Minor League Ball Gameday, May 20, 2016

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the Minor League Ball Gameday thread for May 20th, 2016.

The spreadsheets with all the daily prospect information will be gone for a day or two but will return ASAP. We will conduct the daily Gameday discussion right here.

Some key news items from yesterday and today:

****At Beyond the Boxscore, Randy Holt examines Addison Russell's emergence as an elite shortstop for the Chicago Cubs.

****The Texas Rangers want a new stadium, despite the fact that their current stadium, built in 1994, isn't exactly ancient. The problem seems to be the hot Texas weather: they want a retractable roof, but retrofitting Globe Life Stadium for such a roof would be incredibly expensive, probably costing as much as a new stadium, if it is even possible at all.

I can understand the weather issue, but c'mon. This will cost the taxpayers of Texas close to $500 million even with a 50/50 public/private financing split. The weather has been a problem for the Rangers since 1972 but it gets horribly hot and humid in Kansas City and St. Louis, too; I don't see how the weather is now a reason to build a new stadium. I'd be hard-pressed to support a new stadium when the old one is still viable but that's for the voters of Texas to decide, I suppose.

****At Fangraphs, Carson Cistulli's Fringe Five Prospect report is always worth a read.

****The Philadelphia Phillies promoted shortstop prospect J.P. Crawford to Triple-A.

****Three homers and five RBI last night for Houston Astros prospect J.D. Davis.