The following excerpts were taken from the article “Future bright for US-born infielders” on ESPN.com. Baseball Factory would like to congratuate its former players B.J. Upton, David Wright and Aaron Hill.  Upton and Wright were each named Preseason All Americans and participated in Baseball Factory’s All American Weekend at Dodgertown.  Both Hill and Wright participated in Baseball Factory’s B.A.T.S program.

It isn’t every day that the future appears in front of your eyes.

Unless you’re down at the multiplex or something.

But in baseball, we get lucky. We get to see the future every single year, without ever subjecting ourselves to any bad sci-fi.

By a remarkable coincidence, the future seems to arrive every year right about the same time, too. Just turn your attention every July to one of baseball’s most inspired innovations — the Futures Game — and there it is.

But never has the future seemed so easy to see as it did Sunday, when the United States rolled out an infield full of people you’ll be seeing again very soon.
 
B.J. Upton, is the Devil Rays’ shortstop of the future.

In the real All Star Game.

Over at first base, there was Brewers masher Prince (Son of Cecil) Fielder. Just turned 20 years old two months ago. Already owns 54 minor-league homers in barely 1,000 at-bats.

At second, you had a fellow named Rickie Weeks, a 21-year-old megatalent who was the second player picked — also by the Brewers — in the entire 2003 draft. In 211 minor-league games, this guy already has cranked out 57 doubles, eight triples, 18 homers and 46 stolen bases.

At short was the first pick in the 2002 draft, do-it-all Devil Rays phenom B.J. Upton. When a guy whooshes all the way to Triple-A by age 19, it kind of explains why he was chosen by Baseball America as the No. 1 prospect in the minor leagues.

And at third was Upton’s one-time high school teammate in Chesapeake, Va. — Mets third baseman of the future (the reallllllly near future) David Wright. The Mets are trying to trade Ty Wigginton to create a big-league vacancy for Wright. Might have something to do with the fact he was hitting .363 in the Double-A Eastern League when the Mets bumped him up to Triple-A last month.

But the question isn’t how good these guys are right now. The question is only how great they’re going to be down the road.

“If you’re just looking at their potential ceiling,” said Phillies scouting director Mike Arbuckle, “I don’t think there’s any question this is a group with the highest ceiling of any [American-born infield] we’ve ever seen in this [Futures] game.”

It’s hard to believe that, with all the talent that has passed through the Futures Game in its six seasons of life, only two U.S. infielders have ever played in both a Futures Game and an All-Star Game — Marcus Giles and Hank Blalock.

But if this year’s crew doesn’t reverse that history in the next five years, it will just mean a lot of great scouting minds are going to be more wrong than they have ever been about anything.

“All these guys have a chance to be impact players,” said Diamondbacks scouting director Mike Rizzo. “You’ve got a quality guy in every spot. If we’re talking about guys with a chance to hit in the middle of the lineup and impact the game, then we’re not just talking about nice little catch-and-throw guys who can play shortstop. These types of guys don’t come around very often.”

But the group doesn’t end with those four, either. We haven’t even mentioned Angels third baseman Dallas McPherson, who is hitting .327 with 28 homers this year between Double-A and Triple-A.

Or Astros second baseman Chris Burke, who has stolen 56 bases in the last season and a half.

Or Indians first baseman Michael Aubrey, who has lived up to his hit-machine billing with a .331 career minor-league batting average, 87 RBI in the first 88 games of his career and a career on-base percentage of nearly .420.

Or the guy who turned out to be the MVP of this game — Blue Jays shortstop Aaron Hill, who bashed what turned out to be a game-deciding two-run double in the fifth inning, then said: “The first four innings, I kept looking over at that speedometer [i.e., radar gun] and saw all those 96s, 97s and 98s. … Thank God I got a changeup.”

We hear all the time these days that the future of baseball is going to be found in Latin America or the Pacific Rim, because American kids just don’t play enough baseball. But it turns out, if these guys are any indication, that there is hope for baseball in the U.S. of A. after all.

“They come in all shapes, sizes and colors,” Rizzo said. “And they come from all parts of the country and world. … But we’re seeing today there are a heck of a lot of good American players who are on the cusp of getting to the big leagues. And not just getting there — but getting there and staying there and having an impact on their club.”

These guys also came with their own behind-the-scene plot lines Sunday. So let’s take a look at a few of them:

Scouting Department
We asked a group of scouts to assess our Infield of the Future. And there was hardly a reservation about any of them to be found:

Upton: “He’s the guy with the best tools on the field. He can do everything. Or at least he will as he matures and figures it out. He’s a plus runner, a plus thrower. He can be a plus defensive shortstop. He’s going to be a plus hitter, and he’ll have power to go along with it.”

Wright: “I’ve always liked David Wright. I liked him from the first time I saw him in high school. He’s going to be a really good all-around player. He’s a plus defensive guy. He can hit. And he can hit with power. And he’s got really good makeup. This guy may finally solve the Mets’ third-base problems for a long time.”

The MVP
Of the 51 players named to the Futures League teams, the hero of the day was the 51st — Aaron Hill.

“My manager called me in four days ago,” Hill said afterward. “He said, ‘Congratulations. You’re going to the Futures Game.’ I said, ‘Isn’t that in like three days?’ He said, ‘Yep.’ And today I was playing in Minute Maid Park. It’s a dream come true.”

Hill was the only guy on either team who wasn’t one of the original selections. In fact, he was also the only U.S. infielder — despite that Southeastern Conference Player of the Year award he won in 2003 at LSU — who is not considered a future superduperstar. (“Solid,” was the one-word review one scout gave him.)

But another Blue Jays infielder, Russ Adams, got hurt. So off went Aaron Hill to join the Futures Game celebrities. And naturally, it was he who busted open a 2-0 game with a two-run double off a guy (the White Sox’s Arnie Munoz) who has already pitched in the big leagues.

Next thing he knew, he was holding the MVP trophy.

“Pretty cool,” said Hill, who was drafted last year and is now in Double-A. “One hit, and I get the MVP. Hopefully, I’ll make MVP in the major-league All-Star Game some day and win a Lexus. Actually, they’ve got one [Lexus] out in the lobby. I asked if that was mine. But they said, ‘Nope. Trophy.’ “

Then again, a trophy isn’t a bad reward for any emergency trip to the future. Now, for Aaron Hill and his fellow Americans, it’s back to the present, where real life is scheduled to resume Monday. But at least they — and we — have seen the future.

And it has never looked better.