While the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game are still the main attractions of MLB‘s All-Star festivities, the Futures Game has continued to grow in popularity in recent years.
The annual prospect showcase gives fans a chance to see some of the sport’s future stars on the big stage, as minor league representatives from all 30 MLB teams square off in a World Team vs. U.S. Team format.
This year’s game will be played Sunday at 7 p.m. ET at Petco Park in San Diego.
We’ll have a live blog up the day of the game to track all of the action. But until then, the following will serve as a useful primer for this year’s contest.
We’ve provided a quick overview of each of the 50 prospects participating in this year’s event and given our best guess at when you can expect to see them arrive in the big leagues based on current development and their path to playing time in the majors.
If the expected arrival is this year, we provided a month. If it’s next season, we specified first half or second half, and if it was any time beyond 2017, we gave a year.
Note: The “Rank” referenced alongside each prospect’s name refers to where he falls among that team’s top 30 prospects, according to MLB.com’s Prospect Watch.