Brewers’ Cooper Pratt gets a couple innings at shortstop
The MLB All-Star Futures Game was played this afternoon at Globe Life Field in Arlington, the league’s annual showcase of some of the best prospects in baseball. The Brewers’ lone representative in this game was Cooper Pratt, their sixth-round draft pick in 2023 who recently cracked MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospect list.
The game, which is now an AL vs. NL contest instead of the old format that used a “USA vs. The World” setup. Pratt was not in the starting lineup for this game, which featured several of the top prospects in baseball, including Washington’s Dylan Crews, Baltimore’s Samuel Basallo, Boston’s Marcelo Mayer, Detroit’s Max Clark, and San Diego’s Ethan Salas. The starting pitchers for the game were Texas’ Emiliano Teodo and Colorado’s Chase Dollander.
The NL Futures won this one with a persistent offensive attack and a couple of big hits. Cam Collier, the Reds’ number three prospect, got things started with a solo home run in the top of the third inning. The White Sox’ Noah Schultz, who is a top-20 prospect in the league, ran into trouble in the fourth—he loaded the bases with three straight singles to start the inning, then walked Druw Jones (son of Hall of Fame candidate Andruw) to score one run, hit Aidan Miller (of the Phillies, No. 27 overall) for another, and was replaced. The NL got one more in the fourth on a sac fly by Drake Baldwin of the Braves’ system.
The AL got their one run in this game in the bottom of the fourth, and the RBI came from a familiar name: Jaison Chourio, the Guardians’ prospect who is ranked No. 85 in the league and is also the younger brother of Jackson, knocked an RBI single to score Spencer Jones (of the Yankees’ system).
The backups got into the game around this point in the game, and that included Pratt, who entered as a defensive substitute at shortstop in the bottom of the fifth. Pratt got an at-bat in the top of the sixth but popped out. Drake Baldwin, the next hitter, tacked one on with a solo homer, and the NL got one more in the top of the seventh on an RBI groundout from Arizona’s Deyvison De Los Santos. The NL won with that 6-1 scoreline in the seven-inning contest.
Though Pratt didn’t do much in this one, it was still fun to see him in the game as he was able to make a couple of nice plays in the field, including on the final out of the game.
The Futures Game is one of the bigger events to kick off the All-Star festivities at Globe Life Field, so keep your eyes out for all the fun things happening in Texas leading up to the All-Star Game on Tuesday evening.