Folks, we did it. Through much perseverance, patience and a lot of complaining online, Owen Caissie is now a top-100 prospect on MLB Pipeline's updated list.

It has been so obvious that Caissie was deserving of the honor, but better late than never.

MLB Pipeline corrected their early-season mistake of dropping Kevin Alcántara from the top-prospects list and now they've made the right decision to rank Caissie among the best players across all 30 farm systems.

Cubs Prospects in MLB Pipeline Top-100 List (Aug. 10 Update)

OF - Pete Crow-Armstrong: 12th
RHP - Cade Horton: 30th
OF - Owen Caissie: 69th
OF - Kevin Alcántara: 77th
RHP - Ben Brown: 92nd

The Cubs are one of six teams with five prospects in the latest version of MLB Pipeline's top-100 list behind only the Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates, who each have six players in the rankings.

Owen Caissie's Breakout 2023 Season

I mean, look at these numbers! Especially that last one.

There were big concerns in the first half of the season and they were fair, as Caissie's strikeout rate was well above 30%. However, did everyone kind of ignore that Caissie kept improving on his biggest flaw at the plate as the season progressed? Also, there is no way you can't bring up the fact that this is Caissie's age-20 season and at Double-A he's playing against guys 2-3 years older than he is on average.

Owen Caissie Month-by-Month Stats
April: .306/.405/.613, 43.2 K%, 13.5 BB%
May: .273/.337/.534, 33.7 K%, 9.2 BB%
June: .226/.347/.369, 31.7 K%, 13.9 BB%
July: .325/.469/.623, 25.5 K%, 18.4 BB%
August: .458/.533/1.000, 16.7 K%, 16.7 BB%

The strikeout rate has gone down every month and I started the article by pointing out how Caissie has been on fire since July 14, because that's when the Southern League stopped using a pre-tacked, "enhanced grip" baseball that MLB was testing out in the minors. That ball was helping out pitchers a lot, which led to strikeout rates sky-rocketing at Double-A.

Well, ever since that pre-tacked baseball was taken out, Caissie is showing why he should be regarded as one of the best prospects in baseball.

Owen Caissie Last 20 Games
.356/.473/.712
202 wRC+, 1.185 OPS
24.2 K%, 17.7 BB%
6 HR, 22 RBI, 20 R, 6 2B, 1 3B, 16 BB

So, Caissie has obviously taken his game to the next level in the past 1-2 months, but it's not like he hasn't been good all year. His overall numbers have remained great, slashing .293/.399/.561, a 150 wRC+ with 21 home runs.

Caissie's 150 wRC+ ranks third-best in the Southern League. The two players ahead of him are both 25-years-old.

It is great to see Caissie finally getting some respect among one of the national prospect rankings. Now, we have to bully Baseball America into doing the same. Baseball America also released its updated top-100 prospects list on Thursday. The Cubs have two in BA's top-20, but no Caissie...yet.