Looking Ahead Through The Futures Game & The Draft

And the irony of .394

Welcome to Warning Track Power, a weekly newsletter of baseball stories and analysis grounded in front office and scouting experiences and the personalities encountered along the way.

---

Happy All-Star Break, friends! Let’s get the day started with this one:

Padres All-Star Jake Cronenworth is slugging what Tony Gwynn batted in 1994.

Needing a break from the present, I sought a glimpse of the future over the weekend. On Saturday, I ventured to Dodger Stadium, site of tonight’s All-Star Game, for the annual MLB Futures Game.

The Futures Game has long been one of my favorite contests of the year. I’ll write plenty more about it later this week, covering everything from the throngs of media and iPhone-wielding video hawks around the cage during BP to my favorite players of the day.

I’ve always loved this game because the rosters are loaded with high-end talent, and it’s a chance to lay eyes on players who otherwise were only names on prospect charts — or maybe grainy bodies on video clips. (Of course, technology today has made it so that all Triple-A and Double-A games are available to stream, mostly in hi-def, and about two-thirds of A-ball games are also broadcast live.)

There’s only so much you can get out of one inning of work or a couple at bats in a seven-inning exhibition. That’s why I let the game come to me.

Rockies prospect Zac Veen, selected ninth overall in the 2020 Draft, seized his opportunity to make an impression.

The left-handed hitting left fielder takes aggressive passes at the ball, while also showing an excellent feel for what he’s doing at the plate. He’s got plus bat speed, good balance, and he looks like he has a knack for getting the barrel of the bat to the ball.

I particularly liked how he remained in control of all three at-bats, even after falling behind in the count. Veen, a 20-year-old in Hi-A ball, was not at all intimidated by facing older, more advanced pitching, nor is he afraid to hit with two strikes.

Once he reached base — he went 2-for-3 with two well-struck singles to the opposite field — he caused havoc.

After a two-out single, Veen stole second, breaking on the first move of left-handed Angels prospect Ky Bush. He then swiped third, beating the throw to the bag even after Bush had wheeled around in an attempt to pick him off.

I wrote in my notes: Disrupter. He has a way of making the distance between bases seem a lot less than 90 feet.