Sally League All-Star Game

UPDATED AND BUMPED with photos by the excellent Dustin Baldwin. 
West Virginia's Calvin Anderson

I had the pleasure of attending the Sally League All-Star game and homerun derby. Three West Virginia Power players made the north all-star team roster.  Calvin Anderson made it as a 1B/DH, Chase D'Arnaud got the nod as a SS, and Rudy Owens earned a spot as a pitcher.  Owens never made it into the game, but both Anderson and D'Arnaud started.  This is my first game watching any of the Power players this year (I live in Charleston), but I was able to see some of our most interesting prospects in WV (at least until Sanchez shows up and excluding Robbie Grossman, who seemed like a semi snub to me).  I unforunately was forced to leave early in the ninth inning and had to hear Calvin Anderson's walk off hit on the radio.   I also missed Pat Venditte, the ambidextrous pitcher in the Yankees farm system, pitch to one batter. 

Here's Charleston (South Carolina)'s Pat Venditte pitching from the left side. Check out the glove. Follow the jump for a photo of Venditte pitching righty, along with more thoughts on the game.

Here's Venditte from the right side.

The homerun derby started off the festivities. The first round was actually an interesting team competition with four players from both the north and south all-star teams combining their homeruns.  Big-C (as Anderson is known) came up to bat last with the north down 11-7.  From my small sample size and in a controlled environment (homerun derby) it is still evident to me that Anderson's power is legit and can probably project as legit in the majors.  He hit five bombs (I mean absolute bombs, easily the furthest in the derby) to give the north the win and move into the second round himself (top 3 overall in the first round make the second round).  He came up needing only 4 to win in the second round and launched several (8 or 9 I think) into orbit, including five in a row before getting his first out.  I think he could have hit twenty had he not pulled out an aluminum bat and attempted to hit a Ford sign that was probably 500 feet or so out in left field. (It was for an extra ten grand, so I don't blame him.)

Anderson second from right.

In the game, Anderson hit DH in the 6 spot and D'Arnaud played SS and hit in the 9th spot.  Anderson struck out in his first AB, watching two fastballs go back (1st and 5th pitch) and looked bad trying to check on a breaking ball in the dirt (2nd pitch) but did well to lay off two pitches, including a breaking ball, that weren't necessarily obvious balls.  D'Arnaud lined the first pitch he saw into left field for a single.  Anderson cracked the first pitch in his second AB into right center, where it dropped into the glove of the CF who was curiously playing shifted towards right.  D'Arnaud came up three batters later and saw a ball before getting hit on the hand and trotting down to first base.  He played well at short, covering for a few throws on steals and making a nice sliding play on a Tim Beckham groundball, but due to Beckham's speed, D'Arnaud was unable to beat him with the throw.  Anderson next drew two walks, laying off breaking balls and seeing very few hittable pitching and D'Arnaud got subbed for.  Apparently he hit a walk-off single but I unforunately missed.

(Side note on Tim Beckham: he had three hits out of 0-2 counts and showed excellent speed and baserunning skills.  However, he made two errors and another bad throw that his 1B bailed him out on.)

Overall, Anderson looked legit as far as power, and showed passable plate discipline (again, in what is obviously an extremely small sample size).  I was unable to see if he has a hole in his swing for breaking balls as he only swung at one, which bounced in the dirt and was an attempted check swing.  D'Arnaud looked smart on the basepaths and at the plate, and solid range and a solid glove at short.  Good crack on his bat as well.  Wish I had got to see a look at Rudy Owens, but that will have to wait till later.