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.
