Michael Inoa

Michael Inoa’s five years shy of the legal drinking age and is barely old enough to drive a car.

You won’t recognize his name from the College World Series that just passed, nor will you find his highlight reel on YouTube. In all likelihood, you’ve never heard of the kid.

After all, he’s not your typical teenage phenom.

Although he’s only 16-years old, the 6-foot-7, 205-pound right-hander is thought to be the prize prospect from all of Latin America. And while young players are a dime-a-dozen in that region, odds are Inoa’s closer to being a diamond-in-the-rough than just another average Latin American pitcher.

He signed a minor league contract Tuesday, and it was all the evidence I needed to believe in his big league potential.

Naïve as that might sound, there’s just something about the fact that Billy Beane gave Inoa a record-setting $4.25 million signing bonus that screams future All-Star.

It’ll be a few years before Inoa, who’s already being compared to Pedro Martinez and Felix Hernandez, makes his MLB debut, so for now, he’ll simply have to settle for a few million dollars and some big time MAD LOVE from us.