O'Sullivan

Sean O'Sullivan carried that "can't miss" label through his years of baseball at Valhalla High. Now, after a call up to the Angels, the former San Diego County Player of the Year is a "didn't miss."

In my five years of operating Sandiegosportstown.com, I came across a lot of really good high school baseball players, including some who made it to the big leagues, like Junior from Poway, Wes Littleton from Vista and Adrian Gonzalez of Eastlake. None were quite the sure thing as O'Sullivan.

Baseball, as we all know, is a humbling game. There are people who insist that Barry Bonds was the greatest hitter they ever saw, steroids or no, and look at how he struggled so badly in the postseason with the Pirates and Giants. Same to some extent for A-Rod. It's something they carry with them. For O'Sullivan, as a senior he carried the Norsemen into the CIF final at SDSU and got crushed by El Capitan. He had a few shaky starts that year. He won awards when pitching at Grossmont College but my increasingly feeble memory makes me think he wasn't quite himself there, either.

His initial rise in the Angels organization was typical, not the swift sort of jump through the lower rungs that you expect from phenoms. He was in the Pioneer League before a year at Cedar Rapids in what's described as "low-A" ball. He spent 2008 in "high-A" at Rancho Cucamonga, where he was 16-8 but with an ERA of 4.73 and a stat line that showed more hits than innings pitched and too many BBs.

Then there was this year, where he went 1-2 in three starts at AA Arkansas. He rose to Salt Lake City in AAA and went 5-2. His ERA was 6.02 but the Pacific Coast League, filled with small stadiums at high altitudes, is notoriously rough on pitching stats.

The next thing you knew, Angels starter Ervin Santana was hurt and manager Mike Scioscia needed a pitcher. O'Sullivan got the call, allowing just one run in seven innings, giving up just five hits and a walk and striking out five. That's dealing. He also singled and scored in the Halos 8-1 win in San Francisco, close enough for the family to travel.

O'Sullivan's rapid rise turned out to be through the high end of the minors, making him a rare commodity indeed.

Alas, Santana is due back for his next start and, as I wrote this, O'Sullivan was returned to Salt Lake City. That's baseball for you -- a humbling game. But Sean O'Sullivan didn't miss and, if his first major league start is any indication, he'll be back for more.

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You can never really tell who'll be the next local kid to make The Show. So much is dependent on injuries and teams that suddenly go into an early-summer tailspin. You can be batting .350 in AAA but if your major league club is solid, you might be stuck.

One of the SD Sports Town faves, former USD and Grossmont High infielder Mike McCoy, has made AAA look easy in the Rockies organization. As of today, he's hitting .338 with an outstanding .445 on-base percentage and has 21 steals while playing third base. Of course, he needs Garret Atkins to get hurt or traded. Fat chance.

Braves infielder Brooks Conrad has been playing well at AAA Gwinnett. He's a longtime minor leaguer who has been on the cusp for years.

Otherwise, there aren't too many local kids who look ready to make the jump, that I can see.

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Speaking of Junior, it seems like Major League Baseball came to him, not the other way around. Anthony couldn't make the Brewers fulltime because they were still looking for big boppers to go with Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, while discounting whether any runners would be on base ahead of them. So bringing Gwynn to San Diego where his speed and ability to draw walks and make contact will be huge assets at the top of the batting order -- along with his defense on the field -- made sense.

But the Brewers, while moderately successful, in recent years, are playing yesterday's game. Baseball is thankfully bringing speed, defense and contact hitting back into the fold after a 10-year-plus absense. That will only benefit Gwynn The Younger even more. And I still can't get over how much he sounds like his father.