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When you are the Chicago Cubs, maybe the most cursed, endearing and followed team in Major League Baseball, there is no hiding. When you are this popular and have lost this ugly for this long, you cannot duck great hope.

And while most would try, the Cubs do not. The expectations are welcomed by a franchise that has not won a World Series since 1908 and more recently finished fifth in the National League Central five consecutive times.

It is also a franchise relying heavily on players in their early 20s who have never dealt with such expectations. That isn’t quelling the optimism, though.

“Bring on the expectations,” new manager Joe Maddon said during a Q&A session at the team’s fan event last weekend. “What’s wrong with that? I think it’s great.

“Every year when I go to spring training, I promise you, I’m going to talk 90-plus wins every year, I’m going to talk playoffs every year, and we’re going to believe it’s going to happen.”

The offbeat, silver-haired manager isn’t the only one who feels this way. A few days before Maddon’s statements, All-Star first baseman Anthony Rizzo predicted, “We’re going to win the NL Central.”

But Maddon is known for occasionally doing or saying outrageous things, and Rizzo is a 25-year-old player. Surely we would expect more modesty from the company’s buttoned-down brass, right?

Well, if you expected it, you were wrong. Sort of. Team president Theo Epstein’s remarks were tinged with humbleness, but he also made it clear that it was time for this organization to field a team that can get its massive fanbase excited.

“Please hold us accountable,” Epstein said at the event. “We’re trying to win. We’re also continuing to try to grow the organization. That means we’re going to be throwing a lot of young players out there. We ask for your patience with them because it’s a process. But hold us accountable.”

Cubs are in unique position of creating huge expectations yet are so young in so many key positions..tempering those same expectations

— karl ravech (@karlravechespn) December 10, 2014

There are plenty of reasons why the Cubs should be held accountable now. The team already signed Jon Lester to head their promising rotation, traded for outfielder Dexter Fowler and the door is not closed on adding another major piece to the pitching staff.

Still, it is one thing for the manager, a recently proven player and the front office to exude confidence and accept the expectations that come with a headline-making offseason. It is quite another for a group of guys who recently made their major league debuts, or who have yet to do so, to shoulder the burden of a 106-year drought.

The public does not care, apparently. Last month, Bovada, an online sports book, made the Cubs 12-1 favorites to win the World Series. The team is nowhere near that good—those odds are the same as the Detroit Tigers‘ and better than the St. Louis Cardinals‘—but odds shift depending on betters, a group of people who clearly went Cubs crazy after the team signed Lester.

The stark truth is those expectations are too much for a team counting on Rizzo and 24-year-old shortstop Starlin Castro to carry its offense.

Beyond that pair, Javier Baez, Arismendy Alcantara and Jorge Soler—who are all 23 or younger and have no more than 300 major league plate appearances—will be expected to contribute significantly. While that young trio is talented, growing pains are more likely than success in 2015.

Prospects are also contributing to fans’ expectations. Prospects, meaning players who have yet to play in a big league game. Kris Bryant, Addison Russell and C.J. Edwards, among several other promising minor leaguers, are all part of this new Cubs hope, but they are also all completely unproven at the major league level.

It is fine to welcome expectations if you’re the Cubs. It is time for Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer to start producing at the major league level, and it is understandable for fans to hold them accountable.

What is not understandable is the expectation that this young team—it could start up to four players with a combined 626 plate appearances—will contend for a division title, regardless of what Maddon and Rizzo say in January.

Before setting the bar for this season’s Cubs, some questions must be addressed. If we are asking if the expectations will be too high for this young team to handle, the answer is a definitive yes. However, that is only because the expectations are absurd. If we are asking if 2015 will be a stepping stone on the journey for the Cubs to eventually become a winner, the answer, again, is yes.

The Cubs have real talent, but it still has to be groomed. That is what much of 2015 will be about. Assuming the Cubs are aggressive again next offseason and players like Bryant and Edwards are ready to contribute in the majors, high expectations would be considered reasonable in 2016.

Until then, the hope has to grow with the youth movement. Rushing either of them is a mistake.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News, and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Projecting prospects is as much a baseball pastime as hot dogs, brush-back heaters and PEDs.

Debates ensue, disappointment is ever present and the occasional can’t-miss gem actually doesn’t miss. So is the way of the prospect world, one filled with teenagers and young 20-somethings full of unpredictability in a game that relies heavily on seeing the future.

That is the gamble every team takes, and that is the fun of it. For every Alex Rodriguez or David Price, there is a Bryan Bullington or Matt Bush to shine a humbling light on the entire process. Yet we will always predict, always hope and always throw a little caution out the clubhouse doors.

Looking ahead at the crop of prospects closest to the majors, some of them expected to make their debuts as soon as April, there are a handful that will not only be good, they will be All-Stars. By their fourth season in the big leagues, assuming good health, expect these top prospects to excel into the MidSummer Classic by 2017.

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Andre Ethier was once a pillar of the storied Los Angeles Dodgers organization, so stable a contributor that the previous ownership/front-office regime gave him a heavy eight-figure contract.

Now, two-and-a-half years later, Ethier has become shell of that productive player, and it is that very five-year, $85 million deal that makes him such a burden to his current team and any potential new one.

Bets on him to bounce back and again become the kind of player that finished sixth in the National League MVP voting in 2009 are low. The Dodgers are having trouble finding a taker in a trade, and that, coupled with his 2014 performance, could lead to Ethier becoming nothing more than a mediocre bench player for the duration of his career.

To make the situation stickier for the Dodgers, who still have too many outfielders for the available lineup spots, Ethier has basically made the play-me-or-trade-me call for the upcoming season.

Andre Ethier to Dodgers: I want to start here or somewhere else http://t.co/39jJRY7qbc

— Steve Dilbeck (@stevedilbeck) December 5, 2014

“Whether to play here every day or play somewhere else,” Ethier told Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times. “It was fun trying to win the way we did last year, but it didn’t prove any more successful than me playing every day or not playing every day.

“I’d rather play every day and help this team win—or whatever team it is—to the best of my ability.”

It does not seem likely the Dodgers will have room for Ethier in their lineup. Yasiel Puig, Joc Pederson and Carl Crawford are expected to get the huge bulk of the innings, with Scott Van Slyke and possibly Chris Heisey filling in off the bench. With Ethier coming off a season in which he posted a .249/.322/.370 line with four home runs and a 97 OPS-plus in 380 plate appearances, easily the worst season of his career, he is on the outside looking in. Beyond his poor offensive performance, Ethier was worth minus-7 Defensive Runs Saved last season, according to FanGraphs.

Trading him will not bring much in return, plus the Dodgers are going to have to eat a good portion of the guaranteed $56 million still left on his contract. What the Dodgers have to hope for now is for a team to become desperate as spring training nears.

The Baltimore Orioles could be such a team.

Rasmus, Aoki and Ethier still among Orioles’ outfield options – School of Roch: While the Orioles apparently s… http://t.co/8NEemvi2ZJ

— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) January 4, 2015

The Orioles have engaged the Dodgers in trade talks for Ethier, MASNSports.com’s Roch Kubatko reported. However, because of the length of Ethier’s deal, his age—he will be 33 in April—and his cost, even with the Dodgers picking up some of it, Ethier is not likely to be bound for Baltimore. He appears to be the team’s third option for a left-handed hitting outfielder behind Colby Rasmus and Nori Aoki.

There is also the idea of Ethier heading north to San Francisco to play for the rival Giants, another team in need of outfield help. The Giants would likely need plenty of salary relief from the Dodgers to make that happen, and the Dodgers helping the Giants save money just doesn’t seem probable.

The other thing clubs are concerned about is why Ethier is available in the first place. For a six-year span, Ethier was one of the more productive outfielders in the National League. From 2008 through 2013, he hit .286/.363/.471 with an .834 OPS and 127 OPS-plus. He also averaged 20 home runs a season, made two All-Star teams and won a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove.

But as Puig, Crawford and the since-traded Matt Kemp emerged as the team’s best outfield options last year, Ethier was relegated to the bench and found only 93 plate appearances in the second half.

For 2015, ZiPS projects Ethier to hit .259/.335/.392 with a 1.1 WAR. Steamer projects Ethier to go .261/.336/.400 with a 0.3 WAR. Assuming Ethier’s playing time is as limited as it was in the second half of last season, those numbers seem plausible.

However, it was only a season before that Ethier was still productive, getting on base at a .360 clip with a 121 OPS-plus and 3.0 WAR, based on Baseball-Reference calculations. While those numbers are not worthy of the $18 million he will make next season, it should definitely be worth the homework and kicking of the tires for some team with a need. If Ethier can bounce back as a regular, and even split some time as a designated hitter in the American League, he has real value.

Ending up in a division like the AL East, with smaller ballparks and thinner starting rotations, he could be an under-the-radar steal. However, having Rasmus and Aoki still available for much cheaper and for fewer years is hurting Ethier’s market. The upside for both could be equal to Ethier’s, if not higher in Rasmus’ case.

Ethier will probably never hit 30 home runs again or even put up an OPS-plus of 130 or higher as he did from 2008-2010, but one ugly season is too small a sample to call him washed up. He was unhappy last season, dealt with the nagging injury here and there and never found a rhythm because of the Dodgers’ outfield shuffles.

If the Dodgers are willing to pick up a large enough piece of his salary, he could be a strong change-of-scenery candidate for 2015.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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The Oakland A’s have planned to contend in 2015 all along.

While they were dumping All-Stars and stockpiling younger talent over the last two months, they were still planning on making their now-annual run at the top of their division. Billy Beane is still the organization’s general manager, and he still can draw his six shooter with the best in the American League West.

The A’s pulled off a stunning trade Saturday in what has been an offseason full of them, particularly for Oakland. Beane acquired second baseman/utility man Ben Zobrist and shortstop Yunel Escobar from the Tampa Bay Rays, pushing the A’s into contending position with a steady lineup and good-looking pitching staff.

It cost them, though. The Rays received Oakland’s top prospect, as rated by Baseball America last month and the publication’s No. 39 prospect overall, shortstop Daniel Robertson. Catcher John Jaso and outfielder prospect Boog Powell also go to Tampa Bay. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle first reported the trade Saturday morning, and others trickled in with further details.

Full trade, as first reported by @susanslusser: Zobrist and Y. Escobar to #Athletics for Jaso, SS Daniel Robertson and OF Boog Powell.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 10, 2015

Several baseball pundits and analysts have criticized Beane’s offseason moves, but those people had tunnel vision. The A’s were not being blown up, and the GM was not the bad guy. He was again surviving in the environment he’d been placed in and had a plan on how to do so the entire time.

“Billy is about as good as it gets as far as being able to handle that balance, keeping us competitive currently and looking down the road for the future,” A’s manager Bob Melvin told Slusser a month ago after the team traded away Brandon Moss.

When Beane was shuttling out All-Stars Josh Donaldson, Moss, Jeff Samardzija and Derek Norris, he was looking toward the future. His move to acquire Zobrist and Escobar, as when he traded Yoenis Cespedes for Jon Lester last July, is playing to win immediately.

Starting with that Cespedes deal, the A’s have dealt away five All-Stars in the last five-plus months, a block of trades that have sent some scrambling to put Beane in the stocks while prompting others to preach patience as we see how it ultimately plays out.

A’s fans don’t have Billy Beane‘s phone number so they’re taking it out on me on twitter.

— Ann Killion (@annkillion) October 3, 2014

Now we know. The A’s are pretty much done making moves now, and here is what we know heading into spring training in about five weeks: Their lineup is solid with an upgraded infield overall, they have a good starting rotation even without Lester and Samardzija, and the bullpen is still one of the best in the majors.

After double-checking the math, that outlook is pretty damn good.

“That total rebuild is not something we really believe in, and not something Billy or I want to do,” A’s assistant GM David Forst told Eno Sarris of FanGraphs last month. “It’s not enjoyable to sit through six months of a season and lose 95-100 games. Luckily, I’ve never had to do it.”

This year will not be any different. The A’s plan to play for a fourth consecutive playoff berth and a third division title in four years. With the addition of Zobrist, who is in a contract year, this team will contend.

If you don’t know Zobrist’s skill set or what he is worth to a team, don’t worry. You’re not alone. Zobrist is the most underrated, undervalued player in the game who can play multiple positions, though he will primarily play second base for Oakland.

Making $7.5 million next season, Zobrist has a 23.2 WAR since 2011 based on FanGraphs’ calculations. That is the fourth-highest total in the American League during that time, trailing a trio of superstars in Mike Trout (29.1), Miguel Cabrera (26.5) and Robinson Cano (24.3).

In each of the last six seasons, only Zobrist and Cabrera have been worth at least a 4.5 WAR by the Baseball-Reference.com calculation.

The A’s are losing a couple of highly regarded prospects in this deal—Powell was the Class-A Midwest League All-Star Game MVP last season before being suspended 50 games for amphetamines—but people can’t complain when Beane builds for the future, or future trades, and when he goes for it in the now.

That double standard is undeserved, especially since virtually the entire baseball-loving world slammed Beane for his “rebuild” before the 2012 season when he traded away three All-Stars only to win the division the following two years.

Beane’s track record earned him the benefit of the doubt during all of his earlier trades this offseason, even if he did not get it from everyone. This Zobrist/Escobar trade is why. Before Saturday, knee-jerk reactors had the A’s being a terrible baseball team next season. That was always laughable considering what remained, mainly a very good rotation and bullpen.

Now, those same people may very well call the A’s contenders even though Zobrist by himself does not make them such.

Beane traded away his recognized talent, but plenty is left, much of it still unrecognized by casual observers. With a spotlight on Beane and the A’s in 2015, the rest of the talent will soon be known commodities.

And maybe this offseason will be the reason people are patient with Beane if he makes other trades shortly down the road.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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Well more than two months have peeled off Major League Baseball’s offseason calendar, a hot-stove season that has been as active and stunning as any in recent memory. 

Yet it is not finished. Two big-money free agents still swim around untouched—Max Scherzer and James Shields—while several clubs with World Series visions remain a player away from being legitimate threats in October.

The rumor mills around Scherzer and Shields are certain to soon churn heavily, and any number of the teams in need of another acquisition could greatly use their services. Then again, not all of them need to stabilize or boost their rotations. Aside from those aces, position players remain on the market, available in trades or for a relatively modest free-agent fee.

How these teams plan to finish out their offseasons is still unclear, but make no mistake here: If they plan to win it all, they will need one more headline-making move.

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Pedro Martinez, the greatest pitcher ever. 

Not liking him is fine. Not every player in his era did. But denying his dominance at the height of one of the best offensive eras in the game’s history is unjustified.

Even if that first statement is not agreeable, it is not arguable that Martinez is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Anyone who left him off their HOF ballot, regardless of the reasoning, should have his or her privilege reviewed—and then maybe revoked.

Those people are few and far between, though. Martinez, in his first year on the ballot, was nearly a unanimous inductee Tuesday. He received 91.1 percent of the vote, the eighth-highest percentage for a pitcher in the history of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting for Hall of Fame inclusion.

“I don’t want to die and hear everybody say, ‘Oh, there goes one of the best players ever,'” the normally blunt and sometimes cocky Martinez said during the 2009 postseason. “If you’re going to give me props, just give them to me right now.”

No one is great forever. Other pitchers threw the ball for longer, until they were nearly half a century old. Others, including Martinez’s contemporary peers, bested him in the counting statistics. But for the time when any pitcher is considered to be great, for however many years that may be, none was greater than Martinez.

Martinez does not have the accumulation stats of some of his peers, including fellow 2015 inductee Randy Johnson, who picked up his final 57 victories in his final five seasons when he also had a 4.28 ERA and was 46 years old. Martinez retired at age 37 and had not qualified for an ERA title since age 33, injuries sapping him while he still had the ability to be elite.

Injuries may have cut down Martinez’s milestones, but they did not take away the dominance he provided. For a stretch of seven seasons, starting with his final one as a Montreal Expo up until his final one as ace of the Boston Red Sox, the Dominican right-hander was mesmerizing.

From five consecutive strikeouts in the 1999 All-Star Game to his 17-strikeout, one-hit performance in Yankee Stadium, Pedro’s memorable prime, which includes a stellar age-33 season with the New York Mets, was better than anyone else’s.

Of the 15 starting pitchers who outdo Martinez in terms of accumulated WAR for their best seven seasons—they do not have to be consecutive seasons—only three, including Johnson, pitched after 1968, the season dubbed “The Year of the Pitcher” that prompted the mound lowered from 15 inches to 10. One of those is Bob Gibson, one of the pitchers who excelled through 1968 to propel the rule change. Aside from them, good luck finding a color picture of the other dozen who have better peak WAR marks than Martinez.

Those other three post-1968 pitchers threw at least 1,057 more innings than Martinez, greatly helping their WAR totals. But when Martinez’s WAR total is prorated into a 200-inning box, he has greater value than any pitcher in baseball history (hat tip to SI.com’s Jay Jaffe for providing this barometer). His 5.9 WAR per 200 innings is better than Roger Clemens (5.7), Walter Johnson (5.6), Lefty Grove (5.3) and Johan Santana (5.1).

Also, Martinez’s career 154 ERA-plus is the best ever. ERA-plus is a rate stat that values consistency rather than accumulations, such as strikeouts per nine innings, which Martinez is second all-time (10.0) behind Randy Johnson (10.6, minimum 2,500 innings).

Over a seven-year stretch, from 1997 through 2003, no pitcher in his era was better than Martinez by ERA-plus. Randy Johnson included. 

Highest ERA+, 1997-2003: 1 Pedro Martinez 213 2 Randy Johnson 170 .. 5 Curt Schilling 141 7 Roger Clemens 133 8 Mike Mussina 129

— High Heat Stats MLB (@HighHeatStats) January 6, 2015

His 1999-2000 seasons came in the midst of the highest-scoring era in baseball since the 1930s. They also came at the height of an era that now polarizes the Hall of Fame of which Martinez is now a member. He pitched in a time when performance-enhancing drug use was widespread and not policed by Major League Baseball. Ballparks shrank, hitters expanded, and offense spiked.

But Martinez got better.

In each of those seasons, Martinez led the league in ERA, Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), strikeouts, ERA-plus, WHIP, hits per nine, home runs per nine, strikeouts per nine and strikeout-to-walk ratio. He won the Cy Young Award each season as well as finishing in the top five of American League MVP voting. He came in second to Ivan Rodriguez in 1999 although it is widely recognized now that Martinez’s season was better and likely helped Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw win MVP Awards.

For as good as 1999 was, Martinez was better in 2000. He posted the best single-season ERA-plus (291) since the mound was moved back to 60’6″ in 1893—his ERA-plus in 1999 (243) is eighth-highest all-time. He finished fifth in MVP voting that season while accepting his third Cy Young Award in four years.

One stat that goes against Martinez’s legacy is win total although we are coming to a point when the majority of baseball people understand there are much better ways to evaluate a pitcher. Martinez did not have 300 wins, making him just the second pitcher since 1991 to be elected without membership into that exclusive club. The other guy, Bert Blyleven, needed 14 years on the ballot and a grassroots campaign to gain induction.

With Martinez’s election this year, we can officially say the big gulp of voters has changed how pitchers and their statistics will be evaluated going forward. At least, we hope that to be true since win totals are so subjective. For perfect instance, Martinez did not get the win on June 3, 1995, when he retired the first 27 batters he faced through nine innings—normally a perfect game had his offense managed a single run during that time.

Physically, Martinez was a marvel. The product of deceptive arm speed, his changeup has an incredible case as the best anyone has ever thrown. He paired it with a mid-90s fastball that was just as deceptive since it came from a frame that was generously listed at 5’11”, 170 pounds. Guys who actually are 5’11”, 170 may laugh at those measurements if they ever stood next to Martinez during his prime. He later developed a slider, giving himself three top-shelf, run-preventing weapons.

He was the combative little guy with the arsenal to slay any monster who stepped into the box.

“Read the story of David in the Bible,” Martinez said in a snippet of an interview that aired on MLB Network on Tuesday. “I’m the David of baseball.”

He was also underappreciated in his prime, as he seemed to be in this HOF vote.

Pedro Martinez had 91 percent of writers’ votes. Not sure how 49 voters leave him off their ballots, but hey, he’s in, that’s what matters.

— Jason Mastrodonato (@JMastrodonato) January 6, 2015

Because baseball did not fully understand or value advanced metrics at the time of his peak, Martinez’s run could not be properly put into historical context. Now it can be. And it is, at the very least, as good as anyone who has pitched before or since.

For so long, names like Sandy Koufax, Walter Johnson and Bob Gibson were the historic pitching barometers. Now is the time to add Pedro Martinez to the list.

Advanced statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

When it becomes this meaningful, there is bound to be impactful fallout.

The 2015 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame voting results will be announced Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET, and if not much else, we already know that this ballot is one of the most intriguing in the history of the prestigious building at 25 Main St. in Cooperstown, New York.

This vote is likely to be the most accurate barometer concerning future tallies for controversial players like Barry Bonds and Rogers Clemens while also leading to changes in the voting process. It may also provide the baseball shrine with its largest class of inductees since 1936, the first year of balloting, one that brought in Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.

The 2015 Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote, whether people realize it or not, will impact the system for years to come. And based on preliminary indications, we should already have an idea of what will happen not only Tuesday but also in the near future.

The PED Bunch

Since Mark McGwire hit the ballot in 2007, we have annually monitored how voters treat players known to have used or who have been suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs. McGwire debuted on the ballot with 23.5 percent of the vote before peaking at 23.7 in 2010. Since then, he has lost support each year to the point where it is unclear if he will get the necessary five percent of the vote to stay on the ballot for a 10th time.

Other PED guys have since become HOF eligible with much better candidacy credentials intact, most notably Bonds and Clemens. Both debuted on the ballot and got 36.2 and 37.6 percent, respectively, only to see those numbers drop in 2014, their second years of eligibility.

However, as time passes, views on PED use shift toward leniency and new BBWAA voters cast their first ballots, it is completely realistic to see upticks for the PED candidates. We are not just talking about Bonds and Clemens, either. Suspected players, fair or not, like Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell are likely to see their total votes rise.

Based on the ballots already made public on different forums, which have been tabulated by Baseball Think Factory and HOF tracker Ryan Thibs, we know right around a quarter of the ballots. Based on that thin sample, we know it is possible to see spikes for Bonds and Clemens. That also tells us it is a reasonable expectation to see both eventually inducted even with the HOF shrinking the number of years a player can be on the ballot from 15 to 10.

As for McGwire and Sosa, it appears their lack of great numbers is what is more likely to keep them out, not their PED links.

The Biggio-Piazza Redo

The Bonds-Clemens prediction is further supported by the fact that Thibs’ collection of ballots tells us that not only will Biggio and Piazza get in this year, they also will gain a significant amount of votes in 2015. Piazza, according to the public ballots, has already gained 17 votes, and that number stands to continue growing as voters realize just how worthy his numbers make him.

This is still a small sample size, though. As of Sunday evening, 140 ballots were made public, and Piazza had 79.3 percent of those. It won’t be too surprising to see the rest of the ballots drop Piazza’s total just under the required 75 percent line, making him this year’s Biggio. In fact, that outcome is more likely than Piazza getting in at this point.

Biggio missed the required 75 percent for induction by two votes last year despite his numbers being questionable for inclusion. With the ballot more stacked this year than in 2014, Biggio has lost support from some of the public voters—he lost votes from four voters who voted for him last year—but he has also gained 20 votes overall, including 11 votes from first-time balloters. 

While Biggio will lose more votes because of newcomers like Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz, he will probably gain borderline voters partly because they don’t want to see him go through the heartbreak of barely missing the mark for a second consecutive year.

The No-Chance Boys

From Don Mattingly to McGwire, there are plenty of guys with no chance at induction, including first-timers like Nomar Garciaparra.

Included with those three will be guys like Sosa, Larry Walker, Gary Sheffield, Jeff Kent, Fred McGriff and Alan Trammell. Mattingly, Trammell and Lee Smith were grandfathered into the 15-year system, but others like McGriff are going to be hurt by having five fewer years of eligibility to grow their totals. This vote will be Mattingly’s 15th, and according to the votes made public thus far, he will struggle to repeat last year’s 8.2 percent.

One of the more polarizing guys on the ballot not linked to PEDs is Edgar Martinez, who is in his sixth year on the ballot and received 25.2 percent of the vote in 2014. Because he was a designated hitter for the majority of his career, he is being unfairly punished and will again be snubbed. He also isn’t gaining or losing any votes, which tells us he isn’t likely to come anywhere close to 75 percent in the next five ballots. 

Just put #EdgarMartinez in the freaking Hall of Fame, and you never have to hear it from us again, K? Solid idea. Work on it.

— Megan Shear (@Section331) January 4, 2015

Changes to the Voting Process

There are few people, voters included, who do not believe at least minor tweaks need to happen to the HOF voting system. Whether it be voters who fail to take their votes seriously by not researching candidates, those who abstain from the process altogether as a way to protest or those who have a vote but haven’t covered a game in decades, the process is flawed at its membership.

Fixes have been suggested, but it is likely that the BBWAA and/or the Hall of Fame’s board of directors will drag their feet to make drastic changes. However, the BBWAA did suggest expanding the ballot from 10 players to 12, a result of the membership’s appointed committee doing a yearlong study of the voting process.

The change was recommended at last month’s MLB winter meetings. Considering the current logjam of viable candidates—we are strictly talking stats—the HOF would be wise to accept the recommendation.

Assuming that change is implemented for next year’s vote, we should expect it to be the lone adjustment for 2016. The removal of votes from current voters, some of whom are no longer covering the game or even working in sports, is not expected to happen anytime soon.

The unfortunate part of that is people no longer part of the game who have other career obligations cannot dedicate the necessary number of hours it takes to research and make thoroughly informed decisions on players.

While expanding the number of players on the ballot will help, that part of the process is only a minor problem for now.

What to Expect in 2016

With their vote totals on the rise this year, next year will be time to pop champagne for Piazza, Bagwell and Tim Raines. As research and statistics play a bigger role in not only the day-to-day coverage of games but also the HOF voting process, and as PED links start playing a lesser part in the voting, those three will get what they are due.

If this year’s class—Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Smoltz and Biggio at the least—can help clear the bottleneck on the ballot, it will open things up for someone like Raines, whose numbers are becoming more respected as we learn to better put them into context.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The frustration is understandable.

To watch your team sit meekly by during one of the craziest, most active offseasons in recent memory can make a fanbase stir crazy. That holds especially true when you watch that same team lose pivotal pieces in free agency and not replace them.

Yes, the inactivity of the Baltimore Orioles can be maddening for some. It’s no fun not having a ticket to the coolest party of the offseason, especially when teams within your own division are some of the guests of honor.

Then again, when you run away with your division by 12 games and get back a couple of past All-Stars from injury and expect another to return to form, how much do you actually need to add, even if teams around you are getting a bit better?

@SportsonEarth @Orioles slow offseason and still put a winning team on the field. I would like to see a signing or two…but I’ll trust them

— Jake Nazar (@ATVS_JakeNazar) December 30, 2014

The Orioles expect to have third baseman Manny Machado and catcher Matt Wieters back early in the season if not by Opening Day, and both have been All-Stars—Wieters made the American League squad last summer. The team also has high hopes that Chris Davis will return from his amphetamine suspension and get back to being something close to the hitter who posted a 168 OPS-plus—68 percent better than a league-average player—and finished third in MVP voting in 2013.

But it’s not like the O’s are doing nothing. General manager Dan Duquette has explored trades and kicked a lot of free-agent tires, but his most notable move of the offseason has been bringing back Delmon Young. There could be more to come very soon, though.

Manager Buck Showalter is expected to fly to Alabama to meet with outfielder Colby Rasmus over the next few days, The Baltimore Sun beat writer Eduardo A. Encina reported Wednesday. The reason for the meeting is for Showalter to determine if Rasmus, who has a spotty reputation, would be a good fit within the Orioles’ clubhouse. Showalter did the same thing last year with Nelson Cruz and Delmon Young, both players with off-the-field question marks at the time, and both were productive offensive additions en route to the team’s AL East title.

Because Cruz, who hit 40 home runs and had a 140 OPS-plus, is gone, as is right fielder Nick Markakis, the Orioles need outfield help. They are interested in Rasmus on a one-year deal worth between $6-8 million, according to Encina. If Rasmus can get back to the 127 OPS-plus he put up in 2013 with the Toronto Blue Jays, he would give Baltimore their second consecutive award for Steal of the Offseason, Cruz being the first.

Duquette also has interest in Ichiro Suzuki and Nori Aoki at more limited levels.

Orioles still showing interest in Nori Aoki, in addition to Colby Rasmus and Ichiro Suzuki among free-agent outfielders.

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 29, 2014

Also, only partly because the team lost left-hander Andrew Miller, the Orioles are still looking for bullpen help.

#orioles also still looking to add depth to ‘pen & catching (despite 5 catchers on 40-man roster). Exploring major and minor league deals

— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) December 31, 2014

Even with this further exploration of outfield and bullpen options, the Orioles are operating as if time and rehab are their biggest offseason acquisitions. And maybe they are correct in that assessment.

Machado is a star on the rise and still just 22 years old. He suffered his second significant knee injury of his career last August the day the Orioles built a six-game lead in the division. He was done for the rest of the season, but the Orioles pushed the lead to as many as 14 games without him. At the time of the injury, Machado was arguably playing better than he did in 2013 when he was an All-Star, won a Gold Glove and finished ninth in MVP voting in his age 20-21 season.

Having him back and healthy is clearly a positive impact. However, the Orioles did much of what they did last season with Machado healthy. They missed him for only about a month and a half, plus the postseason. It’s not like they played all of 2014 minus Machado, so his comeback is definitely impactful, but not ground shaking.

Wieters is a different story. He suffered an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery last June, although it kept him out of the lineup starting May 11. He was still voted as an All-Star starter, but the selection, while nice, was unwarranted despite him hitting .308/.339/.500 with a 135 OPS-plus through 26 games.

There have been questions about when Wieters could actually return, but his agent, Scott Boras, assured the baseball world his client would be ready for Opening Day. Position players undergoing Tommy John surgery usually are not lost for as long as pitchers who undergo the procedure. Having Wieters in the lineup for the start of the season would be a big addition for the Orioles, and it could help supplement the loss of Cruz if Wieters continues to progress offensively.

As for Davis, the Orioles had him for nearly an entire season before his suspension, and the only reason he was even an average player was because he managed to hit 26 home runs in 127 games. Aside from that, he hit .196/.300/.404 with a 98 OPS-plus and struck out 173 times against 60 walks.

The suspension was for Davis’ use of Adderall, a drug for which he previously had a therapeutic-use exemption. Davis failed to get one for 2014 and was suspended 25 games, which will keep him out of the Opening Day lineup this year as he has one more game to serve. Davis will have the TUE for 2015, and the Orioles are hoping his allowed use of Adderall will help get the former home run champ back to his 2013 form.

In an offseason filled with blockbuster trades, big-time free-agent signings and some improved rosters in the AL East, it can be maddening to watch the Orioles stand pat. But while the headlines might be going to the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays for their offseason moves, the truth is none of those teams have gotten that much better. They all still have holes and serious questions about their rosters.

Meanwhile, the Orioles are cruising through the winter, content with minor tweaks rather than huge overhauls because they expect their own players to be back healthy and productive come next spring. And that just may be enough for their repeat performance in 2015.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News, and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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The Ben Zobrist bidding got a lot hotter Tuesday, and finding teams not interested in trading for the versatile veteran is a lot easier than determining who wants him. 

As first reported by CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman and confirmed by Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Tampa Bay Rays inked second baseman/shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera to a one-year deal on Tuesday. The signing is viewed as a way for the Rays to replace Zobrist since it seems more a matter of when rather than if the team will move him.

The Rays will obviously not be selling Zobrist at his highest value, but one thing is certain: His stock will not get any higher than it is now.

Zobrist will turn 34 in May and can become a free agent after next season, so it’s almost stunning the Rays didn’t trade him a couple years ago. Still, the interest in him on the trade market is ridiculously high because he is about as productive a position player as there is.

it would’ve been easier to list the teams that aren’t a fit for Ben Zobrist, but I guess I like taking the long route sometimes

— Matt Snyder (@MattSnyderCBS) December 30, 2014

“Trades are risky by nature,” Rays general manager Matt Silverman told Roger Mooney of The Tampa Tribune nearly two weeks ago. “The easiest thing to do is stand pat, and that can be just as risky if not more so. We’re looking to be proactive and take steps to improve our club, and that’s what we’ve been doing all offseason.”

Actually, what the Rays have been doing is slicing payroll and preparing for the future, which even included trading a 24-year-old, controllable Wil Myers. Cabrera’s signing, while doing nothing to make the roster younger (he is 29), is a stopgap in preparation for a Zobrist trade. Zobrist would be the first player in franchise history to start a 10th consecutive season with the Rays if he made it to Opening Day.

It is true Zobrist‘s name has not been thrown about the way Matt Kemp’s was or the way Cole Hamels’ has, but teams have been calling the Rays about Zobrist since early November. Now that clubs know it’s a virtual lock that the Rays will move him—it is assumed Cabrera will play second base, the spot Zobrist mostly occupied over the last two seasons—he will become the most sought-after player on the trade market in the short term.

#Rays could keep Zobrist, Y. Escobar and A. Cabrera, sitting Escobar against tough RHPs, playing Zobrist more in OF. But all that unlikely.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 30, 2014

Zobrist is probably the most underrated, undervalued player in baseball. He will make $7.5 million next season, and since 2011, he has a 23.2 WAR by FanGraphs‘ calculations. That is the fourth-highest total in the American League behind Mike Trout (29.1), Miguel Cabrera (26.5) and Robinson Cano (24.3). It’s incredible to think that is the kind of company Zobrist keeps relative to his stature.

Zobrist can also play every position on the diamond except the battery, and he still has a positive defensive WAR and Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) aggregate. His best defensive position by the DRS metric in 2014 was left field, and that is why the San Francisco Giants seem like quite the logical landing spot.

Attn: Giants RT@msimonespn: Only 2 players have been worth 4.5 @baseball_ref WAR in each of the last 6 seasons: Miguel Cabrera & Ben Zobrist

— JB Long (@JB_Long) December 30, 2014

The Giants lost their primary left fielder when Mike Morse signed with the Miami Marlins, and they clearly are not comfortable with Gregor Blanco platooning with someone else. The Giants would prefer an everyday left fielder, and Zobrist fits that model.

Not only that, but there are still a lot of questions about what incumbent second baseman Joe Panik can do over a season of 600 plate appearances. He hit .305/.343/.368 in 2014, but that came in just 287 plate appearances, and he was still just a 104 On-Base Plus Slugging Plus (OPS+) player. Zobrist would not only cover the Giants in left field, he can also be about as good an insurance policy at second base as there is available.

Zobrist could also spell new third baseman Casey McGehee from time to time although that can be said about almost every position when it comes to Zobrist.

In a Giants offseason filled with plenty of courting but not payoff, Zobrist could be the deal to ease the disappointment.

However, there are a lot of sharks in Zobrist‘s waters. The Washington Nationals, who let Cabrera walk, need a second baseman. The Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and Chicago Cubs could use outfield help. The New York Yankees could use middle infield help, as could the Toronto Blue Jays.

The winning bid will have to be hefty. The Rays value Zobrist greatly—there’s a reason they’ve held onto him for so long—and they could probably live with starting the season with him in uniform with the expectation of making him a qualifying offer at the end of the season. Or they could even wait until the July non-waiver trade deadline to move him out.

Plus, the Los Angeles Angels set the price for a contract-year second baseman when they dealt Howie Kendrick to the Los Angeles Dodgers for highly rated pitching prospect Andrew Heaney.

The Rays had little reason to sign Cabrera unless they were inclined to trade Zobrist. Again, this is more than likely a matter of when than if, and it will come down to which buying team most values the most undervalued player in the majors.

Advanced statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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For any team looking for a summer rental, there are two clear properties that stand out above all other options.

Johnny Cueto and Jordan Zimmermann are aces being made available for trade because their teams have one year of control before they can hit the open market as free agents. The Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals, respectively, do not believe they can sign their pitchers for market value, so they are attempting to get more than a compensatory draft pick for them before they can bolt, although both teams have engaged the pitchers on extension talks this month.

The market for both aces seems to have been tentatively set by Jon Lester, who signed a six-year, $155 million deal with the Chicago Cubs earlier this month, and it might go higher depending on what Max Scherzer gets later this offseason. While Cueto and Zimmermann have expressed a desire to stay with the teams that drafted them, they will do so only “if the numbers are right,” as Cueto’s agent, Bryce Dixon, told MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon. Both players have informed their teams they will not negotiate extensions once the regular season starts. 

“If it’s a fair value, like I have said all along, I would gladly sign,” Zimmermann said about a contract extension with the Nationals, via Chase Hughes of NatsInsider.com. “But at the end of the day, it’s gotta be something that’s fair and if it’s not, then I’ll be moving on.”

Assuming the Detroit Tigers will opt to keep David Price and that Cueto and Zimmermann are more desirable in trade than the Nationals’ Doug Fister, the question becomes which No. 1 starter is worth the price and risk of the one-year rental.

The first and biggest concerns are the prices. And, man, are they high.

The Reds have some hope to contend in 2015 despite a loaded National League Central to wade through, and they have already traded pitchers Mat Latos and Alfredo Simon. That means they are likely to hang on to Cueto and try to get him to re-up in Cincinnati, although they have open ears. 

Sources: Clubs keep asking about Cueto. #Reds steer talk to Latos, Leake, Simon. Listening on Cueto, though. Would bring biggest return.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 9, 2014

It also means that if the Reds do agree to trade their ace, they will have to get the kind of package in return that makes them the unanimous winner in the deal. Or, as Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com put it last month, the Reds would have to be “absolutely overwhelmed” to trade Cueto.

The price for Zimmermann is no cheaper. There are two key clues to support that. First, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo told The Washington Post‘s James Wagner, “We’re planning on having all three of them [at spring training].” He was referring to soon-to-be free agents Zimmermann, right-hander Fister and shortstop Ian Desmond.

Second, Rizzo appears intent on getting back high-profile, major league-ready prospects in return for Zimmermann, as he has targeted the Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners as possible trade partners, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported. Both organizations have deep pools of young and controllable talent.

Rosenthal’s report also claimed Rizzo offered Zimmermann and Desmond to Seattle for hot prospects Taijuan Walker and Brad Miller but was rebuffed for obvious reasons—cost of the veterans ($27.5 million) and Seattle didn’t want to lose cheap control of Walker and Miller for rentals.

Assuming a team is willing to dig deep enough into their farm system to acquire Cueto or Zimmerman, each ace’s monetary cost is another issue. Zimmermann will make $16.5 million in 2015, more than twice the $7.5 million he made last season. Cueto will earn $10 million next year, clearly making him the more attractive target, especially since both will essentially pitch as 29-year-olds next season—Cueto turns 29 in February, Zimmermann in May.

Durability is a bit of a concern, since Cueto missed significant time in 2011 and 2013. He was limited to 11 starts in 2013 because of a lat muscle injury, but in his full years of 2012 and 2014, he ended up leading the National League in starts, pitched more than 200 innings, and finished in the top four of Cy Young Award voting both years.

For comparison’s sake, Zimmermann has made 32 starts in each of the last three seasons, although he topped 200 innings only once.

There is also the fact that Cueto has done the majority of his work in the launching pad that is Great American Ball Park, a stadium that surrenders home runs at the fourth-highest rate in the majors. Washington’s Nationals Park gives them up at the second-lowest rate, making Cueto’s home run numbers a bit more attractive. However, the Reds had a much better defense than the Nationals in 2014, which makes Zimmermann’s line last season more impressive.

The fact is both players will likely cost a fortune to acquire and will more than likely explore free agency rather than re-signing with a new team. Those risks are built in. Considering that plus the 2015 cost of each, Cueto may be the less risky acquisition simply based on what it would take to land him. Plus he has been better for longer and was arguably better than Zimmerman in the 2014 vacuum.

It does not seem likely either ace will be traded before they report to spring training unless their respective clubs significantly lower their asking prices. But if it happens, either pitcher could turn into the most impactful trade acquisition of the offseason.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News, and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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