San Diego Padres: You Cannot Miss The MLB Futures Game

The 2018 MLB Futures Game will take place on Sunday, July 15th at 4 pm ET at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. Three representatives from the San Diego Padres will take the field.

For those of you like myself, the MLB Futures Game is one of the most exciting baseball games of the entire year. Not only do we get to watch three outstanding young prospects from the San Diego Padres system, Fernando Tatis Jr., Luis Urias, and Buddy Reed, but we get to watch some of the most explosive and exciting prospects in all of baseball.

I watch a lot of minor league baseball and few things in sports give me more joy than visiting a minor league ballpark. When you’re in the clubhouses and you get to know these minor leaguers, you can’t help but pull for them, even more. There’s a lot of hope in the air, the hope of one day making it to the stage we all wanted to walk on when we are 12 years old, suiting up for our next little league game.

Unfortunately, it’s another experience that Major League Baseball fails at promoting. How many fans on the east coast have had the opportunity to see a player like Fernando Tatis, Jr? I doubt very many Californians have turned on a Bowie Baysox (Maryland) game to watch Baltimore Orioles’ prospect, Ryan Mountcastle. These are just two men who will play on Sunday afternoon, both of whom figure to be critical pieces of their respective franchises, moving forward.

The expansion of MiLB.TV is a nice touch but most teams at the lower levels haven’t taken advantage of broadcasting their games and often times the feed quality is almost too poor to watch. The fascination with prospects is higher than it has ever been and Major League Baseball needs to take advantage of this. At least there’s the Futures Game, to give each and every player a brief shot of making their name well known, among those who aren’t MiLB obsessed.

San Diego Padres feature three young stars.

Here are the complete rosters for both the US and World teams, a format that adds just a little bit more excitement to the game. Players get a chance to represent their country on a major league baseball stage for the world to see.

Unlike the Major League Baseball All-Star game, our beloved San Diego Padres will feature three players. Buddy Reed will represent Team USA after hitting .324 with 21 doubles, seven triples, and 12 home runs in 79 games with the Lake Elsinore Storm (A+). He also chipped in an unbelievable 33 stolen bases. Reed was promoted to AA San Antonio, just recently.

There’s also two of the biggest prospects in baseball, Tatis and Urias. Tatis is hitting .289 with 15 home runs and a .359 OBP with the San Antonio Missions. Meanwhile, Urias is reaching base in nearly 40% of his plate appearances for the AAA El Paso Chihuahuas, as the call for him to be promoted to San Diego intensifies among fans.

Padres fans are familiar with these three guys, however, there will be a plethora of unique talent on the field at Nationals Park that baseball fans will be impressed with. Let’s take a look at four intriguing names to watch in this year’s game.