Minor League Ball Gameday, July 8

Good morning prospect watchers. I hope your July 4th weekend was enjoyable. Let's talk about baseball.

***Yesterday's Minor League Ball Gameday thread.

***Grant Green will be Prospect of the Day tomorrow. My main research goal this week is to finish the Top Prospect List revision. I'm not going to go to 150, it will either be Top 50 or Top 75.

***I thought I made my point yesterday about obnoxious behavior but some of you didn't get the memo, so I'll try again with simple language. Don't be a douchebag. As I mentioned yesterday, the irony is that some really intelligent, valued, and informed community members have fallen into this trap. I've tried to be really patient but the daily threads have been getting bogged down with name-calling frequently and it is beyond tiresome.

***Phillies prospect Maikel Franco continues to terrorize Eastern League pitching, going 3-for-4 last night for Reading and hitting .423 with five homers in his 17 games since being promoted to Double-A.

***Another recent promotion to the Eastern League: Boston Red Sox third base prospect Garin Cecchini, battering the ball to a pulp for Portland with a .418/.522/.600 line in 15 games. Between Franco, Cecchini, and Miguel Sano at New Britain, a lot of firepower has been inserted into the EL at third base lately.

***Someone asked me yesterday if I thought the Texas Rangers and manager Ron Washington were making a mistake in the way they are handling Jurickson Profar, playing him all over the field in the majors rather than having him in Triple-A playing every day. My answer is kinda, sorta, but not really. How's that for wishy-washy?

What I mean is this: if I were running the Rangers, Profar would be in Triple-A playing every day, at least until August. Purely selfishly, if he was in Triple-A I'd have a better chance to observe him in person. However, Washington and the Rangers front office have calculated that Profar is their best option for the super-utility roster spot right now.

Given Profar's immense talent and outstanding makeup, being used in this way strikes me as very unlikely to have any sort of negative long-term impact on his development. Being in a pennant race will certainly help build his base of personal experiences; you can make a case that it will actually help him despite any loss of at-bats in the short run. Therefore, while it is not what I would personally do, I understand why the Rangers are doing it, and I don't think it is going to hurt Profar in the long run. I should hope that fantasy owners might also appreciate Profar qualifying at multiple positions.

Washington is also a "mentor" type. . .Kirby Puckett of all people credited Washington (then a utiility infielder with the Twins) for helping him adapt to the majors and teaching him many finer points of the game. The Rangers likely believe that having Washington supervise Profar directly is better than the other options.

***Today's schedule of minor league games.

***Jason Hunt looks at Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop prospect Chris Owings.