Padres to be represented by Renfroe, Guerrero in Futures Game

One hitter and one pitcher chosen for the 2014 showcase.

For the 6th straight year two of the Padres' prospects have been selected to be part of the Future's Game. This year it will two players who the Padres recently rewarded with promotions. OF Hunter Renfroe and RHP Tayron Guerrero have both been chosen for the game after the former just got moved to AA San Antonio and the latter to High A Lake Elsinore.

Renfroe has hit 17 HRs combined for his two clubs this year while hitting .284 with a .360 OBP and a .547 SLG. He was drafted in the 1st round out of the University of Mississippi last season and has been consistently listed as one of the Padres' top prospects ever since. The 22 year old will play the US squad.

Guerrero is only year older than Renfroe, but has been with the franchise for much longer. He is Colombian born and will play for the World Team. His most noticeable feature is his height as he stands 6'7" tall. The Padres have spent the last 5 seasons ironing out his delivery in order to harness the power of that big frame. Things have finally seemed to click this year as he has put up a 0.96 ERA combined between Fort Wayne and Lake Elsinore working out of the bullpen. He has whiffed 42 batters in his 36.0 innings pitched and only walked 14. If he can maintain what he is done this season, then he could be a late innings force in future Padres' bullpens.

One might expect the Future's Game to be all the top prospects in the game, but in reality it does not quite work that way. In recent years it seems that there are rarely any players selected twice. That might explain why Austin Hedges and Rymer Liriano, despite still being top prospects are not repeat participants. Players that are injured obviously do not get selected, so Max Fried was not an option. Plus, the demographics of the minor leagues simply mean that some prominent US born prospects will get snubbed due to roster space while possibly some less acclaimed non-US born prospects will get selected. Perhaps that roster crunch or expectations of a major league call up for Matt Wisler left him sitting out.

Here are the previous participants that represented the Padres in Futures games:

2013: Austin Hedges, Yeison Asencio

2012: Rymer Liriano, Ali Solis

2011: James Darnell, Reymond Fuentes

2010: Simon Castro, Drew Cumberland

2009: Mat Latos, Luis Durango

2008: Wil Inman

2007: Craig Stansberry

2006: George Kottaras

2005: Josh Barfield

2004: Tim Stauffer

2003: Josh Barfield, Khalil Greene