Astros Prospects Participate in Future's Game

On Sunday, MLB began it's All-Star week festivities with the Future's Game. A game comprised of top prospects that are near the majors to help showcase the stars coming up. The teams are assembled by Baseball America and they selected two prospects from the Astros organization to participate. Those players were second baseman Tony Kemp and right-handed pitcher Mark Appel. Both players are at Triple-A Fresno.

Kemp was the starter at second base and registered three plate appearances and he drew walks in his first two. His second plate appearance was four straight balls in which two were very close pitches. His third pate appearance he lifted a down and in fastball to LF for an easy flyout an 0-1 count.

He didn't really show anything that we didn't really already know. He has a very good eye at the plate.

Mark Appel came out guns blazing. His first pitch registered 96 MPH on the gun. The first two hitters were able to have hard hit line drives. Luckily the first was directly at Phillies prospect J.P. Crawford. The second was a single to RF. However, he was able to induce a groundball that turned into a double play.

Appel showed an electric fastball that topped out at 97. The two hard-hit balls were both off sliders that weren't the sharpest that he'd shown. The groundball was off a fastball. The fastball looked good and he located well. MLB.com doesn't show a changeup as pitch but they do show an 89 MPH fastball which could have been a changeup. The slider wasn't the sharpest pitch and lags behind the fastball in quality.