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The Ones to Watch

Four stars blossoming in the bushes; A Diamondback in the rough; J.D. Drew: A $10 million man?

After last week's Double A All-Star Game in San Antonio, which the players from the American League affiliates won 4-0 over their National League counterparts, players from both teams hustled back to the TVs in their clubhouses. Like all minor leaguers, the Double A All-Stars were keeping an avid eye on the big boys, in this case the participants in the home run derby that was held in Cleveland the day before the major league All-Star Game.

Before long, some of the All-Stars who were in San Antonio and others from last week's Triple A All-Star Game in Des Moines—won 5-3 by the American Leaguers—won't have to watch the majors from afar. Indeed, Mark Kotsay, a 21-year-old centerfielder who won the best-arm competition in San Antonio, was called up by the Marlins four days later and was thrown right into the number 3 spot in the lineup. Not bad for a player drafted only a year ago.

Here's the short list of the top minor leaguers who could soon be making an impact in the majors.

— Daryle Ward, first baseman, Double A Jackson Generals (Astros)

During a game earlier this summer at Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson, Miss., the lefthanded-batting Ward hit a screamer so hard down the rightfield line that it punched a hole right through a wooden billboard. Daryle, the son of former major leaguer Gary Ward, showed even more power at the Double A All-Star Game when he won the home run hitting contest with a shot that smacked the top of the 50-foot scoreboard in rightfield at Nelson Wolff Municipal Stadium.

Ward, 22, was hitting .333 through Sunday with 16 homers and 69 RBIs in 88 games. In April he tied a Texas League record by hitting homers in six straight games. "He has the potential to be a regular 40-home-run guy in the big leagues," says Generals manager Gary Allenson. "He's behind Jeff Bagwell right now, but teams seem to always find room for guys who can hit like Daryle."

— Todd Helton, first baseman, Triple A Colorado Springs Sky Sox
(Rockies)

When Helton, the Rockies' first-round draft choice in 1995, gets called up to the majors, he won't have far to go. He's playing only 67 miles from Denver. "You hear a lot more gossip about things that are supposed to happen to you when you're this close," says the lefthanded-hitting Helton.

Lately the rumors have all been good. Helton, 23, was a Double A All-Star in 1996 and a Triple A All-Star this summer. At week's end he was hitting .360 with 16 homers and 84 RBIs. The 16 homers represented a power surge for Helton, who hit only nine all of last year. Expect that number to rise even more if he gets to play at Coors Field. One hang-up: He plays the same position as Andres Galarraga, who will be a free agent after this season. Helton could step in at first if Galarraga leaves Colorado or move to leftfield if he stays. Either way, Helton just wants to get the call to drive up Interstate 25.

— Paul Konerko, third baseman, Triple A Albuquerque Dukes
(Dodgers)

Los Angeles wants Konerko in its lineup so badly it has persuaded him to try three positions in his four seasons in the minors and even deployed former manager Tommy Lasorda to the Triple A All-Star Game to encourage the prodigy.

Konerko, who had 26 homers and 89 RBIs at week's end, was drafted out of Chaparral High in Scottsdale, Ariz., as a catcher but switched to first because the Dodgers already had Mike Piazza. L.A. then signed first baseman Eric Karros through the year 2000, so Konerko was moved to third, where the Dodgers already had free-agent third baseman Todd Zeile, who had signed a three-year deal.

What's important to note, however, is that Zeile and Karros signed deals that allow Los Angeles to trade them. The way Konerko has been hitting might force the Dodgers to do something drastic. "I'd play outfield, anything, if it would get me to the big leagues," he says.

— Kris Benson, righthanded pitcher, Double A Carolina Mudcats
(Pirates)

Benson, Pittsburgh's No. 1 pick in the 1996 draft, has been climbing rapidly through the minor league system. He was promoted from Class A Lynchburg in late May after putting together a 5-2 record with a 2.58 ERA and an eye-popping 72 strikeouts against 13 walks in 59 1/3 innings.

An All-America at Clemson in 1996 and an Olympian later that year, Benson has been hampered by a strained hamstring since moving up to Double A and was 2-4 with a 7.18 ERA for Carolina through Sunday. The Pirates, always on the lookout for young talent, aren't worried, however. The 6'4", 190-pound Benson already has a major league curve and a fastball that's been clocked in the high 90s. He has also developed an effective changeup that he throws 15 to 20 times a game. Pittsburgh will move Benson to its Triple A affiliate in Calgary later this summer, and if he fully masters the changeup he could make his third jump this season—to the majors.

High-Priced Loaner

Of all the prospects toiling away in the minors, perhaps none is more deserving of a shot at the big leagues this summer than first baseman Travis Lee. The only problem is, Lee doesn't have a major league team to jump to.

The 1996 winner of the Golden Spikes Award as the nation's top amateur player while at San Diego State, the lefthanded-hitting Lee was the second player chosen in last year's draft, by the Twins. But Minnesota failed to tender him a formal, written contract within 15 days of the draft; as a result, under Major League Rule 4 (E), Lee was declared a free agent. He accepted a contract with the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks (who do not begin play until next year) for a then record $10 million signing bonus—five times the amount any other drafted player had ever been given.

Playing in the minors with that kind of cash has been a little strange for Lee. For starters he now drives a silver BMW—a four-door because, Lee says, "I figured in the minors I'd be hauling guys around." Lee also decided to donate his hat money—a tradition in some minor league cities in which fans collect cash for any player who hits a homer—to local charities.

Lee hasn't been so kind to the opposition. While playing for the Class A High Desert Mavericks in Adelanto, Calif., Lee hit .404 in May, with seven homers and 31 RBIs in 28 games, and he was named the California League Player of the Month. One day in June, as the Arizona brass looked on, Lee blasted a 450-foot grand slam to dead center and finished with three hits on the day. Said Diamondbacks director of player development Mel Didier, "In my 45 years, Travis is the best hitter I've ever seen."

Lee, 22, was tearing up Class A pitching so easily that the Diamondbacks would have moved him up to Double A but couldn't—they don't have a team at the Double A or Triple A level. So the Arizona front office decided to loan Lee to the Brewers' Triple A team in Tucson, where they could still keep close tabs on him. Through Sunday he had hit .283 with nine homers and 25 RBIs in only 30 games. So far, in addition to his big bat he has shown that he could be a top defensive first baseman too, with his vacuumlike mitt and spectacular mobility for a player his size.

Now all he needs is a major league team.

Draft Dodger

The contract negotiations between the Phillies and their 1997 first-round draft pick, outfielder J.D. Drew, have sunk to a new low—even for baseball. Drew, the second player taken, wants a signing bonus in the same neighborhood as Lee's $10 million. The Phillies don't want to go any higher than $3 million, so at week's end the two sides were at an impasse. "We were very clear with the Phillies," says the 21-year-old Drew, who hit .455 with 31 homers and 32 stolen bases as a junior at Florida State last season. "We let them know, if you don't have what it takes, then don't draft me."

The Phillies weren't listening. And they're beginning to regret it. After realizing that Drew wasn't going to get anything close to $10 million from Philadelphia, Drew's agent, Scott Boras, who has engineered some of the biggest signing bonuses in baseball history, has tried to get his client declared a free agent. That way, rich teams like the Yankees and the expansion clubs in Tampa Bay and Arizona could engage in a bidding war for Drew's services. That strategy has worked well for other Boras clients; righthanded starting pitcher Matt White got a record $10.2 million from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last November. Perhaps the Phillies have White's record in mind. He was 0-4 at week's end with a 9.43 ERA in the New York-Penn League (chart, below, lists other high-priced picks who haven't paid off).

If Drew continues to refuse Philadelphia's offers, the Phillies will retain his rights until seven days before next year's draft, and then he'll have to go back through the draft. So Boras tried to use--or abuse--a rule that says teams must send drafted players a written contract within 15 days or the player becomes a free agent. Drew has said that none of the contracts sent by the Phils to locations in Georgia and Florida ever reached him. The Phillies say that Federal Express receipts with Drew's mother's signature prove otherwise. The major league executive committee is expected to rule on an appeal by Boras in the next week or so.

Now Drew has taken a different tack: Last week he signed a contract with the St. Paul Saints of the independent Northern League and hit a two-run homer in his first game last Friday. Why would he sign for $700 a month when he could be making $3 million with the Phillies? By becoming a professional with the Saints, Boras calculates, Drew is no longer eligible for the draft. But baseball thinks it has closed that loophole already, by renaming the amateur draft the "first-year player draft," and insists that Drew will remain the Phillies' property for a year and then reenter the draft.

Some of Boras's peers are criticizing him for what one agent calls "disgraceful" tactics of promising draft picks that they'll get "free-agent money." "He's raised the bar again for dark tactics and blatant lies," says the agent.

Boras insists that he is only looking out for his client's best interests, and doing so legally. "I'm a former player," he says. "I know there are no guarantees in this game."

If the executive committee turns down Drew's appeal, and that is likely, the matter may end up in court. And yet another ugly mess in baseball will continue to unfold.

The Making of a Pitcher

Guillermo Mota is a 23-year-old former shortstop who during four years in the Mets organization had not broken out of Class A. But when the Expos claimed the athletic 6'6", 200-pound Mota in last year's Rule V draft, they saw "a kid with a pitcher's body and a real strong arm who wasn't working out as a shortstop as far as the bat was concerned," says Montreal director of player development Dave Littlefield. So the Expos shipped Mota to one of their Class A clubs, the Cape Fear Crocs, in Fayetteville, N.C., this spring and asked him to try out as a pitcher. "I said, 'O.K., fine,'" says Mota, a native of the Dominican Republic. "Right now, I forgot shortstop."

Mota has made the transition to the mound rather easily so far. "He's picked up the little things that many people coming in don't get," says Fayetteville pitching coach Wayne Rosenthal. "He's like a sponge." Mota has thrown in the mid-90s from Day One, and his control (something some pitchers struggle with for years) has been "uncanny," according to Littlefield.

Through Sunday, Mota was 5-6 with a 3.65 ERA for the Crocs and had 85 strikeouts in 86 1/3 innings, with only 21 walks. "Guillermo is jumping ahead of a lot of guys who have been in this organization for two or three years," says Rosenthal. "It's almost like he's been pitching for 10 years."

Says Mota on his newfound life on the mound, "Now, if they say, 'You want to be a shortstop?' I say, 'No, I want to be a pitcher.'"

Bonus Baby Blues

A million-dollar signing bonus is still rare in baseball, a sport in which high draft picks often don't pan out. A look at this list of big-ticket busts in the 1990s provides four good reasons why the Phillies might be reluctant to give J.D. Drew, their first pick this year, the $10 million signing bonus he's seeking.

Todd Van Poppel (1990, A's) Signed to a $1.2 million major league contract ($500,000 of it in bonus money), he has been waived or released by three teams and was just promoted to Double A Tulsa (Rangers) despite an 0-4 record with a 4.08 ERA for Class A Charlotte.

Brien Taylor (1991, Yankees) Signed for $1.55 million after being the first player chosen in the draft, he injured his shoulder in a bar fight in 1993 and hasn't been the same pitcher since.

Josh Booty (1994, Marlins) Chosen fifth and signed for a then record $1.6 million, he has shown power—16 homers at week's end—but was batting .212 for Double A Portland with 117 strikeouts in 321 at bats.

Matt Smith (1994, Royals) Got $1 million as the 16th player taken but was recently demoted from Double A Wichita to low Class A Lansing.