Pittsburgh Pirates minor league prospects Austin Meadows and Dovydas Neverauskas have been selected to play in the All-Star Futures Game in San Diego on Sunday, July 10. Meadows will play for the United States team while Neverauskas will play for the World team. The announcement was made by Major League Baseball.
Meadows, who was selected by the Pirates ninth overall in the 2013 draft, enters today with a combined .295 average (61-for-207) with 19 doubles, 10 triples, seven home runs, 28 RBI, .346 on-base percentage, .585 slugging percentage and .931 OPS in 55 games this season between Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis.
The 21-year-old Meadows entered this season rated as Pittsburgh's second best prospect by Baseball America and 22nd in all of baseball by the same publication, as well as the fourth-best outfield prospect in all of minor league baseball by MLBpipeline.com. He hit safely in an Altoona-record 24 straight games before being promoted to Indianapolis on June 18. At the time of his promotion to Triple-A, Meadows ranked first in the Eastern League in slugging percentage (.611) and triples (eight), second in batting average (.311) and fifth in extra base hits (30).
Neverauskas has recorded a combined 1-1 record with three saves, a 2.67 ERA (33.2 IP/10 ER), 34 strikeouts, .165 batting average against and 0.92 WHIP in 28 relief appearances this season between Altoona and Indianapolis. At the time of his promotion to Triple-A on June 15, Neverauskas' .129 batting average against was tied for the lowest among all Eastern League relievers.
The 23-year-old right-handed pitcher from Vilnius, Lithuania, was signed by Pittsburgh as a non-drafted free agent in 2009. The World team for this year's Futures Game features players from 11 different countries and territories outside the 50 United States. The All-Star Futures Game is now in its 18th year.