NL Central

Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein showed he isn't afraid to take big risks when he dealt his two best pitchers late Friday night. 

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported the details of the trade:

It looks like the Chicago Cubs are loading up for the future.

The Cincinnati Reds' top 10 prospects received a little bit of a shakeup since my last version of this recurring article. The MLB draft brought along newcomer Alex Blandino, while some other players either worked their way into the top 10 or found new homes on the list.

Much like previous installations, we'll go through each of the club's top 10 prospects, analyze their past week of play and issue a stock-up or stock-down grade based on their performance.

The Pittsburgh Pirates received a major boost last Saturday when their young starting pitcher, Gerrit Cole, made his first start in over three weeks.  

The 23-year-old had been shelved with right shoulder fatigue, which had caused him to lose velocity on his fastball and yield more hits to batters.  

The Cincinnati Reds are entering the break as one of the hottest teams in baseball and have several deserving All-Star candidates. Cincinnati has gone 20-10 over their past 30 games, improving their record to 43-39.  

The cast representing the Reds at the 2014 All-Star Game will have a different look this season. Cincinnati's usual suspect of Jay Bruce, Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto will all likely be watching the game at home. 

There's what Jake Arrieta used to be, and then there's what Jake Arrieta is.

After being removed from his role as the closer of the Pittsburgh Pirates one week ago, Jason Grilli was settling into his new role as a normal reliever.

Even though the Cubs are 11 games under .500 this season, they still have a few deserving All-Stars. Both on the mound and at the plate, the team has had players step up, and those players should be playing in Minnesota this July.

While it's true that defense wins championships, that phrase only rings true to an extent.

Pedro Alvarez has always been a polarizing player for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The man affectionately known as El Toro has undisputed power in his bat as evidenced by the National League-leading 36 home runs he hit last year. However, that power comes at a cost in the form of dismally-low batting averages, loads of strikeouts and poor fielding at third base.