They might as well change the name of the Futures Game. It's turning into the Near-Futures Game.
Last year's game in Target Field featured the audacious slugging of Joey Gallo, named MVP for a two-run shot during the game that still couldn't one-up the power display he, Kris Bryant and Kennys Vargas put on in batting practice. The game ended with Noah Syndergaard retiring the World Team for a save.
A week ago, the Twins watched Gallo hit one of the longest home runs in Rangers history. They also won a game last week when Vargas lined a ninth-inning homer against the Cardinals. Bryant, the National League's rookie of the month in May, was at Target Field again this weekend, a central component of the Cubs' most exciting season in more than a decade. Syndergaard, now a fixture in the Mets rotation, held baseball's best hitting team, the Blue Jays, to two hits in six innings Monday, striking out 11.
Yes, the 2015 season might be remembered for the wave of young talent flooding the game, from Joc Pederson homering in five consecutive games for the Dodgers to Carlos Correa collecting hits in nine of his first 10 games. And here in Minnesota, Eddie Rosario, who belted the first pitch he saw for a home run, has become the Twins left fielder, alongside Byron Buxton, the franchise's most anticipated prospect in a decade.
"You look around the league, it seems like every team has a high-end prospect in the lineup right now," said Mike Radcliff, Twins vice president for player personnel. "Guys are coming up fast."
In fact, of Baseball America's preseason ranking of the game's 20 best prospects, 13 are now in the major leagues, including nine of the top 12. The Cubs' extraordinary farm system had four players on that top-20 list, and Twins fans got to see all four this weekend, though catcher Kyle Schwarber — who debuted with six hits in 10 at-bats — has already been told he's headed to Class AAA Iowa once the Cubs' interleague games conclude.
Bryant, Schwarber, Addison Russell and Jorge Soler are in the Cubs lineup. Correa and Buxton, drafted 1-2 in 2012, debuted a week apart. Pederson made the Dodgers outfield in spring training and entered Saturday with 17 home runs. Gallo has energized the Rangers lineup. Cleveland shortstop Francisco Lindor got his call-up the same day as Buxton.
Rarely have so many players with superstar potential entered the game all at once. There's a reason for that, Radcliff said: money.
