For those of you that are interested in seeing Humberto Sanchez play, this is your chance. He will be taking the mound for the World Team in the Futures Game.

The game should be on ESPN2 at 4 p.m. ET today.


Former Cubs great and Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins will manage the World Team and has named Tigers' prospect Humberto Sanchez as his starter. Sanchez is 10-4 while splitting time between Double-A Erie and Triple-A Toledo, posting a 1.89 ERA over that stretch. He has allowed two earned runs or fewer in five of six starts for the Mud Hens.

"Some of our coaches have seen him pitch from time to time and I have to go with their knowledge," said Jenkins, the first Canada native to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. "That's what baseball is all about. A manager has to listen to his coaches. I hate to leave it to a guessing game, and this is a big stage for a youngster. They all want to play and be seen, so we all want to give them a chance to do well.

"When I walked in to talk to my staff, I asked them if they all wanted to win the game. And two of the coaches suggested (Sanchez). They said he's done pretty well over his last few starts and that he has a pretty good awareness of the strike zone."

Sanchez and his fellow hurlers will have to live up to what the World Team accomplished last year in Detroit. The World Team blanked the U.S., 4-0, in the lowest-scoring Futures Game ever. The United States managed only four hits in that affair.

I sincerely hope that any and all ospreys at the game make it out OK.

I don't know if any of you had a chance to catch this game but Sanchez looked good. His offspeed stuff is outstanding.

Final Line: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K (Total of 12 pitches, 9 of which were strikes).

From BA's Futures Game Blog:

Humberto Sanchez had even less trouble than Hirsh in the first, setting down the United States in order and striking out Stephen Drew and Alex Gordon. He showed a 93-94 mph fastball and threw a lot of sliders, and the only hitter who made contact, Howie Kendrick, grounded out weakly to the shortstop.

"Sanchez was pretty doggone impressive," a scout from a National League organization said. "He threw three pitches for strikes, worked in and out all over the zone. Those are three tough outs and he made it looks easy."


• Humberto Sanchez was nasty. The U.S. hitters who faced him in the first inning--Stephen Drew, Howie Kendrick and Alex Gordon--all came back to the dugout asking what he was throwing, as Kendrick went down on a changeup, while Drew and Gordon struck out on curveballs.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/futuresgame/261894.html

Wow. Exciting.

Woooooooo doggy. He was sick in that game. I wanted to see a little more of him. :(

Can't wait to see that mammoth in the majors. If it wasn't for K-Rog, we'd have one of the youngest rotations in the L.

Sanchez Cruises

Tigers righthander Humberto Sanchez made it look easy in his one inning of work, which was no easy task considering he faced the likes of Stephen Drew, Howie Kendrick and Alex Gordon. He whiffed two, and his mound presence was certainly felt by scouts in the stands.

"The biggest thing that surprised me in this game was the lack of quality pitching, especially on the World side," a pro scout from an American League club said. "But Sanchez wasn't one of those guys. He has presence and he kicked it into a second gear against some pretty good hitters. He had good life on his fastball, and this is the best his slider looked in the two years I've seen him."

A lot of that is because Sanchez is completely healthy. He missed the first two months of the season with muscle spasms and an oblique strain last year, and most of August with a groin injury. But he's trimmed down his body somewhat from last year, and with improved health has come more confidence. So has seeing guys like Verlander and Joel Zumaya head to the big leagues in front of him.

"This is my first full year of throwing a slider and a cutter, so it's kind of helped me in throwing four pitches," Sanchez said. "And it's that confidence of knowing I can throw any of them whenever I want to now. That was never there before. I was always worried about trying to be too fine with things--so that helped me out big time.

"And with all the respect to the Tigers, when I got here in 2002 I just felt like the organization was weak, it felt flat. I didn’t feel like it had that burst--that hunger to win games like I imagine it must have been like back in the early '80s. But over the last three years it's really come a long way and everyone wants to be better--everyone wants to help the organization win. And seeing guys like Verlander and Zumaya make the moves they've made and see the success they've had makes you that much more hungry to get there and that also helps your confidence by knowing you can do that too."
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/futuresgame/261899.html

Maybin was solid as well, going 2-3. The 2008 Tigers could be a force to be reckoned with if these guys pan out.