Baseball

Prospects, All-Stars often different stories

Guy Cipriano

It's more pomp than prospects. No lie.

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No fault of anybody. The logistics of organizing anything in a short-season league makes it unlikely dozens of eventual major-leaguers will emerge from Tuesday’s New York-Penn League All-Star Game at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

Sorry to crash the Mountain Bash.

But consider this: Do you recognize the name Chris Volstad?

If so, call yourself baseball savvy. If not, no big deal.

Volstad is a fine young pitcher for the Florida Marlins. He’s also the biggest name to play in the current format of the NY-PL All-Star Game, which debuted in 2005 at Brooklyn’s KeySpan Park. Volstad, a former Jamestown Jammer, pitched a scoreless inning in the ‘05 game.

Before calling the event a farce and staying away from Medlar Field on Tuesday, remember four years is not long, especially considering the distance between the NY-PL and the majors. Numerous NY-PL All-Star Game alums could eventually reach the big leagues. Some might help a team win a pennant. But many NY-PL all-stars could fade away.

Nine State College Spikes were selected to play in the past three games. Four — Nathan Southard, A.J. Van Slyke, Nick Stillwagon and Keanon Simon — no longer play for affiliated teams. The Williamsport Crosscutters received 14 all-star selections from 2005-08. Two — Steve Pearce and Brent Lillibridge — are major-leaguers, but four of the Crosscutters’ seven selections from 2005-06 are out of affiliated baseball.

Cobbling together two sides of deserving players in a short-season league is no easy task, and NY-PL president Ben Hayes, a driving force behind the start of the game, faces major challenges.

Changes in the college baseball calendar has pushed the draft back, making it difficult for organizations to sign high picks before the NY-PL season begins. Many high picks and their advisers wait until today’s signing deadline to agree to terms. High picks from major colleges, such as Pittsburgh Pirates first-rounder Tony Sanchez, sometimes zip through the NY-PL. Parent clubs don’t like interrupting the routines of young pitching prospects.

This year’s all-star rosters include just 11 players drafted during the first 10 rounds of the past two drafts. The selection process relies on numbers and the league’s top performers will be here Tuesday.

But there’s a major difference between performers and prospects.

Southard and Simon, who played at major colleges, recorded some of the best statistics in Spikes’ history, yet they held limited potential. They were NY-PL performers.

Rudy Owens struggled as a 20-year-old pitching for the ‘08 Spikes. Owens, who attended junior college, developed nicely and now pitches at High-A Lynchburg. He’s a prospect.

Victor Black, the Pirates’ supplemental first-round pick, didn’t make this year’s all-star game because he entered Sunday with a 4.19 ERA. But he throws 95 mph with a slick slider. He’s a prospect.

Players who areperformers and prospectscan be tough finds. Tuesday’s game will feature just four teenagers: Lowell’s Derrik Gibson and Ryan Westmoreland, Williamsport’s Sebastian Valle and Mahoning Valley’s Clayton Cook. Gibson (second), Westmoreland (sixth) and Cook (ninth) were early-round draft picks last year.

Volstad was 18 when he pitched in the ‘05 game, which also included Jed Lowrie, Kyle Kendrick, Bobby Parnell, Jensen Lewis and Gabby Sanchez. Tampa Bay pitching prospect Wade Davis and New York Yankees Double-A shortstop Eduardo Nunez also played in that game. Davis, 23, and Nunez, 22, are younger than some current NY-PL All- Stars.

The Spikes have spent considerable time and money marketing Tuesday’s game, which as of Sunday night was not sold out. Most of the marketing efforts focuses on pomp: tonight’s $80-per-ticket Mountain Bash at Tussey Mountain, the environmental- friendly aspects of the game, a celebrity home run derby and presence of honorary managers Kent Tekulve and Al Bumbry.

Previous all-star game hosts arranged similar events. Future ones will adopt the same model.

No other short-season league stages such an event, which allows the NY-PL to boast it conducts the final all-star game on the summer calendar.

So let the pomp begin.

Guy Cipriano can be reached at 231-4643.