All-Star Futures Game

The All-Star Futures Game is an annual baseball exhibition game hosted by Major League Baseball. Started in 1999, a team of minor league baseball prospects from the United States and a team of prospects from other countries in the World compete against each other. It is played as part of the festivities of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

Origins

The 2010 XM All-Star Futures Game at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

The Futures Game was conceived by Jimmie Lee Solomon, an Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations for Major League Baseball, looking for an event to showcase the minor leagues and round out the All-Star week festivities.^[1] Early versions of the game created marginal interest in the baseball community, but the event has drawn significance each successive year.

Format

Rosters for the Futures Game are selected by Baseball America magazine, in conjunction with MLB and all 30 major league teams. Every organization is represented, with no more than two players from any organization, and 25 players per team, divided into U.S. and World teams based on place of birth.

Players born in Puerto Rico are part of the World team despite being U.S. citizens by birth, because that territory has its own national baseball federation and national team.

Games last nine innings (seven innings prior to 2008), with up to two extra innings available to settle a tie after playing all regulation innings; if after 11 innings total, a tie still remains, the game ends. Pitchers are limited to pitching up to one inning.

Rosters are selected by a joint committee consisting of Major League Baseball, MLB.com, and Baseball America magazine.^[2]

Any player selected to the All-Star Futures Game but promoted to the majors prior to the game is replaced.

Changes in 2008

Two major changes took place in the 2008 game:

• For the first time, the United States team was drawn from the pool of players selected by USA Baseball for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.^[3]
• The game lasted nine innings in regulation, rather than seven.

Larry Doby Award

Note: For the award winners, see the "MVP" column in the "Results" section (below).

Each year, an award is presented to the game's most valuable player. In 2003, the name was changed from Futures Game Most Valuable Player Award to the Larry Doby Award.^[4]*

Five of the 15 award winners have gone on to become MLB All-Stars: Alfonso Soriano, José Reyes, Grady Sizemore, Aaron Hill, and Billy Butler, while 115 total players have appeared in both games. Of those 115, 12 played in the All-Star Game the year after competing in the Futures Game, according to MLB.com.^[5]
 * This award should not be confused with the Larry Doby Legacy Award, which is presented by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Results

Key

MVP	Most Valuable Player
	MLB All-Star on a future occasion

Kyle Schwarber at the 2015 All-Star Futures Game

Results

Year	Winner	Score	Ballpark	MVP	MVP organization	Ref
1999	World	7–0	Fenway Park	Soriano, AlfonsoAlfonso Soriano	New York Yankees	[6]
2000	U.S.	3–2	Turner Field	Burroughs, SeanSean Burroughs	San Diego Padres	[7]
2001	U.S.	5–1	Safeco Field	Hall, TobyToby Hall	Tampa Bay Devil Rays	[8]
2002	World	5–1	Miller Park	Reyes, JoséJosé Reyes	New York Mets	[9]
2003	U.S.	3–2	U.S. Cellular Field	Sizemore, GradyGrady Sizemore	Cleveland Indians	[10]
2004	U.S.	4–3	Minute Maid Park	Hill, AaronAaron Hill	Toronto Blue Jays	[11]
2005	World	4–0	Comerica Park	Huber, JustinJustin Huber	Kansas City Royals	[12]
2006	U.S.	8–5	PNC Park	Butler, BillyBilly Butler	Kansas City Royals	[13]
2007	World	7–2	AT&T Park	Hu, Chin-LungChin-Lung Hu	Los Angeles Dodgers	[14]
2008	World	3–0	Yankee Stadium	Lin, Che-HsuanChe-Hsuan Lin	Boston Red Sox	[15]
2009	World	7–5[16]	Busch Stadium	Tosoni, ReneRene Tosoni	Minnesota Twins	[17]
2010	U.S.	9–1	Angel Stadium of Anaheim	Conger, HankHank Conger	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim	[18]
2011	U.S.	6–4	Chase Field	Green, GrantGrant Green	Oakland Athletics	[19]
2012	U.S.	17–5	Kauffman Stadium	Castellanos, NickNick Castellanos	Detroit Tigers	[20]
2013	U.S.	4–2	Citi Field	Davidson, MattMatt Davidson	Arizona Diamondbacks	[21]
2014	U.S.	3–2	Target Field	Gallo, JoeyJoey Gallo	Texas Rangers	[22]
2015	U.S.	10–1	Great American Ball Park	Schwarber, KyleKyle Schwarber	Chicago Cubs	[23]
2016			PETCO Park

See also

• All-Star Futures Game all-time roster

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to All-Star Futures Game.

• Major League Baseball
• Baseball America