Fan News

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.

Let's travel back in time to 2011 and ponder what was then known about Edwin Encarnacion.

Having posted a .787 OPS two years in a row and holding a career .789 OPS, the Toronto Blue Jays slugger looked like a good, but not great, hitter. Heck, given Encarnacion's .453 career slugging percentage and 2008 high-water mark of 26 home runs, the term "slugger" barely applied.

For baseball fans, there's nothing quite like the allure of prospects. As every franchise hopes to stockpile young, cheap talent, fans buy into the idea of homegrown players emerging to become the next once-in-a-generation stars.

Over the past few years, emerging talents like Washington's Bryce Harper and Los Angeles' Mike Trout have become the gold standard for minor league standouts with the ability to make a difference at the big league level.

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

The Los Angeles Dodgers added several players to their farm system over the past few days through the MLB draft.

Most of those selected are still years away from becoming impact prospects, and only the team's first-round selection cracked last week's Top-10 list.

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.

Cleveland Indians third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall isn't a household name among most baseball fans. After a once-in-a-generation performance to cap off an early-season breakout campaign, that distinction could soon change for the former top prospect.

When the San Francisco Giants inked Tim Hudson to a two-year, $23 million deal in November, they wanted him to do two things: Stay healthy and pitch better than his old Oakland Athletics rotation-mate, Barry Zito, whose albatross contract with the Giants was finally expiring.

The Pittsburgh Pirates already have two homegrown talents in their outfield in Starling Marte and 2013 National League MVP Andrew McCutchen.

Now here comes a third. At long last, the Pirates are calling super-prospect Gregory Polanco to The Show.

The news was first reported by Polanco himself, who sent the word out via Twitter: