Henry Roldán
As part of the mid-season break in Major League Baseball, the MLB Futures Game will take place at Dodger Stadium this Saturday, July 16th. This is an event that brings together the top prospects of the organizations that make up MLB.
While the game may not mean much to some, it is an opportunity for these young players to finish displaying themselves to their teams in the hopes of being promoted in the second half of the season, or to be noticed by other teams who will then ask for them in a trade for a major league player.
The match will be available via live stream on Peacock starting at 7 p.m. ET.
Facts to follow in the MLB Futures Game
Game format
Starting with the 2019 season, the MLB Futures Game changed its format and will be played between representatives of the American League and National League organizations. Previously, since its creation in 1999, it was played between teams representing prospects from the United States and those from the rest of the world.
Furthermore, beginning with the 2019 season, the game was reduced to seven episodes.
Best prospects
While the MLB Futures Game call-ups are made to showcase players in the minor leagues, the majority of them are nearly always on the year’s best prospects list, and 2022 is no exception.
According to MLB Pipeline rankings, for this edition 29 of the original 50 attendees were in the top 100 list, including the following five from the Top 10: Mets catcher Francisco Álvarez (No. 2),Rattlers outfielder Corbin Carroll (No. 3), Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson (No. 5), Cardinals third baseman Jordan Walker (No. 7) and Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe (No. 8).
Latin prospects
Out of the 50 players who will be present this Saturday at Dodgers Stadium, 14 of them are Latino.
The Dominican Republic has the largest number of representatives with six, while Venezuela has five prospects and Cuba has three.
Australia, Canada and Curaçao are the other countries with one name each.
The organization with the most players
While most teams have two prospects on the roster, there are three teams that lead the field with three representatives each.
They are the Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets.
Game managers
The National League will be led by Mike Scioscia, a World Series winner with the Angels, while the American League will be led by Jimmy Rollins, the former circuit’s MVP in 2007.
MLB Futures Games prospects and their MLB rankings
Pitchers
- Brayan Bello (Boston Red Sox)* – Prospect N° 45 – Dominican Republic
- Taj Bradley (Tampa Bay Rays) – Prospect No. 34
- Hunter Brown (Houston Astros) – Prospect N° 85
- Ky Bush (Anaheim Angels)
- Wilmer Flores (Detroit Tigers) – Venezuela
- Jack Leiter (Texas Rangers) – Prospect No. 17
- Ken Waldichuk (New York Yankees) – Prospect No. 74
- Yosver Zulueta (Toronto Blue Jays) – Cuba
- Andrew Abbott (Cincinnati Reds)
- Mike Burrows (Pittsburgh Pirates)
- Cade Cavalli (Washington Nationals)* – Prospect No. 47
- Kyle Harrison (San Francisco Giants) – Prospect No. 26
- Antoine Kelly (Milwaukee Brewers)
- Bobby Miller (Los Angeles Dodgers) – Prospect N° 27
- Erik Miller (Philadelphia Phillies)
- Eury Perez (Miami Marlins) – Prospect N° 16 – Dominican Republic
- Jared Shuster (Atlanta Braves)
- Ricky Tiedemann (Toronto Blue Jays) – Prospect No. 64
- Alec Marsh (Kansas City Royals)**
- José Ferrer (Washington Nationals)** – Venezuela
Catchers
- Yainer Diaz (Houston Astros) – Dominican Republic
- Dillon Dingler (Detroit Tigers)
- Shea Langeliers (Oakland Athletics) – Prospect N° 32
- Francisco Álvarez (New York Mets) – Prospect N° 2 – Venezuela
- Diego Cartaya (Los Angeles Dodgers) – Prospect N° 14 – Venezuela
- Henry Davis (Pittsburgh Pirates)* – Prospect No. 18
- Logan O’Hoppe (Philadelphia Phillies) – Prospect No. 90
Infielders
- Darren Baker (Washington Nationals)
- Elly De La Cruz (Cincinnati Reds) – Prospect N° 50 – Dominican Republic
- Ezequiel Tovar (Colorado Rockies)* – Prospect N° 58 – Venezuela
- Miguel Vargas (Los Angeles Dodgers) – Prospect N° 72 – Cuba
- David Villar (San Francisco Giants)*
- Jordan Walker (St. Louis Cardinals) – Prospect No. 7
- Masyn Winn (St. Louis Cardinals) – Prospect No. 91
- Gunnar Henderson (Baltimore Orioles) – Prospect No. 5
- Curtis Mead (Tampa Bay Rays) – Prospect No. 61
- Jhonkensy Noel (Cleveland Rangers) – Dominican Republic
- Nick Pratto (Kansas City Royals)* – Prospect No. 71
- Ceddanne Rafaela (Boston Red Sox)
- Spencer Steer (Minnesota Twins)
- Anthony Volpe (New York Yankees) – Prospect No. 8
- Dustin Harris (Texas Rangers)**
- Mark Vientos (New York Mets)**
- Jordan Lawlar (Arizona Rattlers)** – Prospect No. 12
Outfielders
- Denzel Clarke (Oakland Athletics)
- Oscar Colas (Chicago White Sox) – Cuba
- Jasson Dominguez (New York Yankees) – Prospect N° 40 – Dominican Republic
- George Valera (Cleveland Rangers) – Prospect N° 33
- Matt Wallner (Minnesota Twins)
- Corbin Carroll (Arizona Rattlers) – Prospect No. 3
- Jackson Chourio (Milwaukee Brewers) – Prospect N° 38 – Venezuela
- Pete Crow-Armstrong (Chicago Cubs) – Prospect No. 79
- Robert Hassell III (San Diego Padres) – Prospect N° 24
- Zac Veen (Colorado Rockies) – Prospect No. 23
- Joey Wiemer (Milwaukee Brewers)** – Prospect No. 62
* Originally on the roster
** Roster replacement
JefeBet Predictions
Predicting this type of event is generally difficult due to the amount of changes made during the game, as well as the short length of only seven innings.
However, this time we are going with the National League team because of the number of prospects the circuit has in the top 100 in the Major Leagues, six of them in the top 20.
Pick: National League.
