Brock Beauchamp

Quite a few people have Wiggins and Rivera on their lists. By the way, all votes will be revealed and displayed in a thread after the completion of voting.

USA Today's Bob Nightengale mentioned that the Astros have checked in with the Cubs about Marcus Stroman and Cody Bellinger. Starting pitching always has high demand at the trade deadline but it appears there are several teams that should be interested in acquiring a right-handed center fielder who can hit; along with the Astros, the Yankees and Twins are two contenders with gaping holes at center. Bellinger is also making a hell of a case for maximum return as a rental: over the past 14 days, he has posted a 1.357 OPS with five home runs and is on pace for a 5+ win season over 550 plate appearances. View full rumor

I'd really hate to see the Cardinals get that kind of satisfaction out of the 2023 season.

Somehow, the content field for rumors decided it didn't want to give anyone but administrators access to it. Should be fixed now, sorry.

The Cubs put Justin Steele on the mound in hopes of securing a series win against the enigmatic Red Sox because after today, it's 13 consecutive games against teams 14+ games under .500. If the Cubs are going to make a run, now is the time.

It'd be on-brand.

To put Alex Kirilloff in context a bit, he's still only 25 years old. In 2019, he was BA's #15 prospect, MLB's #9 prospect, and BP's #39 prospect. In 2020, he didn't play because of the pandemic. Through 2021-2022, he kept suffering wrist injuries. He's still that guy who was so highly ranked, it's just a matter of whether he recovers from two years of wrist difficulties. He hasn't "failed" at the MLB level so much as he hasn't gotten runway as a healthy player for a long time. That's why I'd dislike this trade for the Twins and really like it for the Cubs. I'd bet on Kirilloff for a rental almost every time.

Really nice win that the Cubs needed. Get the win tomorrow and they are in decent shape with 13 consecutive games against teams way under .500.

Honestly, I’d hate Bellinger for Kirilloff as a Twins fan and jump all over it from the Cubs perspective. If Kirilloff’s wrist is right, he’s an AMAZING hitter, the kind of hitter who can thrive even more in a shift restricted environment. Maybe his wrist ain’t right. But I’d roll the dice on that for sure.

Boosting that trade value

Okay, just made a significant upgrade to the page. Every name is now in blue. Clicking that name will take you to one of three places, opened in a new tab so your voting session is not disrupted: 1. The NSBB top prospects page for that player, which includes scouting reports, stats, and related articles 2. The NSBB draft page for players who do not yet have statistics 3. Failing the two listed above, the MiLB.com page for that player This should make quick reference of players much easier when you have questions you need to check on the fly.

Not able to watch the game but checked the app and

It really depends how Kirilloff's wrist is viewed. If his wrist is healed and he returns to previous performance, he's not without power, he's just a line-drive power guy. 15-20 homers with a balanced offensive approach. Decent average, decent discipline, decent power. If his wrist never gets right, he's suddenly the powerless first base guy who will rely more on average and discipline to stay in baseball.

This trade could make a lot of sense, as the Twins need Bellinger's bat and while they don't have much top-end prospect talent, they have quite a bit of prospect depth that's good for swapping for rental players.

The Cubs tried to sneak a win out of the break but putting Kyle Hendricks on the mound. That didn't work. It puts the Cubs closer to a must-win situation as they put Stroman on the mound today and Justin Steele tomorrow.

Added these players. Whether we re-list after the deadline really depends on what the Cubs do. If they add a bunch of prospects, definitely. If they remove a few lower-ranking prospects, probably not.

It recorded your vote, we may have the wrong content copy generating after a vote.

Added!

I think mobile voting should be fixed if someone wants to give it a shot.

Fair enough. Someone already voted for him so I'll leave it this time and remove him next cycle, for sure.

Added Arias. We'll leave Estrada up because I hate service time disqualification. I mostly ignore it in favor of the 130 ABs/50 IPs threshold for prospects. I don't like to remove a prospect because they sat on the MLB Injured List for awhile and "graduated", even though no real questions were answered about them.

Added!

You can thank some of the folks over at Brewer Fanatic for this one, as a user over there gave me this idea and started me down this path, which has taken nearly a year to complete. This feature is really cool and the most exciting thing this site has launched since the original top 20 prospect tracker. But there are still some things to sort out so please read below: 1. You must have an account and be logged in to vote. If you don't have an account, click here. It literally requires 60 seconds to create an account. 2. Review our current top 20 prospect list, catch up on stats, rankings, etc. 3. Have your prospect list in your dirty little paws? Then flip on over to the new prospect voting page (after reading the rest of this, please). 4. Voting is super simple, you drag and drop players in the order you wish them to be. After you move a prospect, the list automatically renumbers so you don't lose track of the order. This works on mobile devices but it's a *vastly* better experience on desktop. Sorry, that's just how this kind of thing works. There's no great way to make something like this be as awesome on a phone screen. 5. Each prospect has a comment section where you can add any commentary you have on that player. At the bottom of the list, there is a general comment section to explain over-arching things you wish to mention. 6. Don't see a prospect you want to put on the list? Just pop back here and give me a mention (in a comment, start typing @Brock Beauchamp and then select my name when it appears). Mention the prospect you want added and I will do that asap. 7. Once you're done with all of it, click Save. You've now voted! 8. When the voting closes, a new thread will automatically generate in this forum with all of your rankings and comments for everyone to read and talk about. 9. You can only vote once. If you have voted in error, pop back here and again tag me, asking to have your vote deleted. I will remove it and you can vote again. UPDATE: voting will now close at 11:59pm Tuesday July 18th! If you have questions or comments, put 'em here!

Baseball is back and the Cubs open out of the break with a ten game home stand, seven games of which are against last-place teams. The narrative around this stretch is that it's pretty much make-or-break for the 2023 Cubs. The three games against the Red Sox will be tough but that is followed by three games against the Nationals, then four games against St Louis, who hopefully has sold some of its veteran pieces by that point. Had to edit this because I ended up on tomorrow's schedule without noticing. I'm very sleepy, it has been a long week.