Futures Game Announces Cleveland-Themed Coaching Staff and Significant Format Changes

The All-Star Game will be hosted by the Cleveland Indians this year, and so the 2019 SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game will take place at Progressive Field on Sunday, July 7.

It's going to look a little different, though.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Hall of Famer Jim Thome and four-time All-Star Dennis Martinez will serve as the managers for the Futures Game, pitting the nation's top minor leaguers against each other.

The rosters for this game, which brings together the top minor league prospects to compete and showcase their talent, will be announced at a later date. However, the coaching staffs for Thome and Martinez have been announced.

All of these coaches were part of those stacked Indians teams in the 90s, including Carlos Baerga, Omar Vizquel, Sean Casey and former MLB manager Charlie Manuel.

As far as the format goes, they've made some wholesale changes. Instead of featuring the U.S. vs. the World, it will be American League vs. National League for the first time in this game's history. The game itself will be a seven-inning contest, which is the first time they've shortened it since the inaugural game back in 1999.

The U.S. squad defeated the World team last year in Washington D.C. by a 10-6 score, closing out the all-time series with a 13-7 advantage. I don't know if the changes have anything to do with the U.S. dominating this game over the last two decades, but it should be fun to see the top prospects from their respective organizations face off in an all-new style.