Rankings/List

The St. Louis Cardinals once again have the best record in baseball. If they can match that performance in the second half of the season, they're looking at over 100 wins.

But in order to do so, some players may need to step up.

As is natural, not everyone within the club has been pulling their weight lately. I've taken a look at the three hottest and coldest players heading into the break, keeping in mind statistics, capabilities and their value to the team.

Read on to find out who's hot and who's not!

It is kind of fun to use the rosters of the Futures Games kind of like you use those copies of the Baseball America Prospect Handbook that you bought so many years ago. You can see what happened and which players became what they should have become.

All of those players were chosen for those games because they seemed to have a world of potential at the time.

Naturally, the people using the teams know something about baseball and many of their picks did indeed become quality major league players.

The MLB Futures game provides prospects with an excellent opportunity to showcase their skills against other top prospects in front of scouts from around the league. But it won't be long before these minor league All-Stars are playing in the big league version of the game. 

Players like Grady Sizemore, Alfonso Soriano and Jose Reyes have parlayed MVP performances in the Futures Game into multiple All-Star performances later on in their career. 

The 2013 first-year player draft signing deadline expired at 5 p.m. ET on Friday and was just as uneventful as expected.

"Back, back, back, back, back...GONE!"

There are several teams on the cusp of falling out of playoff contention, which is always fun as it opens up the potential for even more trade rumors.

Seven teams—the Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, Miami Marlins, New York Mets, Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox—are currently more than 10 games back of a playoff spot, a very tough spot from which to bounce back. More could join them soon in the land of non-contenders. 

A pair of Dodgers prospects highlights this week’s installment of the hottest pitchers in the minor leagues.

Before a team pulls the trigger on a July trade, it'll likely have revisited several trades from past years in order remind itself of why it would trade a productive veteran for an unproven minor leaguer or vice versa.

Who are the 10 best defensive catchers?

The catching position is vital to the success of any ball club and often is the smartest player on the field. It's no wonder that 12 of the 30 major league managers are former catchers.

While they are the No. 2 position in the scorecard, they're more often number one in the field.

After reviewing plenty of qualified battery members for this list, it came down to the best in regards to the following criteria: position prowess, significance to his club and league-wide recognition.

Saturday evening marked the release of the 2013 MLB All-Star roster for the American and National League squads.

Since the fans get the final say, there are bound to be disagreements, but there were several players who were particularly undeserving of such gaudy status.

In some instances, the league's lowly teams have to send at least one player, and that resulted in a rather strange selection. However, there were others who didn't quite do enough to be deserving of a nod to the Midsummer Classic.