Futures Game Statcast Standouts
Image credit: Bubba Chandler #13 of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches during the seventh inning of the All-Star Futures Game at Globe Life Field on July 13, 2024 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
The Futures Game provided high quality looks at some of the game’s brightest prospects, and with it, some intriguing data. Today, I’m going to take off my analytical boots, and blend in some of my impressions from watching the game live, along with the data. Here are the five batters and five pitchers that impressed me the most.
Hitters
Bryce Eldridge, 1B, Giants
I’m leading off with Eldridge because I’m blown away with how smooth of a hitter he is at such an enormous size. He’s listed at 6-foot-7, but he looks like he’s even taller than that. When they were interviewing Druw Jones, he also expressed his thoughts that Eldridge is a legit 6-foot-8.
Eldridge swung over a couple of pitches against Chase Dollander in his first at bat, and then had to face a really tough lefty in Noah Schultz. After two pitches dotted by Schultz, he found himself in an 0-2 hole. He didn’t chase the third pitch, then fought off a tough sinker and then he did this against a lefty sweeper:
I find it somewhat ironic that the moment that impressed me the most was a 74 mph bloop. It demonstrated the hit tool potential that Eldridge has. With huge sluggers, the question they have to answer is “how much are they gonna hit?” As much as one plate appearance can tell us, it moved the needle for me towards, “a lot”.
Sebastian Walcott, SS, Rangers
Walcott is a unicorn among unicorns. He’s 18 years old, and holding his own in High-A, and posted the second highest exit velocity of the day, on what looked like a B swing, where he rolled over the pitch to the left side. It’s a powerful, athletic swing that gives me major Oneil Cruz vibes for power potential, with a present ability to get the ball in the air. He missed the barrel by quite a bit in his first plate appearance, and still hit the ball 92.6 mph.
On air, they were raving about Walcott’s actions in fielding practice and mentioned asking Adrian Beltré who stood out to him, and they quote Beltré as pointing at Walcott and saying “That kid right there? Unbelievable”. In my view, he has the highest ceiling of any player on that field, including Spencer Jones.
Drake Baldwin, C, Braves
I’m glad that Drake shined in today’s showcase event, as he is seriously flying under the radar. He has a high level blend of raw power and contact skills, and had the top exit velocity of the day, a 107 mph backside blast:
Kyle Teel, C, Red Sox
Baldwin’s in Triple-A, so expect to read a lot more about him in a future Statcast Standouts piece.
You could make the argument that Teel was the most impressive player of the day, hitting two doubles, and I wouldn’t disagree. What stood out to me most was this incredible at bat against Bubba Chandler:
Teel fought off a 98.4 mph riding fastball above the zone, and put it in play, getting a double out of it. In a similar vein to Eldridge, this 77 mph double was perhaps more impressive than his 98.8 mph double in his first plate appearance.
Cam Collier, 3B, Reds
Collier was named the Futures Game MVP, after this epic blast:
Collier’s blast got the offense rolling, and registered 105 MPH off the bat, at 32 degrees, going 409 feet. The power is legit.
Honorable Mention: Jeral Perez, 2B, Dodgers
I saw two swings from Perez, one against fastballs up, and a contact-oriented swings against breaking balls. He didn’t do anything fantastic from a Statcast perspective, but he looked like a very good hitter to me.
Pitchers
Bubba Chandler, SP, Pirates
Chandler is a smooth operator on the mound, with an easy athletic delivery. I came away extremely impressed with how effortless it looked for him to get to 97-98 mph, and was the most impressive pitcher to me, before looking at any of the data.
The fastball is a metric darling, averaging 97.5 mph, with 2 inches more ride than expected given the velocity and arm slot. It’s a big league fastball, that would be comfortably plus or better from a stuff perspective. He mixed in a changeup that he struggled to command and what looked like a plus slider, with negative vert that badly fooled Gavin Cross. Hopefully he’ll be in Triple-A soon so we can get a more thorough look at his Statcast data. The Pirates rotation is going to be plenty fun over the next few years.
Brandon Sproat, SP Mets
Sproat had the two fastest fastballs of the day, hitting 99.2 MPH twice, just ahead of Luis Morales. He was mostly FF/SI, though he mixed in a few sweepers and a changeup. Sproat’s fastball is also a metric darling, with plus-plus velo and above average ride given the arm slot. Sproat’s been absolutely dominant in High-A and AA this year, and it’s easy to see why. He and Christian Scott are shining examples of what the Mets are doing with developing pitchers out of college.
Luis Morales, SP, Athletics
Watching Morales gave me huge “reliever” vibes, but I’ve learned to modulate my subjective eye test with respect to what a starter looks like. He brings the ball back behind his head, and somehow rushes it up to the plate, averaging 97.8 MPH, and topping out at 99. This is also a plus fastball with top-shelf velo and about 2 inches more ride than expected given the release traits. I’m not sold that Morales can maintain this kind of velocity late into games, but he definitely flashed a very impressive fastball that will at the very least work at the back-end of a bullpen.
Noble Meyer, SP, Marlins
Meyer has a rising sinker, and although his velocity was down this game, it played very well. My eye-test look at the pitch tells me it’s a very good pitch, though the pure metrics may not agree. I’ve been doing a lot of research on sinkers, and in this instance, I’ll lean more to the scouting view than the raw pitch shape view. He threw a low 80s sweeper, a changeup and a curveball. He averaged only 92.5 with the sinker, but he’s been up to 97.5 and has the frame to grow into more velo.
Emiliano Teodo, RHP, Rangers
Teodo showed premium velocity, touching 98.8 in his 2 inning stint, however, the more impressive pitch was his cutter/slider at 87 which got 4 whiffs. It’s a true gyro pitch, with extremely low spin efficiency and over 2500 RPMs. He’ll need to find a third pitch to be a starter in the big leagues, but he’s got more than enough to profile in high leverage innings.
Honorable Mention: Thomas White, SP, Marlins
White flashed a good fastball, averaging 95 mph with 17 inches of IVB, about 1.5 inches more ride than expected, with extremely similar metrics to what he showed in the Florida State League early in the season. It’s a tremendous base, though he struggled with command and walked three batters.
Honorable Mention: Noah Schultz, SP, White Sox
The performance was bad, but the data were glorious. The sinker is a great pitch, easily above average, with almost 16 inches of run on the pitch. The slider/sweeper gets negative vert with tons of sweep at 2800 RPMS and is comfortably plus, and makes the Bryce Eldridge single all the more impressive. He rounds it out with a changeup with 18 inches of run, giving him three weapons. I’m very much looking forward to seeing Schultz’ data in Triple-A.
