If this were an exercise on name recognition, Alcides Escobar would mop the floor with Ian Desmond.

Which isn’t saying much, because no one even knows who the hell Alcides Escobar is except the fantasy baseball-playing population and the most sober of Brewers fans.

So let’s start out by determining who the hell Ian Desmond is.

After being drafted out of high school in the third round in 2004, Desmond’s been in the minor leagues so long that his organization moved countries.

For most of his pro career, Desmond, 24, has been better in the scout’s notebook than in the box scores. He’s a very good defensive shortstop, and at 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, he has a frame to grow into. It’s just that his potential combination of power and speed never really showed up on paper.

That is, until 2009’s 21-game cup of coffee with the Nationals. While playing a little second base and right field, and starting at short down the stretch, Desmond went off with 4 home runs, 7 doubles, a .280 average and a .879 OPS.

Remember, that’s in 21 games, which equates to a 32-HR, 56-doubles pace, if you like to be teased that way.

The power is emerging – he hit 11 dingers this year between levels, and had 12 in 2008 and 13 in ’07 (Wait, he’s trending downward!) And Desmond does have 106 steals in 542 minor league games (a 32-steal full-MLB-season pace).

And, remember, another power-speed late-bloomer, Hanley Ramirez, had never hit more than 8 HRs in a minor league season before going berserk in the bigs.

Now, to be fair, Ramirez had a career minor league average of .297 and Desmond’s is .247 – but Desmond did hit .330 across two levels and 97 games before his call-up this season, so maybe he’s figured things out.

I don’t know if Desmond will ever become a good everyday player in the majors, but it does seem like the 2010 shortstop gig is his to lose, and he has more upside than most at this paper-thin position.

And, for the purposes of this debate, it does seem like Escobar’s situation is more perilous.

Escobar, 22, does come with the blessings of scouts and the lofty rankings of Baseball America – Brewers’ No. 1 prospect in 2009 and 19^th overall. (Desmond, by the way, doesn’t crack the top 100, and he’s not even in the Nationals’ top 10.)

And after getting called up halfway through the year, Escobar played a serviceable shortstop. The problem was, fantasy owners never received the abundance of stolen bases they were promised. (Just 4 SBs in 125 Abs – a measly 20-SB pace.)

He did hit .304, but as expected he was light on pop (1 home run) and sported a ho-hum BB-to-K ratio (4-18).

I know, it’s a small sampling. Over the last two seasons in the minors, after all, Escobar has put up a .315 average and 76 steals. At 6-foot-1, 180, he still has just a combined 12 homers in 976 at-bats and a 63-147 BB-to-K ratio, but you can deal with those shortcomings for Jose Reyes-lite.

The problem is, with Ken Macha as the Brewers manager, Escobar is not going to run wild like he did on the farm. And, unfortunately, Milwaukee just re-upped Macha for 2010.

So, potentially, with Escobar in 2010, instead of a Jose Reyes, you get a Cesar Izturis. Not even Maicer.

And Cesar Izturis (see: Escobar) still has to split time until the Brewers do the right thing and move J.J. Hardy to another position or another team.  

After looking at the numbers for these two, I’m not going giddy over either of these shortstops. But when projecting for the long-term, you often have to give more weight to scouting than early-stage production.

I guess, if I had to choose one of these players to keep for a dynasty league (and, unfortunately, I do), I’d go with Escobar.

But not because he’s earned it.

It goes back to the name-recognition factor. I know if I leave him unprotected, my league competitors will scoop up Escobar as fast as he does a slow-roller.

However, I will save an earlier-than-expected draft pick for Desmond next year, just in case.

Being left-handed and throwing 100 mph-plus does not guarantee success in the big leagues.

What’s guaranteed is, someone will pay to find out.

MLB ruled last week that Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman is now a free agent, after he vacated a team hotel in July at a tournament in Holland, and teams are lining up to get an up-close glimpse of the prized left arm that is considered to be the best in the world not yet in the majors. Only right-handers Stephen Strasberg and Yu Davish are regarded as better pitching prospects.  

Chapman, 21, is very raw and lanky at 6-foot-4, 180 pounds, but he has reportedly hit 102 mph on the radar gun. That’s harder than Clayton Kershaw or David Price. That’s Randy Johnson-in-his-prime fast.

The teams at the front of the line are, predictably, big market clubs – the Yankees, Mets, Angels, Dodgers and Red Sox – and I’d rank them in that order for their likelihood of signing the lefty version of Neftali Feliz.

Judging by the rules the Yankees applied to Joba Chamberlain and with Chapman having only thrown 118 innings in 2009, Chapman would likely be employed similarly to the way the Rangers used Feliz if he ends up in pinstripes.

Of course, sending Chapman to an instructional league will be the first order of business. Even though, like many Cubans, he has a vast arsenal of pitches (his mythical fastball, a slider, splitter, curveball and changeup), Chapman has struggled with walks at every station of his young career.

Pitching for Holguin of the Cuban league for the last four years, Chapman has amassed a 24-19 record, 3.74 ERA, 365 strikeouts and just 271 hits in 327.1 innings. The rub: 203 free passes and a 1.45 WHIP.

In the World Baseball Classic, where many first took notice of the prodigy, Chapman was dominant against Australia in pool play, allowing just 1 run, 1 walk, and fanning 7 in four innings. But vs. Japan in the second round, Chapman lasted only 2.1 innings with 3 runs, 3 hits, 3 walks and just one strikeout.

If Chapman can harness his control, build up his stamina (he’s a cigarette  smoker), and handle the added responsibility that comes with a newfound multi-million-dollar bank account, he should at least wind up as the best pitching export ever from Cuba, better than Livan Hernandez, Orlando Hernandez and Jose Contreras.

Because of his age (which seems more verifiable than some Latin American ballplayers) and immense upside, Chapman could command dollars on par with Contreras’ four-year, $32 million contract or Daisuke Matsuzaka’s six-year, $52 million deal (which totaled $103 million including the cost of negotiating rights), the largest sum ever given to a foreign free agent.

Needless to say, dynasty leaguers who miss out on Strasberg should aggressively target Chapman in next year’s draft, regardless of where he signs.

In recent years, San Francisco’s clubhouse has been a retirement home, with each offseason providing general manager Brian Sabean another opportunity to add maturity and mediocrity.

But heading into the 2009 season, a silver lining appeared – and, no, it wasn’t Randy Winn’s hairline.

Help was on the way for Tim Lincicum and Matt Cain and Co. The organization’s farm system was named one of baseball’s 10 best, with a foursome as elite as any.

Left-handed hurler Madison Bumgarner, catcher Buster Posey, first baseman Angel Villalona and righty Tim Alderson were sure to form the nucleus of a contender for the next decade.

Funny thing about those prospect rankings – the path from potential to reality can be long and windy, and sometimes a dead end.

Now, at the end of the 2009 season, and we find the Giants with 50 percent of that foursome out of the picture, and another a disappointment.

First, the Giants, in a move reminiscent of the Kazmir-for-Victor Zambrano debacle, shipped Alderson at the trade deadline to the Pirates for, appropriately, the aging Freddy Sanchez.

Most recently, the 19-year-old phenom Villalona’s career was put on life support. Or maybe death row. He was jailed on murder charges Monday stemming from the fatal shooting of a man at a Dominican nightclub.

Perhaps Sabean has been smart to stay away from high-profile youngsters for the most part.

Bumgarner, 20, would seem to be progressing, becoming the second-youngest San Francisco Giant to start a game on Sept. 8, but he has lost a significant amount of zip on his fastball. While he was regularly hitting 95-97 mph with his heater last year, he’s now throwing 89-91. It might be because his arm slot has gone from about three-quarters to almost side-arm. Instead of appearing like an eventual ace, he looks like a situational reliever.

Bumgarner has had success in his two big league appearances (6.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K), but his K/9 has fallen to 7.0 in the minors this season from 10.4 last year.

While he is available in Yahoo leagues, and you may consider stashing him to see if he rediscovers the life on his heater, I find myself jumping off the MadBum bandwagon.  

Admittedly, it’s a pretty steep decline in my assessment in one season. I had previously favored him over Tommy Hanson and Brett Anderson. We can only hope Bumgarner has simply run out of gas, or his mechanics will soon be corrected.

The bright light on the horizon for San Francisco’s farm system now beams from Posey, who had a tremendous season hitting .325, 18 HRs, 80 R, 80 RBI, 62 BB, 68 K and a .947 OPS. He is 1-for-3 in the Majors after a September call-up and is a must-grab in all keeper leagues for that day when Bengie Molina is put out to pasture for good.

Of course, that’s also assuming Sabean doesn’t go out and sign Pudge Rodriguez.

The front office here at fake teams has given me the call-up.

I’m going to write about minor leaguers and prospects, pre- and post-hype, coming to a big league city soon.

From now until the end of the season, we’re going to run down some kids to consider stashing away as keepers for 2010, assuming you have the room. (And I’m assuming you’re in a keeper league; if you’re not, you’re missing out, big time.) Roster these guys now – let’s also they are available already in Yahoo or whichever site you use –  and gauge their value when the hype starts kicking into high gear next spring.

I’m not going to waste your time waxing poetic about Stephen Strasberg or Neftali Feliz or even Brian Matusz. I’m addressing deeper mixed leagues where you need to do your homework to stay ahead of the pack. After all, it’s a lot less expensive to land a player before he becomes a star than after.

Our first installment is on Jeremy Hellickson, a 22-year-old right-hander in the Tampa Bay organization. He was drafted in the fourth round in 2005 out of his Iowa high school.

I actually drafted his teammate Wade Davis heading into this season and waited impatiently as the Rays did their usual foot-dragging to promote their talented youngsters. Needless to say, I dropped Davis, he was immediately scooped up and I’ve been kicking myself ever since.

But, it seems, Hellickson could be better.

Baseball people are split on Hellickson’s potential. His velocity (typically topping out at 93 mph) doesn’t dazzle like Davis’ (95 mph), and he’s not the protypical 6-foot-5 either. (He goes about 6-1, 185 pounds.) He's been compared to Roy Oswalt or Tim Hudson, for his size, and his delivery looks a little like Brad Penny's.

Hellickson can crank it up to 94-95, to be fair, but his 79 mph changeup is more effective when it is coupled with a free-and-easy low-90s fastball because his release looks identical. He works off his fastball, but his change is his out pitch. He also has an above-average curveball, and he is working on a sinker.

The digits that really do Hellickson justice are 2009’s 9-2 record, 2.45 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, .178 BAA, 132 strikeouts, in 114 innings across Double- and Triple-A.

And he’s been rollin’ lately, a regular Hellickson on wheels. Check out the strikeout totals from his last four starts: 10, 10, 12, 9. His walk total during that stretch? Five.

And this isn’t a one-year fluke. In five minor league seasons, he’s got a 37-13 mark, 2.71 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 507 K’s and 100 BB’s in 461 innings.

Of course minor league numbers don’t always translate to the bigs. Just ask Yusmeiro Petit.

But Hellickson’s numbers are so sparkling, they could be scuffed up in The Show and still shine. I mean, if you know how to be that successful, some of it has to translate. Plus, he has been praised for his bulldog mentality and even-keeled maturity.

There’s no telling when the aforementioned slow-moving Rays brass will promote this starter to the major league rotation, seeing that James Shields, Matt Garza, Jeff Niemann, David Price and Wade Davis all stand in the way.

But injuries and trades happen, and right now Hellickson can be had for free (or pretty cheap) and is sure to be in or around the top 10 of most prospect lists next spring.