[jksander]

July 14, 2025: The American League Future Stars beat out the NL’s team in an 8-2 blowout, outhitting their prospects 13-7! Colson Montgomery was the designated hitter and had two hits, a walk, a run and three RBIs, earning the MVP award for the game! That’s definitely a feather in his cap, and hopefully his strong performance will spark him to compete in the back half of the season for AA Birmingham, as the Barons are currently in third place in a tight race in the Southern League’s North Division, just one game behind the Knoxville Smokies and Chattanooga Lookouts who are 43-36. The Barons led the first half at 39-30, so they’re hoping rally and win the back half as well.

Our seventh round pick, Marcelo Harsch, has agreed to his $950,000 bonus offer, and the 18-year-old may be ready to move up to the Carolina League to play for A-level Kannapolis next season ... but for now we’re going to put him on our Arizona Complex League team. He needs to sigificantly improve his two secondary pitches, but his stuff profiles as potentially well above average despite control issues that could plague him long term. He’ll definitely be a player we watch.

I don’t tend to put a ton of time into studying guys in our International Complex, but our scout did discover a player I’ll be keeping an eye on. Ed Garcia, 16, is a Panamanian discovery, and he profiles as a potentially brilliant defensive infielder. It’s obviously too early to get excited about a random player find, but if he is as good as I think he’ll be defensively, I’m damned glad we got him on a minor league contract and didn’t have to pay out big money as an IAFA. From what I’ve seen he’s already quite a confident young player, something he’ll need to maintain during the long development process.

 
HOME RUN DERBY

FIRST ROUND
Anthony Santander (TOR) vs. Taylor Ward (LAA): Santander struggled early, but picked up steam in the final minute, getting three homers in the final sixty seconds to finish with seven (would have been eight, but his final one didn’t get in under the buzzer). But Ward didn’t fare much better, stuck at four well into the third minute of competition. But he got two in thirty seconds, tied Sandander with :42 left on the clock, and ten seconds later he hit his final one to win it 8-7.

Shohei Ohtani (LAD) vs. Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD): Shohei hit eight dingers in this round, three of them coming in the final eighty seconds, but Tatis Jr. was on fire ... he tied it up with 1:16 to go, and with 44 seconds remaining he hit his ninth to win the round 9-8.

Jesus Sanchez (MIA) vs. Mookie Betts (LAD): Sanchez hit three in a row in the first thirty seconds, and he had ten by the halfway point, by far the best performance of this derby! He cooled down the stretch, but still finished with 14 homers, setting a very high bar for Betts. But after a slow start, Betts heated up ... at one point he’d hit three in a row, missed one and then hit four more, and in the final thirty seconds he hit back to back slams to tie it at 14-14 at the buzzer, and n a judges decision, Betts was declared the winner as the higher seed.

Corey Seager (TEX) vs. Brent Rooker (ATH): Seager fought hard and got himself a dozen homers in his four minutes of action, setting Brent Rooker up for another tough go ... would he be the first higher seed to lose this one? In this case, the answer was yes. Rooker had a terrible showing, only managing to hit five in his four minutes, becoming visibly frustrated down the stretch as commentators questioned what had gone wrong with the mechanics of his swing. Seager advanced with a strong 12-5 win.

SECOND ROUND
Taylor Ward (TOR) vs. Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD): This was not a great round by any means ... Ward barely managed to hit six during his time, setting up Tatis Jr. for what was expected to be a quick win. He too struggled with a lot of longball fouls, but he tied it with 1:22 to go and got the win with a little more than a minute left on the clock, beating Ward 7-6.

Mookie Betts (LAD) vs. Corey Seager (TEX): Betts came out strong, hitting 10 out of the park in his four minutes on the clock, and though Seager tried (getting five homers quickly in the first two minutes), he struggled down the stretch with weak contact and Betts advanced by winning this round 10-8. That sets up a final round between him and Tatis Jr, with both players having hit well in the first two rounds!

HR DERBY CHAMPIONSHIP
Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD) vs. Mookie Betts (LAD): Fernando Tatis Jr. gave the fans what they wanted in his half of the round, putting up 11 homers including one that squeaked through at the buzzer, ensuring Betts would have to put some work in if he wanted to win this challenge. And it looked like Tatis Jr. would win it, leading 11-8 with just 45 seconds left, but Betts locked in and hit four in the next 39 seconds to win it with six seconds to spare, beating Tatis Jr. 12-11! Incredible finish, and the fans loved every second of it!


July 15, 2025: Cody Frietas, our fourth rounder, accepted his $650,000 signing bonus and has been sent to our Arizona Complex League team. The All Star game played out in the AL’s favor as our American League All Stars stumped the NL’s stars 6-4, in a game with each team knocking in eight hits. Otto Lopez came in as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the fifth and stayed in at center field, and he wound up walking twice (fifth inning and seventh inning) though he was unable to join in the scoring fun.

We’ve got a couple days off to rest up, and then we’ll begin the back half of the season with a pair of road series against Pittsburgh (41-56, 5th NL Central) and Tampa Bay (46-51, 3rd AL East). We’ll then finish out our month with three against the Cubs (48-48, 3rd NL Central) and three against the Phillies (46-50, 3rd NL East) at home in Chicago. None of those teams have winning records, so it would be great to see our team come out kicking to finish July on a strong note.