2015 MLB Futures Game Recap: U.S. 10 World 1

Final Score:

World Team- 1 R, 10 H, 0 E

U.S. Team- 10 R, 13 H, 0 E

Side note:

Okay..I'll be honest...it was hard for me to keep switching back and forth between Fox Sports to watch the Braves and the MLB Network to watch the Futures game. I watched as much as I could of it. The Futures game was nearing when the Braves started to slip, so I watched the rest of the Futures game from the top 8th on.

Recap:

With that said, Ozhaino Albies got a hit! It came in the top of the third with two outs. Ramiel Tapia, 6th prospect of the Colorado Rockies, singled for the World team, and Ketel Marte, 3rd prospect of the Seattle Mariners, followed with a RBI single to score Tapia from second after moving to second after a passed ball. Albies then followed with a single of his own. Marte was gunned down by an amazing throw by Michael Conforto, 4th prospect of the New York Mets, on the Albies hit. The highlight of his cannon is below.

Conforto's strong arm displayed here by StatCast.

The U.S. team struck in three different innings with five of the ten total runs coming in the sixth innings. Six of the ten runs came from Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Josh Bell. Bell crushed the only home run of the game in the bottom of the 4th inning.

Josh Bell's two run shot can be viewed here.

Highlights:

Some important highlights of the game was both the World and U.S. team knocked for a combined 23 hits in the game. The U.S. team clobbered the World's team pitching with five extra base hits: two doubles, two triples, and a bomb by Bell.

The World team had ten hits with just one extra base hit, a double, by Gary Sanchez. Nomar Mazara, Marte, and Tapia each had a pair of singles with Marte picking up the only RBI in the game.

Ten pitchers from the World team appeared in the game. Four of those pitchers surrendered a minimal of two runs for each outing. The World team struck out ten opponents while walking two. The U.S. team struck out five while not giving up a walk.

Best pitchers of each team:

World: Jairo Labourt worked an inning of work by appearing in the fifth inning. He struck out the first and third batter faced while getting Schwarber to ground out. Labourt is a member of the A advance Dunedin Blue, Toronto affiliate.

U.S.: Blake Snell appeared in the 6th inning and shut down the one, two, and three hitters by means of a pop out to second and two softly hit ground outs. He only needed 10 pitches to get out of the inning. He is currently on the AA Tampa Bay affiliate Montgomery Biscuits.

MVP of Game:

Kyle Schwarber was awarded with the MVP honors of the Sirius XM All-Star Futures Game. He finished going 1-3 with a triple that brought in two RBIs in the third inning. You can watch his triple here. Schwarber is a graduate of Indiana University where he was named as a freshman All-American. He continued his success into his sophomore and junior years at IU. He was drafted by the Chicago Cubs as the 4th overall picked in the 2014 MLB draft. He quickly advanced his way through the minor leagues by starting with the Boise Hawks (A-short season). He was later promoted in the year to the Kane County Cougars (A) and Daytona Cubs (A+).

Schwarber was assigned to the Tennessee Smokies at the beginning of this season and was later called up to Chicago to be a DH during interleague play. He played in six games with the Cubs while picking up eight hits in 22 at bats. He picked up a homer and a triple with six RBIs in his short taste of major league ball. He was later assigned to the Iowa Cubs where he has thus far played in 17 games. In those games with Iowa, he is batting .333/.403/.633 with three homers and a total of 11 extra base hits.

The 22 year-old native from Middletown, Ohio has posted an impressive slash for his minors career with a .323/.430/.591. He has 34 homers with 35 doubles in his 147 game tenure in the minors. He is the 19th overall prospect according to Baseball America and 49th according to MLB.com. In the Cubs organization he is the second prospect on the team.