2024 All-Star Futures Game Reactions
NL wins Futures Game 6-1 against AL
The 2024 All-Star Futures Game took place on Saturday. The National League defeated the American League by a score of 6-1.
Cam Collier was named the MVP after hitting a home run in the top of the third to open the scoring.
Despite the score, it was an entertaining seven-inning exhibition with some of the top prospects in the game.
Here is a look at some overall takeaways from the event, which includes two prospects from the Pirates’ system—Bubba Chandler and Termarr Johnson
Termarr Johnson went 1-2 with a bloop single off Noah Schultz. He grounded out on the first pitch he saw on the day.
The second time up to bat, he faced Schultz, widely considered the best left-handed pitching prospect in baseball right now, and someone the broadcast mentioned made a case for maybe being the best overall at some point in the future.
It was a middle-in fastball at 97 mph that Johnson was able to turn on and slapped it the other right in front of the left-fielder for the base hit.
He also helped turn a crisp 6-4-3 double play with fellow South Atlantic League infielder Aidan Miller.
Speaking of Schultz, it wasn’t the best overall outing, allowing three runs on three hits and a walk in one-third of an inning.
Standing 6’9”, Schultz is an imposing figure on the mound, topping out at 96.8 mph with his fastball. He pairs it well with a slider that some think is one of the best in the minors right now.
It wasn't there from a performance standpoint, but you can see how good the stuff is there.
One thing that surprised me was the extension—or, I guess, the lack of it. According to TJStats, his extension maxed out around 6.6, which is interesting considering someone like Michael Kennedy—who is listed at 6’1”—records around 7.
It’d be one of those things that I’d like an opportunity to see if there was an error in the tracking or if that was an outlier.
Taking advantage of his height by getting on top of hitters would be a great way to ensure continued success.
I liked Brandon Sproat coming out of Florida, but maybe not enough to realize that his fastball could push triple-digits. The New York Mets prospect threw the two hardest pitches on the day, and that isn’t even including the fact that we didn’t see much of his best pitch, the change-up.
I liked the Miami Marlins’ aggressive approach to drafting the top two prep pitchers in last year’s draft class—Noble Meyer and Thomas White. It’s certainly paid off early on, with both reaching High-A already as teenagers.
Meyer was good today, picking up a couple of strikeouts, but for me, White’s stuff really stood out overall.
White picked up three whiffs on four swings with the fastball, sitting 93-95. It has a slightly steeper approach, which would point to playing better at the bottom of the zone, but it does get above-average IVB with it as well.
They panned behind the plate during a few of his sliders, which has excellent horizontal movement.
I hadn’t heard of Drake Baldwin until I listened to ‘The Call-Up’ podcast the other day during their preview of the event.
One swing of the bat has me bought into him as an interesting prospect to watch.
Not only did he have the hardest hit ball of the day, but he did it going the other way, putting it over the left-center field wall.
Facing Fernando Perez, Baldwin got a fastball on the outer half that he waited and drove the other way, 107.3 mph off the bat.
It would have been impressive to double into the gap, but he one-upped it to a home run.
Living in Virginia, I like to follow prospects from all the area schools, including UVA.
Kyle Teel was one of my favorite prospects in last year’s draft, not only because he was from UVA but also because he seemed like a very solid hitter overall.
Collier got the MVP for his home run, but you can make the case Teel had the overall better game, picking up two doubles—one off Bubba Chandler.
The one he hit in the seventh was a jam shot he was able to punch the other way.
His first double came against Rhett Lowder, off a change-up fading away from him that he was able to adjust to and drive to the gap the other way.
If the starting thing doesn’t go according to plan, Bubba Chandler seems capable of handling closing-out games pretty well.
He closed out the Spring Breakout and did so again in the Futures Game.
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His fastball is one of the analytically pleasing pitches in the minors. It gets above-average movement (he’s regularly pushed the 20” IVB mark) and has a super flat approach angle.
The whiff rate on the picture should be 25%, which doesn’t matter in a smaller sample size.
His change-up showed good fade, got a whiff, and got a chase in the dirt with the slider.
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Thanks for going deep-geek on that game. Really appreciate your eye and analysis.
Very enjoyable watch seeing some young raw talent. My reaction is very favorable of Bubba, although his command was not great at times, threw a few uncompetitive (wild) pitches. Termarr also showed the bat control that I hoped he had, going with the pitch opposite field in both ABs.