When July 12th arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio, the best prospects in Minor League Baseball suited up at Great American Ball Park for the 2015 All-Star Futures Game. Very few fans knew who the clean-up hitter on the USA team, Richie Shaffer, was. Yet alone that he was having one of the best statistical seasons of anyone at the event.

Shaffer, who was selected with the 25th overall pick in the 2012 MLB Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays, did not miss a beat when starting his career at Hudson Valley (Single-A Short Season) of the New York-Penn League as he smashed four home runs and drove in 26 RBIs with a .308 average in 33 games.

Despite the former Clemson star's batting average dropping greatly in 2013 and 2014 with Port Charlotte (Single-A Advanced) and Montgomery (Double-A), his power numbers continued to soar through the roof by him bashing 11 and 19 home runs respectively. But with a lack of overall production at the plate last season, the Rays reassigned Shaffer to Southern League action to start this year's campaign.

Thankfully for the 24-year-old, a monster April and May in which he posted a .262 BA, seven home runs, 27 RBI stat line led to his first in-season promotion that would also put him only one step away from the Major Leagues.

Immediately, the former first round pick made his presence felt in the International League as he blasted two home runs in his Triple-A debut with the Durham Bulls. But that's not all, as he smacked a career-high three round-trippers less than three weeks later on the road at Louisville. In fact, since his promotion to Durham, Tampa Bay's 11th ranked prospect leads the IL with 16 home runs.

So with Richie Shaffer dominating the pitchers of Triple-A, Tampa Bay recalled the North Carolina native to bat sixth in his Major League debut at Tropicana Field against the Chicago White Sox this evening.

Currently, the 52-54 Tampa Bay Rays are eight games back of the AL East leading New York Yankees and 2.5 behind the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays for the last Wild Card spot in the AL.

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About the author
Peyton Wesner
Editor, that has loved and watched sports. He enjoys traveling the country to watch division one college basketball and professional baseball, basketball, and football. In addition, Peyton is a huge enthusiast of Missouri Valley Conference basketball and International League (Triple-A) baseball as he focuses about these topics and many more on his sports blog Courtside with PW at http://courtsidewpw.blogspot.com/?m=1. You can contact him through his email, [email protected], or his twitter, @courtsidewpw.