Nina's Sports Bad Boys Blog World: First Pitch: For Royals, Braves, Red Sox, future arrives in a hurry

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

First Pitch: For Royals, Braves, Red Sox, future arrives in a hurry

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More often than not these days, the arrival of a touted baseball prospect is a highly choreographed affair. Sometimes, the exact date of arrival is determined with pinpoint accuracy, often based on how a team can best suppress the player's future earning power by limiting his service time.

That's what made the major league debuts in recent days of Eric Hosmer, Julio Teheran and Jose Iglesias so refreshing.

Major league teams promoted some of their best and brightest and most exciting prospects while ignoring the kid-glove treatment that usually precedes significant major league debuts.

Rather, these guys got the call because their teams believe they can help them win -- now.

What a concept.

This trio may some day grace All-Star Game rosters and populate the voting of MVP, Gold Glove or Cy Young awards. That's still a long way off. But the forthcoming summer may be enlivened by the presence of these prodigious talents. A look at the three:

Hosmer: For once, no one can accuse the Kansas City Royals of being cheap. In fact, some in Kansas City are concerned the Royals may have cost themselves millions of dollars down the road by promoting Hosmer now. But think about that: The Royals brought up a top prospect purely for baseball reasons. Partially because the AL Central race is wide open. Partially because Hosmer, 21, had nothing left to prove at the minor league level. And partially because incumbent first baseman Kila Ka'aihue was not cutting it. In other words, all the right reasons. They sold nearly 10,000 tickets for Hosmer's Friday debut, and he had three hits in his nine at-bats over the weekend. That Hosmer is just the first of many expected call-ups to Kauffman Stadium only heightens the giddiness. Excitement, Royals? Hey, they're due.
Teheran: The Braves broke just about every rule in throwing Teheran into the mix: He's just 20. His secondary pitches aren't fully refined. He'd be facing the first-place Philadelphia Phillies -- in Philly. And it being a spot start, he'd be back down to Class AAA as soon as the game was over. With all that in mind, longtime Braves observers were stunned when manager Fredi Gonzalez announced Teheran would get the ball. Said Gonzalez: "Give the kid a chance. He's been pitching good. Why not?" Teheran acquitted himself well -- he gave up three runs in 4 2/3 innings -- and Gonzalez's day-after assessment was glowing: "He really did good, he was impressive ... lots of pluses." After a slow start, the Braves have battled near the top of the NL East. If Teheran -- Baseball America's No. 5 overall prospect entering this season -- smooths things out and returns later in the season, he'd only augment a Braves rotation already featuring Derek Lowe, Tim Hudson, Tommy Hanson, Brandon Beachy and Jair Jurrjens -- a group that could go toe-to-toe all summer with the Phillies' and Marlins' vaunted quintets.
Iglesias: Shortstop Marco Scutaro is a free agent after this season, and while Jed Lowrie has become a folk hero of sorts in Boston this season, Iglesias' skill set may make him their shortstop of the future. It's well-chronicled that Iglesias' defense is way ahead of his offense, and in fact, he will serve as an extra infielder in his current stint with the Red Sox after Scutaro suffered an oblique injury. The Red Sox signed the Cuban defector to an $8.25 million major league contract in 2009. Right now, he's more like a well-paid intern, watching, observing and, as manager Terry Francona says, "learning the atmosphere and what's expected of him." Most teams are loathe to let promising youngsters rack up major league service time merely to sit and watch. But it also can't hurt to expose a promising player to the big league rigamarole. Who knows? If Iglesias saves them a game or two this year, the investment may pay off sooner than projected.