The MLB All-Star Futures Game will be on MLB Network for the first time

Long a staple of ESPN’s All-Star schedule, the MLB All-Star Futures Game will air on MLB Network for the first time this Sunday. Airing at 5 p.m. ET, the commentators for the game will be Matt Vasgersian and Sean Casey, along with reporter Heidi Watney and MLB.com prospect guru Jonathan Mayo.

The Futures Game is the ultimate attraction for diehard baseball fans during All-Star Weekend, and not many other people. Plenty of current stars in the game are Futures Game alumni, including Ryan Braun, Miguel Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Paul Goldschmidt, among many others. There’s also not necessarily a huge wait for these future stars to make the majors – several players have played in the Tuesday All-Star Game the year after playing in the Futures Game, including Jose Altuve, Adam Dunn, Jose Fernandez, Bryce Harper, Jason Heyward, and plenty more.

However, while thinking of the future is great, wouldn’t you rather just watch the present? There will be four west coast games going on at the same time as the Futures Game, and guys like Sonny Gray, Madison Bumgarner, Tyson Ross, and Hyun-Jin Ryu will be pitching. With nearly a third of the teams in the league playing (and possibly more, depending on how late the early start games go), MLB is losing a huge chunk of its potential audience for the Futures Game…to itself.

But hey, at least it’s not tape-delayed.

[MLB.com]