At last check, 82 players had been named to one of the All-Star teams, what with excessive 34-man rosters and a bevy of injury withdrawals (including Justin Morneau but not Joe Mauer).
Which is part of why I'd much rather watch the Futures Game than the All-Star Game, much less Home Run Derby. The Futures Game is a minor-league all-star game of top prospects, the brainchild of Baseball America, pitting U.S.-born prospects against foreign-born.
Unfortunately, it's buried in the middle of Sunday's regular season games and aired on MLB Network, which isn't available on my cable system. It's easier to see the celebrity softball game, which is an All-Star event even more ridiculous than HR Derby.
The Twins had two prospects named to the teams -- Ben Revere to the U.S. team, Liam Hendricks, a pitcher from Australia working for the Fort Myers Miracle in High A ball, to the World team. Hendricks apparently had to drop out (not sure why), and Anthony Slama wound up on the U.S. pitching staff.
Revere went 0-for-3. Slama had a shutout inning, although he allowed three hits (and struck out one.)
Liam Hendricks had his appendix out. Having had that done in 1967 at age 9 I can tell you baseball is 8 to 10 weeks away at best. The futures game was on ESPN2 here in Corpus Christi. Slama gave up some hits but pitched out of danger. Revere hit some balls well but nothing to show for it.
ReplyDeleteFrom MLB.com:
ReplyDeleteANAHEIM -- Can't make it to Angel Stadium on Sunday for the 12th annual XM All-Star Futures Game? Don't worry, MLB.com has you covered.
The game can be seen live at 6 p.m. ET on MLB.TV, ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD and followed live on MLB.com's Gameday. In addition, XM Radio will broadcast play-by-play coverage of the event live on XM 175. But that barely scratches the surface of how a fan can enjoy -- and interact with -- the Futures Game.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100709&content_id=12102820&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
OK. I would have done better to simply note that it was buried in the midst of the regular season games — which it was — rather than given a better place.
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