MLB Futures Game: Looking at the U.S. Roster

One of the jewel events of the All-Star festivities takes place on the Sunday before the All-Star game, and for dynasty league owners, the Futures Game represents one of the best opportunities to see a number of top prospects in a single game. This year’s game is being held in San Diego on July 10th, and as has been the case in recent years, has a number of interesting prospects who are set to participate. The teams are divided up into a roster of U.S.-born prospects, and a roster of prospects born outside the U.S. Let’s take a look at the U.S. roster.

Preseason Top 100 Prospects: Dansby Swanson (#13), Alex Bregman (#15), Clint Frazier (#22), Andrew Benintendi (#29), Austin Meadows (#37), Jeff Hoffman (#62), Carson Fulmer (#65), Hunter Renfroe (#71), Josh Hader (#94)

This list could be depleted substantially in the two weeks between now and the game with the potential that Frazier, Benintendi and Hoffman could all be called up before the game. Even with that, there’s a ton of interesting prospects here.

Player to Watch: Austin Meadows

Meadows had a 26-game hitting streak earlier in the year (24 in AA, 2 in AAA) where he hit .408/.441/.864 with seven home runs, six steals, and both a walk and strikeout rate around 10%. He’s been showing production that is in line with the potential that we heard about when he was drafted. It’s a nice problem for the Pirates to have, as he could become either a trade chip, or a replacement for a potentially traded major league outfielder.

Upcoming Offseason Top 100 Candidates: Phil Bickford, Amir Garrett, Joe Musgrove, Chance Sisco, Willie Calhoun, Hunter Dozier, Dominic Smith, Dylan Cozens, Christin Stewart

For me, this is the most interesting group of prospects. You have a pair of starters who have reached AAA and could be up later in the year in Garrett and Musgrove. You have a second base prospect (Calhoun) who was drafted last year and is currently on pace to hit 28 home runs while only striking out about 15% of the time. He’s not even the highest in pace among this group, with Dylan Cozens already at 20 at AA.

Player to Watch: Christin Stewart

Stewart has continued to show off the power potential that made him a comp-round pick last year, following up his 10-home run campaign (in 71 games) last year with 18 so far in 73 games. The numbers stand out even more given the fact that the Florida State League tends to depress offensive production. I’m curious to see how he will fare against some of the higher level pitching in the Futures Game, and help determine how much of the production so far has been him being slightly old (22) for the High-A level.

Deeper League Names: Anthony Banda, Travis Demeritte, Ryon Healy