Welcome one and all to Fantasy Gameday’s running diary of the 2008 All Star Futures Game. It was mentioned during the NCAA baseball world series that some of the most valuable scouting comes when players are facing opposition “at their own level”. While it is always dangerous to come to conclusions based on an exhibition game, I feel this is a fantastic opportunity to look for some emerging talent.

Today’s starting pitchers will be Carlos Carrasco for the World Team and Clayton Richard for the US squad. Carrasco is probably the most discussed pitcher on the World side, not just because of persistent trade rumors, but based on performance as well. Richard comes out of the White Sox system, currently pitching at AAA. He’s a tall left hander featuring a sinking fastball who is having his best season this year.

Live updates will begin with the television coverage.

12:39 Strong start for Steve Phillips, identifying “Richard Clayton” as the starting pitcher

12:40 Ivan DeJesus takes the second pitch into left for a solid single

12:41 World batters are not waiting around, Elvis Andrus hits what should have been a 4-6-3 double play, but SS Jason Donald air mailed the throw past first.

12:42 Andrus steals third easily, Richard has a fairly high leg kick out of the stretch

12:44 Donald has more issues turning two, his flip to second base was far short

12:48 Pablo Sandoval is starting at first for the World team. He’s been doing some catching this year, but that experiment likely ended with the drafting of Buster Posey. With Angel Villalona in the fold as well, third base could be where he is groomed from here on out

12:50 Late replacement Jaime D’Antona of the Diamondbacks system is hitting cleanup. At 26, the Futures tag is a slight stretch

12:53 Carrasco gets through with some command troubles, but displays a good ability to get swings and misses

12:55 Davey Johnson says he is looking for good hitters and pitchers for the American Olympic roster. That’s a relief

12:57 Fernendo Martinez puts a nice swing on a Trevor Cahill pitch, lining it into right for a single

12:59 Cahill gets Wellington Castillo to expand the zone and strike out

1:03 Second batter in a row that Cahill Ks on a pitch very down and away

1:04 Is it ironic that there are so many Sam Adams commercials during a game where so many of the players can’t drink legally?

1:10 Some poor defense by Luke Hughes on a ground ball allows Matt LaPorta to get on base

1:11 Hughes redeems himself by starting a double play. Nice turn by DeJesus as well

1:13 Peter Gammons gushes about Dexter Fowler. He’s interesting, and he’s not exactly blocked as a CF in the Rockies system

1:15 Nice timing, Fowler was playing shallow but runs down a well hit fly from Ivan Dejesus

1:18 A good sequence, Brett Anderson gave Andrus a “show” move on the first pickoff, then trapped him with a better move to erase the runner

1:20 Anderson picks off another runner in Wilkin Ramirez, I wonder how many he has this year

1:22 The high point of Trevor Cahill’s day, talking to Erin Andrews

1:29 A loud foul by Andrew McCutchen, but an impressive 1-2-3 inning for Hector Rondon. His career K/BB ratio is almost 4:1, and he has the look of a promising pitcher for Cleveland

1:32 I’m interested in seeing who wins out for Texas’ catching spot. Teagarden may have the best defense

1:36 Thanks for making me look good on the throw Taylor, although Sandoval isn’t exactly a burner

1:38 Jess Todd seems capable of keeping the ball down

1:39 I won’t watch any of the X Games, but Darkmane cracks me up

1:48 I could see Eddie Morlan in the Rays pen next year, possibly being groomed for the closer’s job

1:54 Will Inman’s numbers are strong, but I can see why scouts are not blown away. Lots of his pitches look very hittable

1:55 Doug Melvin is expressing confidence that Matt Gamel’s defense will improve. Considering how throwing has been a huge issue for him, and Prince Fielder is reluctant to sign a long term deal, should 1B be in his future? Should a team like the Giants take a run at acquiring Prince so they won’t have to rush Villalona? SF has pitching in their system, and the Brewers may have some holes in the staff after this year

1:58 Speaking of Villalona, the throw he just took at first had to make him nervous, hard and aimed right at a tender area

2:04 Jason Donald get the US team its first real threat going. His teammate Greg Golson will attempt to cash in

2:05 Golson goes down on three pitches, looking very vulnerable to breaking balls

2:12 Jake Arrieta appears to get a lot of leg drive out of his motion, he looks tough to hit if he’s not elevating his pitches

2:13 Another killer throw from Teagarden. You won’t see a better one to second than that, and he caught a legit speedster in DeJesus this time

2:16 Jesus Delgado on the hill for the World team. His numbers did not impress me at all, let’s see if the US can get something going

2:19 Nice throw from the hole at short by Ramiro Pena, the grounder was slowly hit but it was not close at first

2:20 Down in order again for the US. D’Antona put a decent charge into a fly ball, but it was tracked down in right

2:23 First at bat for Villalona. He looks like he pulls off the plate with his stride. Weak grounder back to the mound

2:26 I’m not sure why you would throw Juan Francisco a strike ahead in the count, but he managed to loop a single to left

2:27 Che-Hsuan Lin just pulverized a Ryan Mattheus pitch way back into the left field seats. And he has better speed than power. 3-0 World team at the 7th inning stretch

2:37 Fernando Salas is in, he got an invite when fellow Cardinal Jaime Garcia was called up. Another clean inning for the World staff

2:45 Casey Weathers likes to bury his fastball in on hitters. His stuff looks great, but he’s missing location regularly

2:48 Gerardo Parra is said to make contact well, and he’s hanging tough at 0-2. This is a good look at some situational hitting

2:50 Really nice display by Parra, getting a sharp single through the left side. Weathers now has a bases loaded one out situation

2:51 Villalona just missed a hanging slider, striking out the next pitch. He’s 17, he has time, but I don’t se Weathers getting away with that pitch much if he gets promoted

2:54 With his bat waving that much, can Juan Francisco keep his head steady? His strikeout numbers say no

2:59 This may be unfair because he is working with unfamiliar pitchers, but catcher Jesus Montero doesn’t frame the ball well, kind of stabbing at it. Brian Cashman was on earlier and talked about him changing positions as a possibility. If his bat flourishes New York will have a place for him

3:04 Henry Rodriguez is throwing the ball right by hitters. No secrets there, try and catch up

3:06 So which hitter in this year’s Home Run Derby suffers a crippling second half power outage? My guess would be Grady Sizemore, just a feeling

3:10 Lin benefits from a communication breakdown that often plagues all star games and drops a single between the shortstop and left fielder

3:11 Nice swing by Montero, staying on the pitch and lining it to right. It was hit so hard Lin could only make it to second

3:12 Nifty 5-3 double play by Wes Hodges ends the top of the 9th

3:15 Shairon Martis draws the closing duties for the World side. By my notes, Philippe Aumont is behind him, if necessary

3:18 Martis hung two breaking balls to D’Antona, but got him to pop out to first. That’s probably why he’s 26 and in AAA

3:19 A pop out by Nate Schierholtz and the US is down to its last out. Matt LaPorta digs in, can you feel the suspense?

3:23 LaPorta walks, then Dexter Fowler grounds out to first to cap off an 0-4 day. Handshakes, smiles, and many many languages in the on field celebration

3:26 Che-Hsuan Lin accepts the game MVP award and gets booed as the crowd realizes he is in the Red Sox organization

Time to put a bow on this, and thanks to all for reading. Overall thoughts: tough conditions, but no American player showed much from a hitting standpoint. Teagarden’s defense was a highlight, and I liked how the A’s pitchers, Anderson and Cahill (and Rodriguez for the World) threw the ball. I think Lin, Elvis Andrus, Jesus Montero, and Gerardo Parra showed good things at the plate and Hector Rondon looked good on the hill. Fans of any of these players, or someone you think I missed, shout it out in the comments section.