Rangers prospect Gallo in Futures Game
The Rangers were set to have two representatives in this year's Sirius XM All-Star Futures Game in New York on July 14, but an injury is expected to sideline one. Third baseman Joey Gallo and catcher Jorge Alfaro, both in Class A Hickory, were two of 50 prospects selected to participate in one of the All-Star festivities at Citi Field.
Gallo, 19, has put on a show in his second season in the Minors. Last year's first-round pick is second in the South Atlantic League with 23 home runs and is batting .243 with 45 RBIs and a .334 on-base percentage. He's fifth in the league with a .570 slugging percentage.
He has a .255/.370/.609 career slash line in the Minors, compiling 45 home runs and 97 RBIs. He's ranked as the No. 8 prospect in the Rangers' farm system by MLB.com.
"I think going into this, we knew what kind of player we were getting into, and Joey is a kind of competitive, wants-to-be-good kind of a player," Rangers director of amateur scouting Kip Fagg said this month. "It's showing up kind of what we thought it would be. He has power."
Gallo will be on the U.S. roster, while Alfaro, 20, was picked for the World Team before he was hit by a pitch Friday and sustained a small non-displaced fracture of the left fifth metacarpal. Ranked 78th on MLB.com's top 100 prospects, Alfaro has a .257 batting average with 10 home runs and 34 RBIs in his fourth season in the Minors. He's third in the South Atlantic League in throwing out 21 of 54 (38.9 percent) of stolen-base attempts. Alfaro has a .259/.319/.415 slash line in the Minors, with 10 home runs and 114 RBIs.
The Rangers also had an opportunity for another representative in New York, as well, as, for the first time, fans determined the final player on the U.S. and World Team rosters by casting their votes in the All-Star Sunday Futures Finalists ballot. There were five candidates for each team, and second baseman Rougned Odor was named one of the finalists for the World team. A fan vote will decided the final player on each team, much like the All-Star Game's Final Vote. Voting ended on Sunday at 10:59 p.m.
Odor, a native of Venezuela, is ranked as the Rangers No. 9 prospect. He is one of a growing line of middle infielders developed by the Rangers. Just 19 years old, Odor opened the season in Class A Advanced Myrtle Beach, where he is hitting .292 with a .454 slugging percentage. He was the youngest player in the Carolina League on Opening Day.
The 15th annual SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game takes place at 1 p.m. CT on All-Star Sunday at Citi Field in New York and can be seen live on MLB.com, ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD and followed live on MLB.com's Gameday. In addition, XM Radio will broadcast play-by-play coverage of the event live on MLB Network Radio XM 89. MLB.com will also provide complete coverage before, during and after the game. Fans can stay updated by following @MLBFutures on Twitter and can send/receive tweets to/from the U.S. and World Team dugouts during the game by tagging tweets with the hashtags #USDugout and #WorldDugout.