2008 All-Star Futures Game

The 2008 All-Star Futures Game, Major League Baseball's annual contest pitting two teams of minor-league prospects against each other, took place July 13 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York (New York City).

The official name of the game was "XM All-Star Futures Game," as MLB sold naming rights to XM Satellite Radio. It started at 12:37 p.m. Eastern time and was broadcast on ESPN2, XM Satellite Radio, and the broadband service MLB.TV.

The World team defeated the United States team 3-0 in the 10th annual game. The most valuable player was Che-Hsuan Lin, a prospect with the Boston Red Sox.

Format and roster notes

The format was modified from previous games in two ways:
*The team of prospects representing the United States was actually a team of candidates to make the roster for USA Baseball at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Bob Watson, general manager of USA Baseball, told MLB.TV that he expects "17 to 18" of the 25 players on the U.S. roster for this game to continue on to the Olympics.
*The regulation length of the game was nine innings rather than the usual seven. This is presumably in keeping with the aim of the U.S. team to prepare for Beijing as much as play a game with an all-star format.

The manager of the U.S. team was Davey Johnson, who managed the New York Mets to victory in the 1986 World Series (and who will also manage USA Baseball in Beijing). The World team manager was Tino Martinez, who played on three world championship teams with the New York Yankees.

The World team featured players from 10 different countries: Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Canada, Mexico, Curaçao, Cuba, New Zealand, Taiwan, Puerto Rico, and Australia.

Rosters were selected by a joint committee consisting of Major League Baseball, MLB.com, and "Baseball America" magazine. [cite news|url=http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080626&content_id=423442&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp|title="Futures Game rosters filled with top prospects"|author=Nick Cammarota|publisher=mlb.com|date=2008-06-26|accessdate=2008-06-27]

Game summary

Seven pitchers on the World team combined to shut out the U.S. Olympic hopefuls on three hits. In fact, no player on the American team reached scoring position until the fifth inning.

The World team took the lead in the top of the first innning when Elvis Andrus (Texas Rangers organization) scored an unearned run. Lin's eventual game-clinching home run came in the seventh inning which also scored Scott Campbell (Toronto Blue Jays).

Matt LaPorta, the prospect traded to the Milwaukee Brewers' organization to the Cleveland Indians' (with others) for C.C. Sabathia on July 6, had one of the three hits for the Americans. [cite news|url=http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080713&content_id=431930&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp|title=World Team Victorious in Futures Game|author=Jason Beck|publisher=MLB.com|date=2008-07-13|accessdate=2008-07-16]

Roster links

* [http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/events/allstargames.jsp?mc=_us_08&sid=milb United States team]
* [http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/events/allstargames.jsp?mc=_world_08&sid=milb World team]

References