The MLB Futures Game is by far my favorite part of the All-Star festivities. This year will be the 13th I've attended in person, but I can't tell you the last time I watched anything else during the annual break. This year's game is good, worth watching as always, with quite a few players I've wanted to see, but the rosters have been severely constrained by promotions of top prospects and a litany of injuries to others who would almost certainly be in the game.
Vlad Guerrero Jr. isn't here, as he's still on the disabled list in Double-A. Victor Robles also is hurt, and Nick Senzel is out for the year, so that's three of my preseason top 10 prospects unavailable due to injury, with three more -- Ronald Acuna, Gleyber Torres and J.P. Crawford -- already in the majors. Other significant prospects who are hurt and thus weren't selected include Brendan McKay, Sixto Sanchez, Luis Robert, Dane Dunning and Estevan Florial.
The best prospects in the Futures Game are Fernando Tatis Jr. (No. 3 preseason), Francisco Mejia (No. 7) and Forrest Whitley (No. 8), along with 2015 third overall pick Brendan Rodgers. Tatis (Padres) was a surprising omission from last year's game, but he has more than earned his spot this year as the youngest player in the Texas League, bouncing back from a dismal April to hit .329/.409/.595 from May 1 onward, with 14 steals in 17 attempts. It's hard to top what Guerrero has done in Double-A, but Tatis isn't far behind at the plate and has far more value on defense as a shortstop who has a very good chance to stay somewhere on the dirt.
Mejia's season started even worse that Tatis', as he was under .200 through the end of May, but he's been back to his normal self and then some since then; after a three-game hitless stretch in late May, he's hitting .409/.445/.638, with a double every 19 plate appearances. A catcher by trade with a strong arm but fringy or below-average receiving skills, he's played some left and right field for the Indians' Triple-A team and could end up catching and playing the outfield in the Futures Game.
Whitley (Astros) just returned from a suspension for a positive drug test, reportedly an amphetamine, but has resumed dominating Double-A at age 20, already striking out a third of the batters he's facing and showing three above-average to plus pitches. The only question I've heard on his ceiling is whether he's a future ace or perhaps "just" a No. 2 because of command, but that's a pretty nice problem to have in your top prospect. Whitley was pulled from his start Thursday night with "left oblique discomfort," so he could end up being replaced.
Rodgers (Rockies) has had his best pro season to date while playing in a home park that is anything close to neutral for the first time, hitting 16 homers and posting a .281/.345/.525 line after his own rough start. (I wonder how much the frigid April affected hitters' lines this year, especially for players on teams in the Northeast and upper Midwest.)
The U.S. team also includes shortstop Bo Bichette, the Blue Jays' No. 2 prospect and a top-20 prospect in the game, who is off to a solid start in Double-A, where he's young for his level at age 20.
There are four players from the top 10 of last year's draft in the game, including last year's second overall pick and top draft prospect Hunter Greene. Fifth overall pick Kyle Wright, ninth pick Keston Hiura and 10th pick Jo Adell also are here. The Giants' main representative is their 2017 first-rounder, Heliot Ramos, who is also the lone Puerto Rican representative in the game.
Greene (Reds) has been sitting 97-101 and flashing a plus slider this year as a true 18-year-old in low-A. After a rough first four outings, he made some very small adjustments and has been dominating ever since, with 59 strikeouts and nine walks in his past 50⅔ innings (10 starts), posting a 2.31 ERA in that span. Other pitching prospects in the minors are closer to big-league ready, but among right-handers he has the highest ceiling.
Wright (Braves) went straight to Double-A to start this year, unusual for any draft pick in his first full pro season, Even so, he's striking out a man an inning and showing a plus slider and above-average fastball, with a modestly high walk rate the only negative he's shown so far.
Hiura (Brewers) has split time almost equally between second base and designated hitter, due to an elbow problem that kept him off the field entirely before the draft last year, but he's raked at high-A and Double-A with doubles power, hitting .322/.381/.523 between the two levels with 27 doubles, good for second in the minors this year.
Adell (Angels) has exploded on the minors this year and, although I haven't written up the list yet, I suspect he'll end up in my global top 10 when I re-rank the top 50 prospects in the minors after the All-Star break. Adell, just 19, hit .326/.398/.611 in the Midwest League, and has continued to hit for average and power after a promotion to the hitter-friendly California League, although his walk rate has gone through the floor (4.1 percent since the move, 3.1 percent since his first series with Inland Empire). He's still a potential superstar with huge raw power and a much more advanced hit tool than it appeared when he was an underclassman on the showcase circuit in 2016. He's primarily a center fielder now but likely will end up in a corner as he fills out.
Ramos probably wasn't ready for low-A and has struggled this year, but was the Giants' best prospect coming into the year, and he's the third-youngest regular in the Sally League. (The youngest, Luis Garcia, will represent the Nationals in the Futures Game.)
A few of this year's biggest breakout prospects also made the official rosters: Jesus Luzardo, Peter Alonso, Luis Basabe and Seuly Matias. Luzardo was born in Peru but will represent Venezuela, the birthplace of his parents, who moved from Peru to the U.S. when Luzardo was young. Traded by the Nats to Oakland in last summer's deal that brought Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson to Washington, Luzardo has been pitching for a full year since returning from Tommy John surgery, and his aggregate career line across five levels is 137 strikeouts and 24 walks in 115⅔ innings, including 12 strong starts in Double-A this year. He's working with a plus fastball and changeup, and projects as a No. 2 starter as long as he stays healthy.
Alonso has emerged as the Mets' top position player prospect -- although their first pick last month, Jarred Kelenic, might seize that mantle soon -- with a huge power/on-base breakout in Double-A, earning a promotion to the hitter's paradise of Las Vegas in June.
Basabe was the third prospect the White Sox acquired from Boston for Chris Sale, along with Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech. Basabe is a speed/power guy with a good idea at the plate, although he's scuffled since a promotion three weeks ago to Double-A.
Matias (Royals) is one of the biggest outliers in the minors, with huge raw power and very poor pitch recognition, with 24 homers in 67 low-A games at age 19, but just 20 unintentional walks and 101 strikeouts, worse ratios than Joey Gallo posted at the same age and level.
The worst prospect here, other than players selected as token reps for their parent clubs, is Buddy Reed, the third Padres player in the game, a 23-year-old putting up good superficial stats in a severe hitter's park in high-A. Reed is a plus defender in center, and the only true long-term center fielder on the U.S. roster, which I assume is the reason he's on the team. I would have much preferred to see Houston's Kyle Tucker, Kansas City's Khalil Lee, Detroit's Daz Cameron or Baltimore's Ryan McKenna in that spot.
Detroit right-hander Matt Manning also was a surprising selection after he walked 28 in 55⅔ innings while repeating low-A, with the Tigers' 2017 first-rounder Alex Faedo, just promoted to Double-A, older and having a much better season.
I was also mildly surprised at the omission of Minnesota's Royce Lewis, the top pick in last year's draft, currently hitting .322/.367/.492 as a 19-year-old in low-A, although the Twins do have two reps in 2016 first-rounder Alex Kirilloff and Australian lefty Lewis Thorpe. Another surprise is Phillies lefty JoJo Romero, who is pitching extremely well with a broad arsenal of above-average weapons as a 21-year-old in homer-prone Reading (Double-A). He is Philadelphia's best healthy pitching prospect.