{"id":78891,"date":"2024-07-02T17:25:19","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T21:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=78891"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:25:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T21:25:19","slug":"pirates-chandler-johnson-futures-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/02\/pirates-chandler-johnson-futures-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Participants in 2024 Futures Game Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 top two prospects, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=chandl002roy&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bubba Chandler<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=johnso008ter&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Termarr Johnson<\/a>, have been selected to participate in the 2024 Futures Game. Chandler, 21, is a right-handed starting pitcher who ranks as the Pirates\u2019 No. 1 prospect (No. 52 MLB). Second baseman Johnson, 20, is the Pirates\u2019 No. 2 prospect (No. 77 MLB) and first-round pick in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/07\/14\/termarr-johnson-profile\/\" target=\"_self\">2022 June Amateur Draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Top Two Prospects Will Represent Pirates at Futures Game <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zB235B1aD7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/zB235B1aD7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 John Perrotto (@JPerrotto) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JPerrotto\/status\/1808172224660070778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Chandler and Johnson Named to Futures Game<\/h2>\n<p>Chandler was drafted third in 2021 as a two-way player. Alas, not everybody can be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/ohtansh01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shohei Ohtani<\/a>. Since hitting .189 for three minor league teams in 2021-22, Chandler became strictly a pitcher in 2023. So far, 2024 has seen him make significant strides on the mound. His peripheral numbers are encouraging despite a 4-5 record and 4.17 ERA at Double-A Altoona. His WHIP is 1.148. Additionally, he\u2019s struck out 11.3 per nine innings and has a 3.09 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Chandler features a fastball that can reach the upper 90s and an upper-80s slider.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YZu5cWgYmII?si=Mq5wUHaAhcu_P3Wc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Pirates are big on the left-handed-swinging Johnson, with good reason. Drafted as a shortstop out of high school, the Pirates feel he\u2019s better suited for second base. With the big club in spring training, he looked and acted like he belonged. In the exhibition games, he was 7-for-18 with two long home runs on seemingly effortless swings. Johnson has since come back to Earth just a bit with Single-A+ Greensboro, where he\u2019s hitting just .226. However, the Pirates are surely pleased with his .379 OBP and seven home runs in 72 games. He profiles as a consistent hard-contact hitter.<\/p>\n<h3>Another High-Profile Showcase for Chandler and Johnson<\/h3>\n<p>The Futures Game will be the second high-profile showcase for Chandler and Johnson. After participating in the Pirates\u2019 spring training as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/09\/pirates-prospects-spring-invitees\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">non-roster invitees<\/a>, they were chosen for the inaugural <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/13\/pirates-spring-breakout-game-prospects\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Spring Breakout Game<\/a>. Chandler was impressive in working a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/16\/pirates-spring-breakout-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">scoreless seventh inning<\/a> to record a save. Johnson was 1-for-3 on that day but was overshadowed by the splendid work of the six Pirates pitchers, who combined to throw a one-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles prospects. This time, Johnson will get his chance in the spotlight when he participates in the first-ever Futures Skills Showcase following the game. He\u2019s one of just eight players chosen for the skills competition.<\/p>\n<h3>On TV<\/h3>\n<p>Officially known as the All-Star Futures Game, it airs on the MLB Network on Saturday, July 13, at 4:00 PM Eastern. Once again, it will pit the National League and American League prospects against one another. The previous, confusing format that featured the United States against the World was thankfully discontinued in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 top two prospects, Bubba Chandler and Termarr Johnson, have been selected to participate in the 2024 Futures Game. Chandler, 21, is a right-handed starting pitcher who ranks as the Pirates\u2019 No. 1 prospect (No. 52 MLB). Second baseman Johnson, 20, is the Pirates\u2019 No. 2 prospect (No. 77 MLB) and first-round pick [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":78909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1071,35],"tags":[4906,2178,5779],"class_list":["post-78891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","category-news","tag-bubba-chandler","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-termarr-johnson"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}