Let's rank all of the many righteous homers from the 2018 Futures Game
Some of the best prospects in baseball gave us a glimpse into the future on Sunday, and we're happy to report that the future is apparently full of dingers. There were a whopping eight homers in Team USA's 10-6 win over Team World in the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game at Nationals Park, and if you happened to miss any of them, have no fear: In the name of historical documentation, we went ahead and ranked them all.
8. Seuly Matias (KC), top 2, off
Might as well start at the beginning. The first inning went by mostly without incident, but in the top of the second, Matias -- Kansas City's No. 3 prospect at just 19 years old -- gave us a taste of things to come:
7.
Jansen's dinger was pretty standard, but extra points for 1) going yard while Team USA manager Torii Hunter was delivering a dugout interview and 2) going yard while sporting an excellent pair of glasses:
6.
Be advised that the future also includes outfielders who can hit 390-foot line drives the other way:
5. Yusniel Diaz, top 7, off
Diaz wasn't done, though: With Team World trailing, 6-5, he took a 96-mph fastball on the inside corner and parked it in the seats in left-center. And if there's one thing we love more than clutch dingers, it's cheering sections full of giant cardboard heads:
4. Taylor Trammell, bottom 6, off Kieran Lovegrove
Trammell didn't start the game, but boy did he finish it. He gave Team USA the lead in the bottom of the sixth with a moonshot to right-center:
And then nearly went yard again in his next at-bat, only to tragically discover that the ball had bounced off the wall:
Those two swings were good enough to earn Trammell MVP honors after the game, but if we're being honest, the real MVPs were his teammates as he came back to the dugout:
3. Ke'Bryan Hayes, bottom 4, off Thorpe
According to MLB Pipeline, Hayes' power is the weakest part of his game. Hunter would probably disagree with that assessment:
2. Peter Alonso, bottom 7, off Adonis Medina
Speaking of balls that were absolutely crushed, meet Mets first-base prospect Peter Alonso:
1.
Greene was one of the stars of the show on Sunday, lighting up radar guns with a scarcely believable 19 pitches at 100 mph or faster. (Oh, and he can hit, too.)
Thanks to Basabe, however, one of those heaters -- clocked at 102! -- ended up in the right-field seats:
