Predicting an exhibition is no easy task.
There are too many outlying variables and factors to consider. While Major League Baseball’s is the only All-Star Game in which athletes play at or very near 100 percent effort—the sport does not really lend itself to playing at anything less—there are still remnants of an exhibition, such as playing as many players as possible or removing the best pitcher after a couple of innings so that he has virtually no impact on the outcome.
With all that said, no game is more fun to predict than this one, played at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park on Tuesday. The Futures Game is played Sunday, and the Home Run Derby happens Monday.
Rolling the events into one sphere so that the predictions spread across all three is even better. They allow for bold, fun and even absurd prognostications every year.