Who’s more likely to play someday in Kauffman Stadium?

It was interesting to see that the University of Kansas baseball program is already playing ball – they’re doing an eight-day tour of the Dominican Republic to give clinics to the locals and play a few games against the instructional league teams that will produce future major league peloteros.

And it seems the Jayhawks managed to gain a couple of early victories – including a 6-5 win over the Kansas City Royals academy team.

THESE LITERALLY ARE the young ballplayers who could, if they continue to develop, be in the major leagues sometime around the year 2019.

For that’s the key to comprehending this ballgame.

It took a Division1 athletic program of experienced U.S. ballplayers in their early 20s and pitted them against very raw talent – in some cases as young as 15 years old. The idea that the college kids won because of their “experience” makes it a completely predictable outcome!

So no, I don’t see it as any real evidence that Kansas is going to be something special during the spring of 2013 – although I’d hope that these young men take advantage of the opportunity presented to them to play baseball in the land that produces so many ballplayers these days because major league teams always are on the lookout for cheap talent.

CHANCES ARE, WHEN one of these kids has moved on with his life away from dreams of professional athletics, he’s going to be able to recall the period in which he met (and competed against) a future major leaguer – and actually managed to come out on top.

It’s just too bad we can’t know now which one (or maybe two, if he’s lucky and gets a break) of the Dominican kid ballplayers will actually prevail in making it to the Kansas City Royals – or whatever other ballclub winds up giving him a chance.

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