The Frontier League announced the rosters for the All-Star Game on Monday afternoon and the Windy City ThunderBolts will be represented by outfielder Michael Sandle. He will join the Midwest Conference squad at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in upstate New York for this year’s game.
Sandle has appeared in all but one ThunderBolts game this year and enters this week with a team-leading .282 batting average. He also leads the team with his .419 on-base percentage and .506 slugging percentage. He has nine home runs, 28 RBIs and ten stolen bases.
After a slow start to the season, Sandle broke out in June, hitting .395 with a 1.316 OPS over 24 games. His breakout month concluded with a Frontier League Player of the Week award on June 30, making him the first ThunderBolt to win that award in seven years.
This is Sandle’s first year with the ThunderBolts and second in the Frontier League after a brief stint with the Gateway Grizzlies last year. Originally a tenth-round draft pick of the Houston Astros in 2021, he played three years in the Houston system, rising as high as Triple-A. He attended the University of South Alabama for four years and hit .289 over 177 career games.
This year’s Frontier League All-Star Game will be hosted for the first time by the Tri-City ValleyCats at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy, New York. The festivities begin for Sandle and the other all-star players on Monday, July 14 with the home runs derby and All-Star Game slated for Wednesday, July 16.
