Cubs Beat Rangers In Minor League Futures Game

After Wednesday's Spring Training Cubs game against Rangers, the Cubs minor league "futures" team took on a similarly loaded team of minor league prospects. In the end, the Cubs won the game by a score of 10-7. (Although the Rangers website lists the score as 10-9. I was watching the last two innings and I'm sure the final score was 10-7, although the Rangers broadcasters were barely paying attention to the score, so it's possible they listed the wrong score. Or I guess it's possible I got it wrong somehow.)

The Cubs starting lineup was:

#Cubs Futures Game lineup: Hannemann LF, Almora CF, Candelario 3B, Vogelbach 1B, Contreras C, McKinney DH, Torres SS, Happ 2B, Zagunis RF

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) March 23, 2016

Carl Edwards Jr. started the game for the Cubs, which was a homecoming against some of his former teammates in the Rangers system. Likewise, Frandy Delarosa played on the Rangers side. The Cubs traded Delarosa to Texas this offseason for Spencer Patton.

The Cubs got home runs from Ian Happ, who took Rangers' 2015 #1 draft pick Dillon Tate deep. In the ninth inning, Cubs catcher Victor Caratini connected for a long home run to dead center field. Caratini also made a nice throw to pick a runner off of first in the eighth.

I did find some video of the Happ home run.

Ian Happ leads off with deep HR to right! #cubs pic.twitter.com/aIffC0dSya

— Jon Ferlise (@CubsKingdom) March 24, 2016

Other highlights for the Cubs include a perfect inning with three strikeouts by Dillon Maples (and wouldn't that be something if he got turned around?), as well as two hits apiece for Dan Vogelbach, Mark Zagunis and Willson Contreras.

The proceeds of the game went to Rangers and Cubs charities. That the game was more for show and charity than winning was evident, since the game started without an umpire. The single umpire scheduled to work the game was delayed when a minor league game that he was umpiring elsewhere ran late, so one of the Rangers coaches served as umpire until he arrived. The Rangers coach appeared to be a fair and honest man who dealt the Cubs a square deal, from all accounts. But I'm glad the real umpire showed up eventually.

But all in all, this game was a treat for prospect-heads who craves more looks at the farmhands (the game was televised by Fox Sports Southwest). It was also a treat for the players, who were no doubt tiring of facing off against each other in intrasquad games or makeshift scrimmages on the back fields. This is the second year in a row these two teams have faced off in such a matchup and we can only hope it continues into the future.