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The Rays top prospect and the top prospect in all of baseball, SS Wander Franco, was front and center for Sunday nights MLB Futures Game.
Rays No. 1 prospect SS Wander Franco is youngest AL player in SiriusXM Futures Game. He's 18 years old and is hitting .332 with 19 doubles, 5 triples and 8 home runs in 70 games for two Single-A teams. @RaysBaseball
— Richard Justice (@richardjustice) July 7, 2019
Wander Franco watching the High School Home Run Derby is great cuz he’s basically young enough to be in it pic.twitter.com/fWfVBKcBaw
— Cespedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) July 7, 2019
Franco’s first at bat ended in a called third strike on a pitch well inside:
— Dominik (@domhunt18) July 7, 2019
But his second produced a nearly 108 MPH off the bat single to right field!
What a Wander-ful hit! pic.twitter.com/1UUQSdeMhT
— DRaysBay (@draysbay) July 8, 2019
Franco was one of two Rays representatives at the Futures Game.
Some big pieces of #Rays future, with Futures Game participants Ronaldo Hernandez and Wander Franco pic.twitter.com/h1GCr53ihp
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) July 7, 2019
Rays Links
“I love him,’’ said AL #FuturesGame manager Jim Thome, a Hall of Famer, on #Rays prospect Wander Franco. “I could envision him being similar to Robby Alomar, what Robby did as the whole package.’’ https://t.co/JpGSrPS082 #RaysUp @TBTimes_Rays #StoneCrabs @StoneCrabs
— TampaBayTimesSports (@TBTimes_Sports) July 8, 2019
After fan video goes viral online, Rays invite family to a night at the Trop https://t.co/slNdw7VESj
— Tampa Bay Times (@TB_Times) July 6, 2019
Other News
Tonight is the Home Run Derby!
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Chapman steps in for Christian Yelich, who dropped out of ASG proceedings with a back issue, balancing the bracket to 4 AL vs 4 NL overall.
Elsewhere, there was a terrible slide in the Astros vs Angels game.
This was bad. Jake Marisnick vs Jonathan Lucroy pic.twitter.com/DmE7uHC16r
— Brian Perroni (@Perroni247) July 7, 2019
Better angle: looks like Marisnick was already on the inside, Lucroy was trying to block the plate, and Marisnick had no way to avoid him. Can't believe this used to be legal. pic.twitter.com/GkU6Nl1Uug
— Ben Porter (@Ben13Porter) July 7, 2019
Through my eyes I thought the play was going to end up on the outside of the plate. I made a split second decision at full speed to slide head first on the inside part of the plate. That decision got another player hurt and I feel awful. I hope nothing but the best for @JLucroy20
— Jake Marisnick (@JSMarisnick) July 8, 2019
Jake Marisnick on Lucroy injury: pic.twitter.com/guMaYeKf0W
— Brent Zwerneman (@BrentZwerneman) July 7, 2019