Matthew Brown: Unlike more heralded Angels prospects on the left  side of the infield like Brandon Wood or even Sean Rodriguez, Brown has never set scouting hearts a-flutter. He's just kept plugging away, and last year plugged away to the tune of 21 home runs and .320/.373/.580 at Triple-A Salt Lake City, and his third major league cup of coffee. This spring he's done as much as anybody could to prove he's ready for the next stage of his career, hitting an astounding (even for the Cactus League) .528/.591/.861 in 36 at-bats. Perhaps more important than the contact has been what's he's done with the bat on his shoulder, as he's posted a 6:6 BB:K ratio that would represent a huge step forward for him if he can maintain anything close to it once spring training is over.

Brown has almost no chance of finding a regular role with the Angels, given all the players on the depth chart between him and a starting job, and he still has an option left so it looks like Triple-A once again for him. Given all that depth though, the Angels might be swayed into trading him to a team that has a need at a corner infield slot, whether it be the Cardinals or the Yankees or someone else who gets hit by a late camp injury.

Junichi Tazawa: It might be cheating to label Tazawa as a sleeper, since he's really a 22-year-old prospect, but if anyone could be considered a 'prospect sleeper' it's him. Tazawa was discovered pitching in a Japanese industrial league, but rather than getting scooped up by the Yomiuri Giants or the like he instead managed to remain a free agent and draw the attention of MLB scouts, eventually signing a major league contract with Boston for a tidy sum.

With little in the way of scouting reports or even a track record of competition against a quantifiable set of opponents he's been somewhat overlooked as a prospect, but for a player with no pro experience and living in a foreign country he's done incredibly well this spring, firing off a 10:1 K:BB ratio in nine innings with a 1.00 ERA and just five hits allowed. It was thought he might begin the year in High-A or Double-A, and let him gradually adjust to North America with a possible 2010 major league debut in mind. A performance like this has to acccelerate that timetable though, and if he keeps racking up the K's and the shutout innings in the minors he'll force his way into the Clay Buchholz/Michael Bowden grouping of young Red Sox pitchers who are ready to step into the breach at a moment's notice, and they could always bring him up for some bullpen duty and let Hideki Okajima and Daisuke Matsuzaka help him get acclimated. Tazawa's future looks like it's going to arrive a lot sooner than it did a month ago.