Local Baseball Player Wins MVP

A 2013 Franklin County High School graduate wins a huge award on Sunday.

The Major League Baseball Futures game was held on Sunday featuring the top minor league prospects from each organization. The USA team defeated The World team by a score of 7-6 led by a local future major league player.

Brent Honeywell, from Carnesville, and former Franklin County High School standout, was the starting pitcher for the USA team representing the Tampa Bay Rays. In 2 innings of work, Honeywell struck out 4 and did not allow a run. After the game, Honeywell was presented the game MVP. It was the first time a pitcher has won the award.

Honeywell played for his father by the same name at Franklin County. Not drafted out of high school, Honeywell attended Walters State Community College in Tennessee for one year and after a very successful year he was chosen 72nd overall by the Tampa Bay Rays.

Since then Honeywell has consistently moved up the minor league ranks. He currently pitches for Tampa Bay’s triple-A affiliate the Durham Bulls and leads the International League in strikeouts. He is seen as the Rays #2 prospect and in the top 20 for Minor league prospects overall.

Honeywell has a mid-90’s fastball, but is best known as a master for one of the most difficult pitches in the game-the screwball. Honeywell learned the pitch from his dad who had picked it up from his cousin Mike Marshall, who used the pitch to help him win the 1975 National League Cy Young Award with the Dodgers.