By Ben Lipson

Omar Quintanilla is quietly becoming a prospect to watch in 2005.

Quintanilla is coming off a breakout 2004 season where he hit a combined .320 with 13 Homers and 92 RBI's between Modesto and Midland. As an encore, Quintanilla is currently leading the Arizona Fall League in hitting with a .421 average through 21 AFL games. While the average has always been there for him, the developing power numbers are something new for the former first round pick. In 2003 Quintanilla only hit a combined two home runs in 165 professional at bats.

Baring injury, there is a very good chance that Quintanilla will reach the big leagues as an every day player by the middle of the 2006 season. Whether or not he will be wearing an Oakland uniform could be another story. A natural shortstop, Quintanilla has recently named American League Rookie of the Year Bobby Crosby standing in his way. My guess would be if the A's are battling for a playoff spot in 2005, there would be a strong likelyhood that Quintanillia could be discussed in a number of trade proposals. The other possibility would be for Oakland to keep him and give him a shot at second base. Either way, he has a chance to be a solid .300 hitter in the bigs with gap power.

Because he had less than 100 at bats during his late season promotion to Double-A, I would expect Quintanilla to start the 2005 season back in Midland. If he continues to perform as he did in 2004, I'd expect a late June, early July call-up to Sacramento, and an outside shot at a September call-up to Oakland.

From a fantasy perspective I'd think about picking up Quintanilla as a free agent towards the middle of the season if he begins to put up solid numbers in Triple-A, and use him as an insurance policy if you own Bobby Crosby. He is also not a bad guy to have around in a keeper league if your looking for a future .300, 15 HR, 60 RBI producer.