The Futures Game today was a great showing of some of the exciting young talent working it’s way towards the major leagues. Prospects like Joba Chamberlain, Justin Upton, Clayton Kershaw, and many others were great to see live and in-the-flesh. The day was perfect for baseball. Clear blue skies with a slight breeze that was blowing out into the bay. I try not to be biased but watching baseball at Mays Field is a treat. Out of all the ballparks I’ve ever been to, it’s my favorite. The sight lines, the field, everything is just great.

Even with all the young talent from all the other clubs I was the most interested in the Giants two representatives, RHP Henry Sosa and SS Brian Bocock. Here’s some first impressions from each.

Henry Sosa sure is tall and lanky and immediately reminded me of Felix Rodriguez in terms of his build. He worked a quick 1-2-3 inning topping out at 96 mph while flashing some breaking stuff that I assume was his curveball. The offspeed stuff generally sat in the mid 80′s, giving him around a 6-10 mph differential between the heat and the offspeed arsenal. He worked pretty quickly and I liked what I saw.

I brought my camera to the game and snapped some pictures of both Sosa and Bocock. You can see both of them in this directory. You’ll have to excuse me for the quick and dirty job but I didn’t have time to create a gallery and thumbnail them. I’ll get to that later eventually.

As for Bocock he looked smooth in the field, aggressively running down a short hopping grounder and firing across the diamond to first. Both his arm and hands looked adequate to play a major league level shortstop. He only played a few innings in the field so I’m not sure how he usually looks, since this is the first time I’ve seen him, but I’ve heard that his glovework is pretty solid from reading different minor league reports on him. He didn’t disappoint defensively. On the offensive side, in his lone AB he drew a full count walk from Rockies LHP Franklin Morales who was absoultely dealing in the game, throwing upper 90′s heat from the left side. A Giants hitter working a walk from a tough pitcher? Whaaaa?

It was great to see Bocock and Sosa in action and I hope to see them on the big club someday soon. In these dark times players like Bocock and Sosa give Giants fans some reason for hope in the future. Tiny rays of light, tiny rays of light.