49ers in mlb

for those who never venture to the 49ers forum, a 49er made his major league debut for the Indians yesterday. Jason Stanford started and pitched 5 innings for the Tribe.

Another 49er, John Maine, leads the minor leauges in strikeouts (119), and has a solid chance at a September call up. He will play in the MLB futures game at the MLB all star game on ESPN II the day before the actual all star game.

 

From Baseball America.

A brief history on the Futures Game that former 49er John Maine is participating in..........quite a few current MLB stars have participated.



Before the inaugural All-Star Futures Game at Fenway Park in 1999, most casual baseball fans perused the rosters and asked, “Who are these guys?”

Well, some of those guys turned out to be 20-game winners, 40-home run hitters, MVP candidates, playoff heroes, World Series champions and 40-40 chasers.

Just last year 20-year-old Francisco Rodriguez recorded the final out for the World team in the Futures Game in Milwaukee, then won five postseason games for the Angels while becoming the youngest pitcher to win a World Series game.

It seems the future is upon us faster than ever. But the Futures Game exists to help with the preparations. Now in its fifth year, the event’s rosters still draw questions, but they are more along the lines of “Who are these guys going to be?”

That’s exactly what officials at Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball and Baseball America had in mind when they conceived the event. Sure, there were already minor league all-star games that featured players enjoying great seasons. While those rosters included some future stars, they also were peppered with minor league veterans, never-has-beens and never-will-bes. True prospect watchers wanted a game overstuffed with the major leaguers of the next decade.

The Professional Baseball Agreement (the document governing the relationship between the majors and minors) signed prior to the 1998 season included a provision allowing minor leaguers from various classifications to come together for an all-star game, and the Futures Game and its rules for selection sprang from there.

“I started out in baseball working in the minor leagues,” says Jimmie Lee Solomon, senior vice president of baseball operations for Major League Baseball. “I’d see these players every night of the week. The genesis for the idea of the Futures Game came from knowing that this would play on a national level.”

The original idea for the best prospects from the United States and around the world to compete against each other has remained. But the World roster no longer seeks representation from as many different nations as possible; rather the best international players regardless of their nationality.

The game began as a seven-inning affair, ballooned to nine innings in 2000, and then reverted to the original set-up in 2001. It has been through minor tweaks each year, and Solomon says there could be changes in the future: expanding to a nine-inning game again, allowing prospects from American League organizations to face off against their National League counterparts, adding a home run derby, allowing that winner to compete in the major league home run derby the next day and possibly staging a prospects versus major league rookies game.

The ideas that have come to fruition have been successful, as Solomon says fan interest and attendance at the game have grown each year, and the television ratings also have improved gradually.

There’s been plenty of success on the field as well. As of July 1, 76 former Futures Gamers were on big league rosters, six had made an appearance in the major league All-Star Game, while plenty more were on the cusp of reaching the majors or achieving all-star status.

“My best memory of the Future Game is the first one, when the rubber met the road (in 1999),” Solomon says. “The kids’ eyes were as big as saucers and I was wondering how the game would go.”

In the top of the third inning, Yankees prospect Alfonso Soriano quelled any nervous thoughts Solomon might have had by stroking a three-run home run off an Athletics prospect named Mark Mulder. Soriano, who finished the game 2-for-3 with two homers and five RBIs, earned MVP honors and his first national recognition.

“Alfonso Soriano ended all my problems by putting two over the Green Monster,” Solomon said. “After that the Futures Game was here to stay.”

And Soriano’s star was born. At the home of the rival Red Sox, no less.

“It made me more confident,” Soriano says. “Just a little more work and I was going to be in the big leagues. That moment, I’ll never forget.”

Soriano was picked for the Futures Game in his first season in the United States, after playing three years in Japan. The Yankees signed him for a $3.1 million bonus, and he shot through the system, hitting .305-15-68 with 24 steals at Double-A Norwich before getting his first taste of the majors that September.

“It was very important for me,” Soriano says of his Futures Game experience. “It was an honor just to be picked. That was the first time I played on a big league field. It was great to see all the fans and the emotion.”

Astros outfielder Lance Berkman also played in the first Futures Game in Boston before going on to participate in the All-Star Game in 2001 and ’02. He’s the only Futures Game alum with multiple all-star appearances under his belt.

Berkman and Soriano were two of five former Futures Gamers to play in last year’s All-Star Game in Milwaukee. Lefthanders Barry Zito and Mark Buerhle each made their first all-star appearances after having pitched in the 2000 Futures Game in Atlanta.

Zito started the year 8-5, 3.19 for Triple-A Sacramento, then tossed a perfect fourth inning and recorded one strikeout at the Futures Game before making his major league debut in the season’s second half. Two seasons later, he earned the AL Cy Young Award with a 23-5, 2.75 campaign.

Buehrle also used the Futures Game as a springboard to the majors that year. He was 8-4, 2.28 for Double-A Birmingham and worked the eighth inning in Atlanta. Buehrle picked up the victory as the U.S. team broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the inning. He headed to Chicago in the second half, and earned his first all-star berth by producing a 19-12, 3.58 season in 2002.

Brewers righthander Ben Sheets joined the lefthanders in Atlanta that season, which he split between Double-A Huntsville (5-3, 1.88) and Triple-A Indianapolis (3-5, 2.87). Sheets allowed a pair of hits, but no runs in the second inning.

“I was just trying to get people out,” Sheets says. “You basically just show up and play.”

Sheets liked that the players were allowed to keep the jerseys they wore in the game. “I keep everything,” he says.

The next year, he graduated to the major league All-Star Game in Seattle. With a 10-5, 3.59 start to his rookie year, Sheets became the first player to follow a Futures Game selection with one to the major league game the next year.

“When I got to the regular All-Star Game, everybody I got to play with the year before was back in the Futures Game,” Sheets says. “They were all leaving. They were all getting out of there. That was the weirdest thing. All the guys I’d met the year before were back in the Futures Game.”

One such player was Adam Dunn. Dunn impressed those who showed up early to watch him take batting practice before the Futures Game, cracking several monstrous home runs deep into the bleachers at Safeco Field. In case anyone missed his pregame power show, Dunn blasted another bomb off the Hit It Here Cafe beyond the right field bleachers that left the stadium buzzing.

“I loved it,” says Dunn, who hit 51 home runs in 2001, including 19 after a promotion to Cincinnati. “I thought it was a lot of fun. They handled it like it was the big league All-Star Game.”

He found out how that game was run the next season, when he followed Sheets’ path from the Futures Game to the all-star game in consecutive years.

“We can’t lose sight of what this game does for the players,” Solomon says. “It’s giving kids the experience of playing in front of a national audience and a big stage for the first time and lets them be a little more comfortable when they reach the major leagues.”

Twenty of the 50 Futures Game participants from last year already have graduated to the majors, including promotions this season for Jose Reyes, Miguel Cabrera and Justin Morneau.

“The fans who get to see these kids play are excited about following them,” Solomon says. “Especially fans of teams that aren’t doing that well. All of a sudden they see a shortstop in Double-A or a center fielder who can come up to the majors and play right now. It gives them something to root for.”

 

20 out of 50 from last year are in the bigs this year. I am sure that of the 50 who played last year, 45 of them will have made it by next year. These guys for the most part are "can't miss" unless they have career ending injuries.

I can't wait for the game to see Maine, and I can't wait for Maine and Stanford both to be in rotations next year.

 

check out the minor league baseball site

maine was player of the week and has an article on the front page.

 

two six,
Maine is also in the MLB Futures game tomorrow on ESPN II.