Rankings/List

Breaking news: The Chicago Cubs have lost four straight for the first time this season.

Well, OK, maybe this isn't hard breaking news. But given the fanfare associated with this team, one would think it was infallible.

A losing streak of any kind on Chicago's North Side has shock value and makes anything in baseball seem possible.

Heck (spoiler alert), maybe MLB would even bring a team to Las Vegas.

What else looked possible, impossible or fell somewhere in between during MLB's Week 12?

Hello and welcome to Bleacher Report's Future 50.

This project aims to identify the 50 most promising prospects in Major League Baseball. Players must have rookie eligibility to qualify for consideration, so anyone with more than 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the majors isn't on the radar.

Aside from that, it's up to how each prospect fares in a scoring system that assesses his upside.

The first day of summer is here, and the MLB landscape continues to shift on a weekly basis as teams look to establish themselves as bona fide contenders.

At this point, the Chicago Cubs remain in a tier of their own at the top, but a handful of teams look like viable title contenders in their own right. The Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants are both red-hot right now, and the Washington Nationals certainly opened some eyes when they took two of three from the Cubs in Washington last week.

Rookie of the Year candidates, current (and former) All-Stars and high-paid veterans litter Week 11's All-Dud team. Once again, the funk proved it doesn't care about a player's track record of success, how much money he makes or how highly touted he was as a prospect.

The funk can strike any player at any time—and neither popping two Advils nor spending the day in bed is enough to get rid of it. The cure is different for every player.

Injuries, as they say, are part of the game. But we can all agree they're never the good part.

This week, the Pittsburgh Pirates placed pitcher Gerrit Cole and catcher Francisco Cervelli on the 15-day disabled list. The New York Mets announced third baseman David Wright would undergo surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back.

We want to see players, particularly of the caliber of the three aforementioned, play the game. Watching them rehab isn't entertaining.

The 2016 MLB draft is in the books, with 1,216 players selected over the course of the 40-round, three-day event.

With no clear-cut No. 1 talent in this year's class, the first round was as unpredictable as any in recent memory and a number of highly regarded prospects wound up slipping below their expected draft position as a result.

Now the focus for each team the next few weeks will be on signing its respective draft picks and getting their pro careers started.

The idea of making a living playing professional baseball probably pops into the minds of nearly every youngster at one point or another.

That's one of the reasons that it is so tough to accomplish. The level of competition is staggering, and there's no end to the amount of work that it takes to get there.

To those lucky enough to make it to the show, it's a non-stop battle to stay there. Players must constantly work to improve, upgrade their conditioning and learn more about the game.

With the MLB draft now in the books, the next major milestone on the MLB calendar is the All-Star break, and we're now less than a month away with the All-Star Game scheduled for July 12 in San Diego.

In the meantime, the MLB landscape continues to shift with each passing week, but everyone is still chasing the Chicago Cubs, who picked up two more series wins last week and are now 43-18 on the year.

The melee between Baltimore Orioles shortstop Manny Machado and Kansas City Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura unquestionably headlined MLB’s Week 10.

Ventura, a reputed rabble-rouser, drilled Machado in the midsection with a fastball. The Baltimore slugger charged the mound, the benches cleared and brawling ensued. Ultimately, both players were suspended, but the incident raised questions about whether MLB should take steps to eliminate brush-back pitches.

Soon-to-be Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza wasn't drafted until the 62nd round of the 1988 MLB draft, when the Los Angeles Dodgers made him the 1,390th overall selection. Not only was he the biggest steal of that draft, but he stands as one of the biggest draft steals of all time.