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The Atlanta Braves are one of the hottest teams in baseball right now, having won nine of their last 10 games.

And, they've done it with a combination of pitching and hitting.

With their recent success, and the early-season questions of needing to acquire another outfielder to take the place of Martin Prado, I'm wondering if it's best for the Braves to stand pat with their lineup.

It seems as though Theo Epstein has finally found a suitor for struggling veteran outfielder, Marlon Byrd. Reported by ESPN Chicago, Byrd is apparently shipping up to Boston. 

Last month I wrote a piece about Reds second base prospect Brodie Greene. This month, I'm bringing you another second baseman, Henry Rodriguez.

Last year at this time, Rick Peterson was getting ready to take a trip to Italy, not the place where one of pitching’s most innovative minds usually spend March. It was just the second time in more than 35 years that Peterson had been away from a baseball diamond for any substantial stretch of time.

By a show of hands, how many of you have really heard of Donald Lutz prior to seeing this article?

If everyone is totally honest, I bet there are very few people with their hands raised right now.

Lutz is a 23-year-old prospect in the Reds' minor league organization who's showing signs of a bright future. Lutz was born in Watertown, NY, but signed as an international free agent from Germany in 2007. Since then, Lutz has played in the minors.

Last year, among all the messes that the Dodgers organization was dealing with, one of them was their closer. 

The Dodgers opened the season with Broxton, who failed badly.  Then they tried several replacements like Kenley Jansen and others.  When Jansen hit the DL, they brought up Javy Guerra, and the rest is history. 

Is it possible for a player to be one of the consensus top five players in his league and still be underrated?

If that player is Matt Kemp, then the answer is an unequivocal Yes.

Brett Lawrie, 2B Toronto Blue Jays (23 percent owned in Yahoo, 22.7 percent in ESPN)

Current Stat Line: 2/4, 1 RBI

Brett Lawrie has finally arrived! He tore up AAA pitching this season going .353/64/18/61/13. In my opinion, the call-up should have happened much earlier—but it didn't. Then Lawrie suffered a hand injury on May 31st which kept him out of the game for a while. Now that it is completely healed, expect him to rake for the Blue jays.

Major League Baseball is filled with young talent.

Some of these men have been highly touted, while some of them are still flying under the radar. As they continue to fill up the sheets, fans will recognize their talents by late September. 

There are a couple stipulations to this list: 

1. They made "The Show" no earlier than the 2010 season.

 2. They have played a game for their respective club already.  

These next 25 guys are the new generation and future of baseball.

This afternoon, Derek Jeter hit his 3000^th hit.

All of our lives, we’ve lived in the shadows of the Bronx Bombers; we’ve hid our faces behind the Yankees' World Championship rings and hung our heads at Hall of Fame introductions. How have we never had a Derek Jeter?