MLB

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.

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.

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:

Lonnie Chisenhall had himself a night to remember on Monday. The Cleveland Indians third baseman registered five hits, three home runs and nine runs batted in against the Texas Rangers, per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

He capped off his historic performance with a home run in the top of the eighth to make it a 17-6 game in favor of the Indians. The Tribe would end up winning 17-7.

For those who have felt forced to wear your sunglasses at night, breaking UV news: It’s now safe to actually look at the Houston Astros as they play baseball without fear of severely damaging your retinas.

George Springer and Jon Singleton are the best things to come along since Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio...or, at least, since the mothballing of those funky 1970s rainbow uniforms (which, like the recent batch of abominable baseball in Houston, also caused lots of folks to break out their shades).