasburg start for Double-A Harrisburg. The rest of the nation, meanwhile, got a chance to watch his performance live on ESPNews, making it one of the biggest events in Altoona sports history.

"Great atmosphere," Strasburg said of the experience. "It's just an amazing feeling to have your first outing in front of a sellout crowd and all the attention and everything.

"It made it seem like this was one of the biggest games of my life, when it was actually the fourth game of the season." [...] Continue Reading »

By John Wagner

TOLEDO—Some time soon, Cincinnati baseball fans may want to make April 10, 2010 a baseball holiday.

On the same day last year’s top draft pick, Mike Leake, made his professional debut with the Reds, Aroldis Chapman made his pro debut roughly 200 miles north in a Triple-A start against Toledo.

And the 22-year-old Cuban was impressive, shutting down the Mud Hens on five hits in 4 2/3 innings. Four of the five hits off the lefthander, who signed a six-year, $30.25 million contract with the Reds in January, never left the infield as Chapman struck out nine while walking only one.

“I was happy today—everything went the way I wanted it to,” Chapman said through an interpreter, Louisville trainer Tomas Vera. “There were some pitches that I didn’t throw the way I wanted, but overall I am happy.”

Chapman threw 85 pitches, 55 for strikes, but those weren’t the numbers that were most impressive. What caught the attention of the 5,642 fans at the game were the five times the southpaw reached 100 miles per hour or more on the stadium speed gun, as well as 32 pitches that topped 95. [...] Continue Reading »

TEMPE, Ariz.—When most of a team’s top prospects are ticketed for the lowest full-season level in the minors, it might be cause for concern.
 
Usually it signals a dearth of talent in the upper levels of the system. For the Angels, however, their youngest wave of talent has been the source of plenty of optimism at spring training.
 
After not placing one player among the Midwest League’s top 20 prospects a year ago, Cedar Rapids could have several of the low Class A circuit’s top youngsters. The Kernels’ outfield will feature Mike Trout and Randal Grichuk, two first-round picks from 2009. Joining them in the lineup is promising second baseman Jean Segura, while fellow Dominican righthander Fabio Martinez will pitch in a rotation that could potentially include five of the Angels’ top pitching prospects.

[...] Continue Reading »

TEMPE, Ariz.–When Jordan Walden entered the game yesterday for an inning of relief, nearly 20 fellow Angels crowded behind the plate to see what number would flash on the radar gun.

Walden, who struggled last year for Double-A Arkansas before being shut down with a strained forearm, had yet to throw a pitch in a spring training game after he tweaked his hamstring shortly before the start of minor league camp.

Walden's first pitch alleviated any concerns about his arm strength: 98 mph.

He retired the side on a groundout, a pop out and a fly out, hitting 98 mph four more times and never throwing a fastball slower than 96.

He'll also have to get used coming out of the bullpen, as the Angels have made the 22-year-old righthander a full-time reliever.

[...] Continue Reading »

GLENDALE, Ariz.—The Dodgers have an impressive collection of arms—five of their top six prospects are pitchers—but the one with the chance to make the biggest leap on the prospect scene this year might be righthander Allen Webster, the organization's No. 10 prospect.

Webster showed flashes of three above-average pitches in three innings of work yesterday against the Rangers, though he got into trouble as he didn't have his best control and command. Webster's fastball generally sat at 91-94 mph, touching 95 once. He also flashed two potentially above-average secondary offerings, a lively 78-81 mph changeup and a tight 76-79 mph curveball with sharp break and good depth.

Not bad for a 20-year-old kid picked in the 18th-round pick two years ago with limited pitching experience.

"He’s still learning it," said Chuck Crim, the pitching coach for low Class A Great Lakes. "We drafted him as a shortstop out of high school so he’s still learning how to pitch. He had one extended spring training last year where he was learning how to pitch, and he’s made great strides."

[...] Continue Reading »

GLENDALE, Ariz.—The Dodgers have shown a knack over the years for taking prospects and moving them to catcher. Russell Martin is the most successful example, a third baseman who moved behind the plate in 2003. Carlos Santana, traded to the Indians last year for Casey Blake, is another third baseman-turned-catcher and one of the game’s elite prospects. Tony Delmonico and Lucas May, both still in the Dodgers farm system, began their careers in the infield before converting to catcher.

With 22-year-old Kenley Jansen, the Dodgers have another conversion project on their hands. Only this time, the Dodgers are moving a player off the catching position and putting him on the mound.  

[...] Continue Reading »