SF Giants pitching prospect among first players named to Futures Game

Every year since 1999, the Futures Game has been one of the highlights of Major League Baseball's All-Star festivities. It pits two teams of minor leaguers against one another in an all-star type contest for many of the top prospects in the game. Originally one squad was made up of Americans while the other was a "World" team for non-United States natives, but beginning in 2019 it became a copy of the All-Star Game, with prospects representing the league (National or American) that their parent club plays in.

The SF Giants have had a few of their top prospects play in the game throughout the years; notably, Pablo Sandoval was on the World team in both 2006 and 2008, Madison Bumgarner participated in 2009 (though Buster Posey didn't), Joey Bart was a 2019 NL catcher and last year saw both Heliot Ramos and Marco Luciano take the field for the National League (Ramos also played in 2018 for the World and 2019 for the NL).

For the 2022 game at Dodger Stadium, MLB took a new step: announcing four members of both the NL and AL rosters as a teaser, the day before revealing the rest of the players selected.

Among the eight total participants named Wednesday was one of the Giants' top prospects, left-handed starting pitcher Kyle Harrison.

Harrison, a 2020 third-round draft pick out of De La Salle High School in Concord, opened eyes last year in his first professional season with 157 strikeouts in less than 100 innings with a 3.19 ERA for Low-A San Jose.

Harrison improving his numbers against tougher competition

Not quite 21 years old, Harrison began the 2022 campaign with High-A Eugene and proved last year was no fluke, even improving his numbers at the higher level and getting a bump to Double-A Richmond. All told, Harrison has put up a 2.76 ERA in 14 starts this season with 116 whiffs in 65 1/3 innings, walking just 29 (though 19 of the free passes have been issued in 36 1/3 frames with the Flying Squirrels)

Harrison is joined among the first four NL players revealed by Arizona outfielder Corbin Carroll, Miami right-hander Eury Perez and San Diego flychaser Robert Hassell III.

The American League players named Wednesday were Texas righty Jack Leiter, Tampa Bay infielder Curtis Mead, Los Angeles Angels lefty Ky Bush and Boston utility player Ceddanne Rafaela.

The Giants should have at least one more player named to the full roster on Thursday; Luciano is a good bet to play in the game again. The game is scheduled for Saturday, July 16.