On a whim — spontaneity is my middle name, after all — I decided to snag a couple tickets to tonight’s Eastern League All-Star Game (AA) in beautiful downtown Trenton, New Jersey. I do try my best at staying up with all levels of baseball’s prospectdom, honest, but sometimes trying to track all these players and all these teams and all these levels of competition leaves me disoriented and completely overwhelmed, lost in a sea of seemingly never-ending prospects. I'm more of a fan of tracking amateur guys personally, so I come before the community asking for a life preserver of knowledge lest I drift further out to sea. Alright, now that my awful metaphor is dead and buried, here's my question: Have I’ve overlooked any big names to watch heading into tonight’s game? Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Northern Division —> Zach McAllister, Anthony Slama, Junichi Tazawa (not playing), Madison Bumgarner (not playing), Brian Jeroloman, Jesus Montero, Josh Thole (not playing), Lars Anderson, Whit Robbins

Southern Division —> Daniel Moskos, Joe Savery, Vance Worley, Hector Rondon (not playing), Alex Avila, Carlos Santana, Brian Friday, Beau Mills, Quintin Berry, Mike Taylor, Nick Weglarz

Link to page with links to rosters

I'm bummed about missing some of the high level arms and I would have liked to seen Thole behind the plate, but it'll be fun checking out some of the really big boppers (Montero, Anderson, Santana, Mills, Taylor, and Weglarz) live and in color. 

So, who am I missing? Or, who on the list is someone I should pay extra special attention to? Or, should I just skip the game entirely and see what other fun, legal or otherwise, I can conjure up in Trenton on a Wednesday night? 

It's not a national holiday, but it should be. I know college baseball means a lot of things to a lot of people - following a favorite team, conference, an old buddy from high school, whatever. Well, I'm a child of the northeast who grew up in an area full of baseball fans that probably don't even know they play the sport at the collegiate level...so, for me, the start of college baseball means the unofficial start of draft season.  

I'm happy to get the ball rolling with some notes on random draft-eligible players who had interesting debuts. Feel free to add anything college, high school, or draft related...

Alex White (UNC) - 9 K's, 5 GO, 1 AO, 90 total pitches

Nick Hernandez (Tennessee) with a solid outing against Oregon State

Dustin Ackley (UNC) started at first, but later moved to centerfield. Business as usual at the plate...the first of many 3-hit games.

Riley Cooper (Florida), who started in right and hit seventh in the lineup, went 1-3 with a run scored.

Kentrail Davis (Tennessee), who played centerfield and hit third, went 1-2 with 3 walks, 1 RBI, R, K. The plate discipline is nice, as is his playing CF. If scouts begin to look at him as a viable long-term option there, his stock will shoot up.

Chris Dominguez (Louisville) K Watch 2009: 0-4, 2 K

Upset Specials: A10 over ACC - La Salle beat Duke, Rhode Island beat NC State

WARNING: This is going to be a massively long first entry, so I apologize in advance.

So, I caught a good bit of college baseball earlier this month and I've just now gotten around to doing a few writeups of what I saw. I'm not a scout nor am I am any kind of expert (obviously), but I am a baseball fan with a big time interest in prospects - I mean, that's why we're all at this site, right? Anyway, I wrote this up and planned to post it on my little personal website, but I figured I'd share it here as well. I'm hoping to do similar pieces on some of the other top draft prospects I saw, but Daniel Bard was the first name on my list so here he is. Again, sorry for the length of this...I really got carried away.

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This is a personal question  as far as the specifics, but can definitely be expanded to include a broader range of comments - as I've mentioned before in other diaries, I'm heading down to Chapel Hill this weekend on a little "scouting" trip to see some college baseball (Purdue @ UNC). It seems there has been a bit more college baseball and draft talk here recently and I'm hoping to cash in on the momentum of that to get advice on what players I should pay extra attention to. Here's the list I'm starting with...

UNC
Saturday's SP Daniel Bard
Sunday's SP Andrew Miller
SS Josh Horton (BA's 19th best Soph. prospect)
1B Chad Flack (BA's 41st Soph. prospect)
OF Matt Spencer (BA's 3rd best prospect in CPL)
3B Reid Fronk (BA's 10th best prospect in Northwoods League)

Bard and Miller are the obvious studs; as for the rest of the group, I know very little about each guy other other than their statlines and what BA thinks of them.

I'll miss the Jay Buente-Robert Woodward matchup on Friday which is a shame since Buente represents half of my Purdue baseball knowledge. The only other Boilermaker I know of that looks like a prospect is SS Mitch Hilligoss (he'd be the other half of that knowledge).

Any other players worth watching - either specifically in this game (if you feel like helping a novice like me out) OR in a much broader context of college baseball (to make my diary feel less selfish - who are some top guys, sleepers, favorite guys on your favorite teams, etc.)?

I know John said he was going to take a look at college baseball soon, but I figured this was a decent place for anybody with any thoughts on college baseball to get the ball rolling.

Oh and if this diary ends up being a bust, hopefully it won't be considered a total lost - I'll find a way to post pictures somewhere of some of the guys I see in action (namely Bard and Miller) and provide a link if anybody is interested. Thanks to anybody that responds, I'm really trying to get into college baseball this year and am curious as to see what the community has to say about it.

Sorry this is way too long, but John's great Crystal Ball features generate so much debate that I thought I'd eventually have to chime in with at least an attempt of creativity. This site really is the authority on prospects with good stuff ranging from all of John's work to the great community of posters in the diary section. I'm a huge Phillies fan by the way, but you probably could have guessed that from the massive entry on Howard. If you have the time/patience/interest, enjoy.

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