Fun in-person pickup this weekend

[scmavl]

I know prospects aren't what most of you on this forum get into and this is about as far from vintage as you can get, but I thought I'd share a fun little story...

Yesterday, the Lexington Legends were playing my local minor league team. The Legends (Royals farm club) have the 7 million dollar kid Bubba Starling on their team, the #1 ranked HS player that got the largest out-of-HS draft signing bonus in history (+$7m). However, he's only been hitting around .175 this season. The Royals sent him to have LASIK eye surgery a couple of weeks ago and he's now back in the lineup.

I got to the field a little early and saw that the Legends hadn't come out for on-field warmups yet so I stopped by the gift shop, bought a ball, and headed to the visitors dugout. In just a couple of minutes, Bubba walks out and I asked if he'd sign. He obliges, takes my ball and pen and signs for me, answering questions and making small talk while he signs (a few more people were gathered beside me for autos then). Okay, cool... I got an auto of a highly paid prospect who is struggling in Low A ball. Wow.

Here's where it gets cool... Starling was 0-15 in this series against our team (this was the last game of the series). First inning, he gets a hit. And then another one. And then another one. And then another one. And then he gets hit by a pitch. And then in the 11th, another hit. He went 5-for-5 (one double) with one stolen base and a Hit By Pitch. First time in his professional career he has gone 5-for-5. If I'd caught him after the game, I would've had him add an inscription to the ball but it wasn't happening, as we won with a walk off homer in the 11th and the other team ran right off the field.

While chances are high that this kid will bust, it was still kind of a neat day to meet him. Here's a pic of him signing my ball and the auto. Better sig than most of the youngsters...