Rankings/List

Although the Philadelphia Phillies are in the midst of their longest winning streak in over a year, they are still one of the worst teams in baseball at 28-36. They sit dead last in the NL East, and despite being just a half-game behind the fourth-place New York Mets, they have shown no promise of contending this year.

After a disappointing week, the Atlanta Braves (33-29) find themselves in a tie atop the National League East division with the surging Washington Nationals.

The offense still hasn't consistently clicked, but the major reason for the Braves' recent struggles has been the performance of the bullpen.

A year after leading the majors with a 2.46 bullpen ERA, the Braves bullpen has slipped to a 3.35 ERA, which puts them sixth in the National League.

We're only a few days removed from the conclusion of the 2014 draft, but it's never too early to start looking ahead at what next year's class has to offer.

The ranking order used for this article was obtained from SoxProspects.com, with statistics via RedSox.com.

The Cincinnati Reds' top 10 prospects had a pretty mediocre week as a whole. The bats of Yorman Rodriguez and Tucker Barnhart were particularly cold.

One would think Barnhart's year could not get any worse, but he continues in a downward spiral. He finished the week off at just 1-for-14.

However, there were some positive results as well. Jesse Winker continued to swing the hottest bat in the Reds farm system—launching three more home runs.

Today officially marks the one-year anniversary of Los Angeles Dodgers polarizing superstar Yasiel Puig making his major league debut.

The Dodgers were 23-32 and 8.5 games back in the NL West at the time of his promotion, and they proceeded to go 69-38 the rest of the way, roaring back to take the division title by 11 games over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Entering the latter stages of their rebuilding program, the New York Mets have a crucial amateur draft coming up in June.

Over the recent years, the Mets have drafted very young players with an emphasis on tools rather than filling needs. With a much deeper farm system than just a half-decade ago, the Mets could potentially alter this strategy for 2014.

Is there anything better than a playoff beard?

There is, in fact. An all-the-time facial hairdo. Whether its James Harden hiding his true colors or Brett Keisel's mane flowing from under his football helmet, we love when athletes rock eccentric styles in the field of play.

Being a professional athlete is so much more than simply performing well and winning. The most successful superstars build personas that exist off the court or field, allowing them to connect with people who don't necessarily identify with their sport.

Fans often forget that athletes have real lives when they're not in uniform. Players have families, social lives, businesses and hobbies, too. Playing a sport is just a job, albeit a great one, that also requires athletes to have a public persona in street clothes.

After seven long weeks atop the Reds player power rankings, Johnny Cueto was officially lifted from the throne following a disastrous outing against the Washington Nationals. It was an odd sequence of events; the first two runs to cross the plate were unearned. By that time, Cueto had already been laboring, working nearly every full.