Going into the season the Birmingham Barons had a load of talent on their roster. Six of our preseason top seven prospects started the season on the Barons (the seventh, Jordan Danks, joined the Barons in early May). With that in mind it shouldn’t be surprising that they have one of the best records in all of Minor League Baseball.

However, the team has a new look to it than it did on Opening Day and throughout most of the first half. It started with Gordon Beckham getting promoted in late May to AAA Charlotte. Then, a couple weeks later, Aaron Poreda made his way to the big leagues. In mid-June, Brandon Allen was moved up to Charlotte and a couple weeks ago Tyler Flowers received the same fate, though Allen has since been traded. That leaves currently only three of the original seven top prospects remaining on the team, but that isn’t to say the Barons aren’t still the most talented team in the Sox farm system.

Despite more notable departures from Brian Omogrosso and Lucas Harrell, the Barons have been able to reload through the high-A Winston-Salem Dash, who also won their first half division title. Along with Danks, Christian Marrero, Dan Hudson (who started in Kannapolis this season) and Charlie Shirek joined the Barons to replace the departed prospects.

Overall, that’s a lot of movement, but nothing extraordinary. So who cares? We often ignore wins and losses at FutureSox. Let’s change that for now. The Barons were 48-21 in the first half and have gone 18-11 in the second half. They have cooled down, clearly missing some of the sparks of the departed Barons, but are still just one game out of first place in their division in the second half.

Looking at where they have lost their production, it’s mostly in the lineup. Hudson, Shirek and Justin Cassel (demoted from Charlotte in a swap with Harrell) have more than matched the production of Poreda, Omogrosso and Harrell. Hudson and Shirek have both been able to put themselves on the long-term radar of the big league club and should get a look next spring. Whether or not they will be competing for a spot on the team is another story. First they need to survive the last week before the trade deadline and the offseason without getting traded, not a lock with Ken Williams as GM.

Getting back to the Barons, they haven’t been able to replace the production of Beckham, Flowers and Allen. Receiving David Cook from Charlotte after a short promotion will help bolster the middle of the lineup, but it’s tough to replace a good hitting shortstop and catcher. The Barons will need Dayan Viciedo to continue to improve (or start improving again?) and John Shelby to get it going if they are going to succeed in the Southern League playoffs. Of course, the team may have another new look by then.