Joey Gallo to Represent Texas Rangers in MLB The Show Players League

As fans try to cope with life without baseball, Major League Baseball, the Players Association (MLBPA), and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) have come up with a pretty creative solution. The three parties came together on Friday to announce the creation of the MLB The Show Players League, which is the first-ever competitive league on the popular video game solely featuring MLB players.

One player from each of the 30 clubs in Major League Baseball will represent their team in this online event, which will help fans engage with their favorite teams and players. The event will also raise funds for Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Boys & Girls Clubs of Canada.

All Star slugger Joey Gallo will be representing the Texas Rangers, who has some familiarity with the video game.

"I play every once in a while," Joey Gallo said via conference call on Friday. "Honestly, I didn't realize that it was this big of a thing. When they asked me, they were just like, 'Hey, we need someone to play for the Rangers for this tournament.' I was like 'Eh, whatever.' I didn't realize there was all of this hype where I'd be getting interviewed about it. We'll see how I do. I'm not terrible, but I don't know how good the other guys are, so it's going to be interesting."

The MLB The Show Players League will be a round-robin format, where each player representing their team will play each other one time, compiling 29 regular season three-inning games. The top eight teams will face off in an eight-team playoff, culminating in a World Series.

"It's great to be able to help any way that we can," Gallo said about helping fans cope with the baseball shutdown. "For us as a team, we've been talking about it and we want to do more stuff online. With us not getting to playing right now in the season and them not getting to watch us, we're trying to find other ways to get the fans involved and interact with them. We're trying to let them see our personalities and what we like to do off the field. That's part of the reason I wanted to do it."

The MLB The Show Players league will begin on Friday, April 10 when Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Rays takes on Amir Garrett of the Cincinnati Reds at 9 p.m. ET on twitch.tv/classiclyfamous. Fans will be able to watch streams of the games on a variety of digital platforms, including Twitch and YouTube. MLB, the MLBPA, MLB The Show, and the players will announce stream information and game times on their social media accounts.

Joey Gallo is representing the Rangers in the MLB The Show Players League which begins tonight. Gallo’s first 4 opponents in the round robin format: Trevor May, MIN; Lance McCullers, Jr., HOU; Blake Snell, TB; Amir Garrett, CIN. Games are on Twitch and You Tube digital platforms.
— John Blake (@RangerBlake) April 10, 2020

MLB, the MLBPA, and SIE will donate $5,000 on behalf of each player to a Boys & Girls Club affiliate in their team's communities. The grand prize for the World Series winner of the MLB The Show Players League will earn an additional $25,000 for the Boys & Girls Club in their team's community.

Gallo has been playing the game on his own time throughout the baseball shutdown. He and teammate Willie Calhoun have played each other online, where in one instance, Gallo got the better of Calhoun.

A 3rd home run for @JoeyGallo24 😂 pic.twitter.com/u8pa2Ww9cz
— Alex Healy (@TheHealy6) March 29, 2020

"I think Willie is unexperienced a little bit. It's a tough game to play if you haven't played that much," Gallo said about his three-homer performance against Calhoun. "It was with myself and my guy has insane power, so if you hit the ball, it's probably a home run."

We can see that Gallo is at least good against his teammate. So, how confident is Joey Gallo going up against the other 29 guys in the tournament?

"I would say I'm middle of the pack," Gallo said. "I'm good enough to win some games, but I don't think I'm going to be lights out in this tournament."

"For me, I'll just have fun. If I win, that's great, but I think it's more about the experience and letting the fans see us playing games."

Some things are out of the hands of the each player representing their team in this league. MLB The Show has ratings for every single player in the game, with the game developer's intention to make them a close to the real-life versions of the player and their abilities. The Rangers are not a very highly-rated team in the video game, according to Gallo.

"I looked at our roster and I'll tell you what, they don't think we're very good because we got a lot of guys with really low ratings," Gallo said. "It's tough because it's a video game and you're really going off ratings...My bullpen's all messed up now because the guys I thought were going to be rated high aren't even rated that high."

It's difficult for a video game to get everything right, especially in the eyes of the players that actually play the real game of baseball in real life. For Gallo, a few of his teammates may have been judged unfairly by the those who decided the game's player ratings.

"I think [Nick] Goody is better than his rating for sure," Gallo said. "Willie's like a 72 and he was pretty good last year. I thought he'd be at least better than a C-minus. [Nick] Solak is like a 65...that's kind of low for talented and good he is. [Mike] Minor and [Lance] Lynn are in the low-80's and they were in the Cy Young running last year, so I don't know how that works."

As for the version of himself in the video game, Gallo was pretty straight forward.

"He has a lot of power, and really low contact and vision, so he's pretty frustrating to hit with – just like in real life," Gallo said.

Watch InsideTheRangers.com's simulation of what would have been the Rangers' home opener at Globe Life Field HERE.

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