MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com-PEORIA, IL—Peoria Chiefs third baseman and top Chicago Cubs prospect Josh Vitters was named to the U.S. squad for the XM All-Star Futures Game today. The 11^thannual Futures Game will be played at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium on Sunday July 12 at 1 p.m. and be televised live on ESPN2, ESPN2 HD andMLB.TVwith a live gamecast on MLB.com. Vitters is one of three third baseman on the U.S. roster with St. Louis Cardinals farmhand Brett Wallace and Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Pedro Alvarez.

“It’s a huge honor and I am really excited to go to the Futures Game in St. Louis to represent the Cubs and Chiefs,” said Vitters. “I’ll go out there and have fun and do the best I can.”

Vitters is the second Chiefs player ever named to the Futures Game while playing in Peoria and he will be the ninth player with Chiefs ties to participate in a Futures Game. Lou Montanez played for the World squad in the 2005 game in Detroit before being promoted from Peoria to Double-A the following week. The other seven all played in the Futures Game in seasons after leaving the Chiefs: Rick Ankiel (1999), Pablo Ozuna (1999), Jimmy Journell (2002), Chris Narveson (2003), Brad Thompson (2004), Daric Barton (2005) and Eric Patterson (2006).
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Vitters, 19, enters the second half of the season batting .308 with 13 home runs, 12 doubles and 42 RBI. He is second in the MWL in homers and total bases while ranking third in slugging percentage. Vitters hit .386 in May with a Chiefs franchise record 12 homers while driving in 27 runs and scoring 29 times. He collected at least three hits in five straight games from May 14-19 and homered in four straight from May 16-19. Vitters was the Cubs first round selection (third overall) in the 2007 draft out of Cypress High School in California.

Vitters is the only Midwest League player on the U.S. squad while Wisconsin’s Brett Lawrie is on the World squad. The U.S. squad contains five Triple-A players, 14 Double-A players, five High-A players and Vitters is the only player below High-A on the roster. He is also the only Cubs farmhand on the U.S. squad while infielder Starlin Castro from the Daytona Cubs is on the World squad. The U.S. team will be managed by St. Louis Cardinals legend Ozzie Smith while the World squad will be led by current Cardinals third base coach Jose Oquendo.

The U.S. and the World teams have split the first ten Futures Games but the World has won the last two, including a 3-0 win at Yankee Stadium last July. Former Futures Games MVP’s include Alfonso Soriano, Jose Reyes, Grady Sizemore and Aaron Hill. Each team contains 25 players and the rosters are selected by Major League Baseball in conjunction with the MLB Scouting Bureau, MLB.com, Baseball America, USA Baseball and the 30 MLB Clubs. Each MLB organization is represented and the World Team features players from 11 countries and territories.

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