MILWAUKEE -- He was a prime topic of Futures Game conversation, and Brandon Phillips never even swung a bat.

He didn't scrunch a batting-practice homer off Bernie Brewer's slide, as Wily Mo Pena (Reds) did. He didn't come roaring out of the bullpen to launch 97-mile-an-hour flameballs, as Brett Myers (Phillies) and Franklyn German (Tigers) did.

He didn't range 50 feet to his left to turn a sure single into a force at second, as Orlando Hudson (Blue Jays) did. He didn't whoosh from home to third on a triple in about 2.4 seconds, as Futures Game MVP Jose Reyes (Mets) did.

But here in this beautiful world we live in, none of that's required to be a conversation piece on a day when 50 of the best prospects show up on one field.

Brandon Phillips, you see, did all he had to do to get noticed Sunday, just by being the centerpiece player heading for Cleveland in the deal that sent Bartolo Colon through customs, a French-English dictionary in his pocket.

Here are some of the terms used to describe the Indians' 21-year-old shortstop of the future by the general managers and scouts gathered behind home plate Sunday:

"An absolute stud," said one GM. "We love him."

"Has a chance to be a Paul Molitor-type player," said one AL executive.

"We tried to deal for him," said an AL scout. "And we were told he was off limits. Untouchable."

"Runs. Hits. Makes plays. Plays his butt off," said another scout.

So it didn't really matter that all Phillips did in the Futures Game was take a four-pitch walk (and eventually score the USA's only run in a 5-1 loss to the World team Sunday). The baseball universe knows what he is and who he is. Now it's just the rest of the continent that's catching up.

"All of a sudden, I'm on ESPN, I'm in Baseball Weekly," Phillips said Sunday. "Everybody I meet is saying, 'Hey, you're the guy in that trade.' And I say, 'Yeah, that was me.'"

Now it's not as if Phillips had a lower profile than Salman Rushdie before this trade. He was the Expos' Organizational Player of the Year last season. Baseball America named him the Expos' No. 1 prospect last winter. He made the all-prospect team in the Arizona Fall League.

Then he got off to a spectacular start in Double-A, firing up Jose Vidro-esque numbers (.327, 9 HR, 35 RBIs, 40 runs, 6 SB, .355 with men in scoring position) in the Eastern League for two months until the Expos bumped him up to Ottawa a few weeks ago.

Since then, though, his life has really gotten nuts. He played 10 games for Ottawa. Then, for reasons he didn't understand at the time, he was abruptly given a night off. Then another. And then another.

"When I didn't play for three games, I knew something was coming, but I didn't know what," Phillips said. "Then my manager kind of told me what was going down. So after that, I was basically just waiting to get traded."

The trade finally went down, and Phillips' life has been pretty much one big travelogue ever since. Ottawa to Charlotte. Two days in Charlotte. Charlotte to Buffalo. Four days in Buffalo. Buffalo to Rochester for two days. Then off to Milwaukee for the Futures Game.

"I've been on so many planes the last two weeks, it's unreal," Phillips said.

But the road to the big time runs through a whole bunch of airports that don't resemble Laguardia. And Brandon Phillips has his share to visit before he shows up in Cleveland for good sometime in the next year and change.

He's one of the youngest position players in Triple-A. He's still described as "raw" in many ways by the scouting community. So he has a lot of playing to do. And he has a lot of growing to do. But the Indians will wait.

"I talked to [Cleveland GM] Mark Shapiro after the deal, and he told me, 'Just keep playing the same game you've been playing,'" Phillips said. "He said, 'Just be prepared. Be ready. Have fun. Don't change your game just 'cause you got traded. You don't have to impress anybody, because we know you can play.'"

Brandon Phillips has always had a certain style to him, ever since his father handed him a yellow Wiffle Ball bat when he was 4 -- "and instead of the ball, I used to hit my mom with the bat, and then run."

Now, 17 years later, he still twirls his bat in the on-deck circle before every at-bat -- because that's how his favorite cartoon character, He-Man, used to twirl his sword.

Even if Phillips wanted to slack off, his family would never let him. His little sister, Porsha, is the No. 1-rated junior-high basketball player in Georgia. And his 15-year-old brother, P.J., is "way better than me," Phillips laughed. "He's going to be another Brandon Phillips -- only better."

Well, wish him luck. Phillips' multi-faceted skills are a reflection of the way his boyhood idol, Barry Larkin, played the game: "He could hit. He could field. He could run. He was a natural shortstop," Phillips said. "He's the man."

Now the Indians are banking a big chunk of their future on the prospect that some day Phillips can be the man -- a five-tool, Soriano-esque impact player in every phase of the game. And Phillips says that while he was initially hurt that the Expos traded him, he is getting pumped about life with the Indians.

"Now I'm cool with it," Phillips said. "I'm glad it happened now. I see the Indians are trying to rebuild, and that's cool with me. The Expos are trying to win right now, and I understand that."

But where once he was blocked by Orlando Cabrera, now he's blocked by Omar Vizquel -- unless Vizquel agrees to relinquish his right to veto any deals. So Phillips will be doing some bopping around the infield, playing some second and some third base, as he did in the Fall League, in case that's where his future lies.

"I think he could be a hell of a second baseman," said one scout Sunday. "He can really go get the ball in either direction. He'd have a shortstop arm playing second, but hey, you've gotta turn that double play."

"Learning those other positions, that can only be a plus," Phillips said. "I like second. I like third. But shortstop -- that's my position."

If it is going to be his position, he'll have to get in line behind the great American League shortstops who have turned shortstop into the most star-studded position in the sport. Phillips is aware of every one of them, too.

"There's a lot of great ones, man," he said. "Too many. I'm just trying to add my name to the list -- some day."

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.