I watched the Futures game yesterday, and it's really interesting to see how some of these prospects hold up against their counterparts in a big environment. Among other things I saw in the game:
-
Hank Conger of the Angels hit a big 3 run homerun. It seemed like it was skyed, and only ended up going out by a few more feet over the high right field fence in Anaheim.
-
Mike Trout of the Angels is extremely fast and looked like he belonged with the rest of the players that were much older than him. He legged a semi-routine single in the 8th inning that his speed turned into a double for him. He looks like he's going to be extremely good when he gets to the Majors. He's still only 19.
- I'm inclined to agree that Jeremy Hellickson would have been in nearly every other Major League rotation since the beginning of the year. He looked very good in his 1+ inning of work.
-
Simon Castro didn't have a very good day at all and looked like he had too much energy. He was kind of all over the place and seemed out of control.
- Mike Moustakas, in addition to being a very good young hitter, is also a pretty good fielder over at 3B and has an absolute cannon of an arm.
-
Domonic Brown left the game in the bottom of the 1st with a tweaked hamstring, but was in good spirits about it when interviewed later. I'm guessing that he should be just fine after the break.
- Eric Hosmer had 4 hits for the U.S. team including an RBI double in the 8th, and looks like he's fully over his hitting issues from last year.
Overall, seeing so many of these players together in one game was really interesting and really helped to nail home some of the stats we have been seeing from a lot of the players.
Trevor Cahill had another great start yesterday against the Angels, only allowing an unearned run over 7 innings. His ERA is now at 2.94, but his FIP is up at 4.22. He is definitely a pitcher I would be concerned about having some tough starts after the All-Star break.
Johan Santana threw 7 shutout innings against the Braves yesterday en route to the victory. It's his 3rd straight start with only 1 earned run or less, and looks like he could be back to a close version of his normal self.
Madison Bumgarner had another nice start yesterday against the Nationals. He went 6, struck out 6 and only allowed 1 earned run while getting the victory. He looks like he could be a mixed league play at this point, as he continues to strike out batters at a good rate.
Carlos Quentin hit 2 more homeruns, giving him 6 in the last week and 19 overall for the season. I think we're going to end up being too low on his ranking by the end of the season.
Ryan Braun homered for the second time in as many games after being in a prolonged slump earlier in the month. He still ended up as our top outfielder overall, and I think he's still going to hit extremely well down the stretch.