Cole Tucker to Represent the Pittsburgh Pirates in MLB The Show Player Tournament

In the midist of the shutdown of most sporting events and leagues, MLB will host a month long player tournament through the PS4 game, MLB The Show. Who will be the Pittsburgh Pirates representative?

MLB The Show is the most popular baseball video game out there, and the most advanced as well. It’s played by fans and players alike, and in the middle of the shutdown of pretty much everything, MLB has announced that one player from all 30 teams will represent their club in an MLB The Show league. In this league, the Pittsburgh Pirates will be represented by shortstop prospect Cole Tucker.

Games will be streamed to MLB’s social media accounts, and their twitch.tv channel. The players will participate in 3 inning games, and the eight best will move onto their playoff rounds. The following players will compete in this tournament:

AL East:

Bo Bichette (Toronto Blue Jays)
Blake Snell (Tampa Bay Rays)
Eduardo Rodriguez (Boston Red Sox)
Tommy Kahnle (New York Yankees)
Dwight Smith Jr. (Baltimore Orioles)

AL Central:

Lucas Giolito (Chicago White Sox)
Trevor May (Minnesota Twins)
Carlos Santana (Cleveland Indians)
Niko Goodrum (Detroit Tigers)
Brett Phillips (Kansas City Royals)

AL West:

Joey Gallo (Texas Rangers)
Lance McCullers Jr. (Houston Astros)
Jesus Luzardo (Oakland Athletics)
Ty Buttery (Los Angeles Angels)
Carl Edwards Jr. (Seattle Mariners)

NL East:

Juan Soto (Washington Nationals)
Jeff McNeil (New York Mets)
Rhys Hoskins (Philadelphia Phillies)
Ryne Stanek (Miami Marlins)
Luke Jackson (Atlanta Braves)

NL Central:

Cole Tucker (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Josh Hader (Milwaukee Brewers)
Amir Garrett (Cincinnati Reds)
Ian Happ (Chicago Cubs)
Matt Carpenter (St. Louis Cardinals)

NL West:

Hunter Pence (San Francisco Giants)
Gavin Lux (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Fernando Tatis Jr. (San Diego Padres)
David Dahl (Colorado Rockies)
Jon Duplantier (Arizona Diamondbacks)

The MLB player association and Sony are donating $5,000 to the Boys And Girls Clubs each player is representing, and the winner of the tournament will also win $25,000 for their represented Boys And Girls Club.

In my opinion, this is a very good choice by MLB. Right now with no baseball, it is a way to keep fans entertained for the time being. The tournament will last the rest of April, and likely bleed into May. Plus, this is also good for the sport in general. With this tournament, players will be able to interact with fans through the Twitch chat, and be able to build their personalities off the field. Having the opportunity to have 30 different players build their off field personalities is something baseball needs, as that will also increase the amount of fans interested in the sport.

Plus, MLB The Show is a very popular game. Just last year, the game broke the record for the most sales in the US by any baseball video game, surpassing MVP Baseball 2004. In 2018, the game sold over 412 thousand units in the first week. People who aren’t usually watching baseball full-time, but play the game will likely show an interest in this event as each game will last 3 innings, and may turn those fans into more frequent watchers of the sport.