Future is now for 51s’ Gose

At his home in Rolla, Mo., 51s manager Marty Brown proudly displays among his collection of baseball memorabilia a pair of lineup cards from the two All-Star Futures Games he coached.

"I have them in my man cave back home. It's kind of a neat conversation piece," he said. "You go back and look at those lineup cards, and you see a lot of names that are in the major leagues."

Former Most Valuable Players Josh Hamilton, Joe Mauer, Joey Votto, Justin Morneau and Ryan Howard appeared in the Futures Game, along with 83 other players who went on to become All-Stars and a plethora of other top prospects, including Washington Nationals phenom Bryce Harper of Las Vegas, who competed in last year's game.

On Sunday, 51s center fielder Anthony Gose will add his name to the list of rising stars when he represents the United States against the World in the 14th annual Futures Game at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.

The game will be broadcast live at 2 p.m. on ESPN2 (31).

"It's a tremendous honor to be a part of it," Gose said. "It's going to be a good day to go out there and play and be surrounded by a lot of great players."

The speedy, strong-armed, 21-year-old Gose is batting .289 in his first Triple-A season and leads the Pacific Coast League in at-bats (356) and stolen bases (29), along with a team-best nine triples, 72 runs and 41 walks.

"It's well deserved," Brown said of Gose's selection to the 25-man U.S. roster. "He's got a very bright future. Anthony's got a lot of talent, and he's on the right track. He's getting better in all aspects of his game."

A Bellflower, Calif., native, Gose went 0-for-5 for Las Vegas (47-39) in its 3-1 loss to the Tucson Padres (31-55) on Wednesday at Cashman Field before a sellout crowd of 11,028 in only the second Independence Day home game in franchise history.

The Futures Game will feature 31 of mlb.com's top 100 prospects, including Gose, who is ranked No. 57.

Gose is rated Toronto's No. 2 prospect behind 51s catcher Travis d'Arnaud, who checks in at No. 25 on the mlb.com top 100.

D'Arnaud also was selected for the Futures Game before tearing the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee sliding into second base in a June 25 home game against Sacramento.

The 23-year-old won't need surgery but likely will be out another four to six weeks, Brown said.

"He's got a long road to go, to go through rehab and get that thing strong again," he said. "There's different timetables on it, depending how his rehab goes.

"He's disappointed, but he's got a pretty good head where he's at right now."

Among the league's leading hitters with a .333 average, d'Arnaud has 52 RBIs and a team-leading 16 home runs and has excelled behind the plate.

The former first-round draft pick also had started taking ground balls at first base during batting practice in an apparent effort to accelerate his ascension to the big leagues.

"What I was most impressed with was how he took pride in his catching," Brown said. "Not only that, but he just started to really work hard to get time at first base as well. It's a real big loss to our club. We can't replace him, but we'll keep moving forward."

The future is now for Gose, who stole 70 bases last season and 76 in 2009. He'll meet his match Sunday in Cincinnati Reds prospect Billy Hamilton, who has 100 steals for Class-A Bakersfield (Calif.).

"I've heard he's the fastest guy, some people said, they've ever seen in person," Gose said. "What he's doing is unbelievable. I don't think I'd win that race."

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.