Angels' no. 2 prospect displays incredible stuff in his brief MLB Futures Game outing

Unlike with the MLB All-Star Game, the Angels had some representation in the MLB All-Star Futures Game. Angels fans will not see Yusei Kikuchi pitch in the Midsummer Classic, as the team's lone representative is pitching tonight against Arizona which subsequently makes him unavailable for Thursday. Mike Trout missed starting in the All-Star Game by 2% of the fan vote, and Jo Adell got snubbed in favor of players like Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena and Steven Kwan for reasons that remain dubious.

Well, at least Angels fans got to briefly see George Klassen pitch in Atlanta! Granted, if you blinked you missed it.

Angels' no. 2 prospect displays incredible stuff in his brief MLB Futures Game outing

Klassen is the organization's de facto no. 2 overall prospect behind Caden Dana, although ESPN's Kiley McDaniel ranked him no. 1 in the pipeline last month ahead of both Dana and Christian Moore. Moore is currently the no. 1 Angels prospect according to MLB.com, but will graduate from prospect status next month when he returns from the injured list. Given that Moore and Dana both have MLB experience, Klassen is the true no. 1 prospect given that he has not progressed past Double-A in his career. Like Kikuchi, he was the lone Angels representative in the Futures Game given the state of the farm system (the players have minimal upside and the affiliates' records are brutal).

Klassen wound up tossing just 11 pitches, but the 23-year-old flashed the tools that have long tantalized the baseball world. He entered the Futures Game in the bottom of the third inning with one out and the bases empty to face Pittsburgh's Konnor Griffin. Klassen's first pitch (it looked like a two-seam) was some 99 MPH paint up-and-away to record strike one. His second pitch was another 99 MPH 2S on the outer half, which the right-handed hitting Griffin chopped softly down the third base line for a weak infield single.

Next up was Chicago's Owen Caissie. Klassen generated an 0-0 whiff on a 90 MPH slider. His second offering to Caissie was a nasty back-foot, strike-to-ball SL that he laid off, likely due to Griffin attempting to steal second. The Pirates prospect slid past second base and was tagged out. Ball don't lie.

Klassen tried a 1-1 changeup, but sprayed it way above the zone. He overthrew his 2-1 heater for ball three, then walked Caissie on a questionable 3-1 SL. That's more on the catcher's pitch call than Klassen. Whatever.

Colorado's Charlie Condon then stepped into the batter's box, and Klassen racked up yet another first pitch strike with a SL. He fired in another 90 MPH SL to generate a whiff. His 0-2 pitch was a perfectly placed ball-to-strike SL down and away that Condon laid off. Finally, Klassen got the Rockies prospect to weakly ground a ball to shortstop for a 6-4 fielder's choice.

While Klassen is smartly being developed as a starter right now, some say that he would thrive in a back-end bullpen role moving forward. In his Futures Game appearance, he showed exactly why that could be the case. His changeup might need to be scrapped, and the right-handed pitcher could definitely thrive with his 4S, 2S, SL, CB arsenal. The velocity and breaking balls obviously would play out of the 'pen and as soon as this season!

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