When I was a kid, I used to pick up a copy of USA Today's magazine Baseball Weekly whenever I could. It was full of stats and articles that you couldn't find in normal newspapers. It was also responsible for sparking my interest in following minor league prospects.

I recall one mid-90s Brewer prospect that I was pretty excited about. Valerio De Los Santos pitched for the class-A Beloit Brewers (now known as the Snappers, a Minnesota Twins affiliate), and put up some decent numbers. It was a dark time for pitching in Milwaukee, and I would have loved to have his 3.55 ERA in the Brewers rotation. Valerio eventually made it to Milwaukee, but was a reliever by then. In 2003, after a couple of decent seasons in the major league bullpen, there was talk of moving him back to the rotation, but he was instead shipped to Philadelphia for a PTBNL (who was never named, as far as I know) in a late waiver trade. After this, he pitched bits and pieces of 2004 and 2005 with Toronto and Florida, but was never very effective.

This morning, I noticed that at age 35, Valerio De Los Santos is alive and pitching with Colorado's AAA affiliate. He's on the DL right now, but has actually done ok in relief. He was in the starting rotation briefly, where he didn't fare so well, but it would not surprise me one bit if Valerio gets one more shot in the majors as a LOOGY. Who knows, he might even have a few years of Brian Shouse-like success.

God, I feel old.