Every season, whether it’s the off-season or during the regular season, we usually hear about a team’s “top prospect” and how good this young player is going to be.Are teams putting too much pressure on a young player coming up through their system?  Are they hyping him to the point where failure would crush his confidence?  I know us fans love hearing that our team has a few young, up-and-coming, players that we look forward to seeing in years to come, but how much talk is too much?

Look at all the young players getting a lot of hype going into the 2008 season.  Guys like Chase Headley (Padres), Jay Bruce (Reds), Ian Kennedy (Yankees), Clay Buchholz (Red Sox), Jacoby Ellsbury (Red Sox), Cameron Maybin (Marlins), Colby Rasmus (Cardinals), Andy LaRoche (Dodgers).  The USA Today has a great article out previewing the Top 100 names to watch in 2008 that’s a good read and will add more names than I’m going to in this article.

What if any of these players were to struggle the first 2-3 months of the season, hear fans question them on every sports talk show in town and start to wonder if they could actually be a big league player?  Would that player ever get his confidence back?

Us fans can be brutal with expectations of these young players can’t we?  I have to admit though, I was one of those fans that thought it might best for the Padres to send 3rd baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff to Triple-A after struggling to a .114 month of April.  He proved all his critics wrong by keeping his confidence, his teammates kept their confidence in him and it paid off, finishing the 2007 season with a .275 batting average with 18 HR’s and 75 RBI’s.

I am looking forward to watching all these young players, especially guys like Andy LaRoche, Clay Buchholz and Ian Kennedy only because they’re playing in “must win” markets and in front of fans that expect to win.  I’m wondering how they’ll perform under that kind of pressure.

From everything I’ve heard about Andy LaRoche, and I mentioned this in one of my earlier articles, I think he leaves Nomar Garciaparra out of a job at 3rd base.  We saw what Clay Buchholz was capable of when he no-hit the BaltimoreOrioles last season, he’s going to be a very good young pitcher in the Red Sox rotation.  Ian Kennedy was a name a lot of us heard in trade rumors when the Yankees were discussing a deal for former Twins’ ace Johan Santana.  I had asked Steve Goldman of the Yankees YES Network about Kennedy who said “his stuff is exceptional.”

 Out of the players that I’ve named and talked about, I think the one player that will make the biggest impact for his team is Andy LaRoche.  I think he wins the 3rd base job outright from Nomar and never lets it go.  Look for him to be in the Rookie of the Year running all year long.

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