Kuzul

From Lou Gehrig’s famous farewell to Hank Aaron’s 715th trip around the bases, MLB history is littered with heartwarming moments.

They’re the kind of stirring and moving scenes that make you stop, think and ultimately smile.

It’s a delicate task to rank the 10 most heartwarming moments of all time, but after digging through the archives, that’s exactly what we are about to do.

In the process of compiling this list, we considered two key factors:

1. How prominently the main character(s) from a given moment fit into the narrative of baseball
2. Whether the moment was just about an on-field accomplishment or whether it also related to a larger societal issue

As a result, the moment that claims the No. 1 spot in these rankings is not only highly important in the history of the game but also in the history of our country.

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Don’t tell the Chicago Cubs and the New York Mets that baseball is boring.

Thanks to Chicago’s absurd collection of bats and New York’s contingent of power arms, those two teams are set up to be two of the most exciting MLB squads in 2016.

In the process of drawing up the excitement rankings, we searched for three key attributes:

• High-power offenses
• Elite starting pitching
• Shutdown bullpens

To measure all 30 teams against each other, we looked back at 2015 stats and also factored offseason free-agent and trade additions into the equation.

It’s important to remember that just because we predict these 10 teams to be the most exciting, they aren’t necessarily going to be the best. At the same time, it just so happens that the two teams at the top of the list were dangerous in 2015 and should be again in the upcoming campaign.

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The rough MLB winter rolls on for Dexter Fowler, Ian Desmond and Yovani Gallardo.

There’s just two weeks to go before spring training camps fire up around Arizona and Florida, and those three guys headline a free-agent market that is unusually deep for the first week of February.

The big question in the latest round of hot questions is trying to pinpoint where Fowler, Desmond and Gallardo, who are all lugging around draft-pick compensation, will end up signing.

There’s also room for some news about one of the offseason’s busiest and boldest teams. Plus, there’s a spot on the list for some talk about how to combat the rise of tanking.

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Julio Urias and Raul Adalberto Mondesi are not just two of the top prospects in the game, but also the kind of rising talents who will make fans stop this spring and say, “Whoa, who was that?”

The list that follows is flooded with players of that ilk. Many of the head-turning farmhands who made the grade are the No. 1 prospect in their respective system, but that wasn’t the case for everyone.

Some of the players who earned this distinction are here because they have a big-time, can’t-miss tool—from an electric pitch to prime-time pop to superspeed.

In some cases, difficult decisions had to be made because individual farms had such a wealth of deserving candidates. In those situations, factors like 2015 second-half performance and whether an unfamiliar player was entering his first spring with a new club were among the tiebreakers.

In a nod to all those fans of teams that start with W’s, T’s and S’s, we’ll run through the list of head-turners in reverse alphabetical order. So now, off to D.C.

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Kyle Schwarber and Mookie Betts are the kind of phenoms who just aren’t playing around.

In 2015, the Chicago Cubs’ masher and the Boston Red Sox’s sparkplug demonstrated that they’re the type of players who have the tools—and who have drawn the praise of coaches and execs—to be more than just your run-of-the-mill stars.

Schwarber and Betts are among the cavalry of young position players ready to launch directly into the superstar stratosphere—the realm occupied by the likes of Bryce Harper, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen and Josh Donaldson.

For the purpose of this exercise, players had to have accumulated less than two years of big league service time to be eligible, but there was room for one guy who narrowly eclipsed that threshold. As it turns out, that future superstar happens to be a teammate of Betts.

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Dexter Fowler, Ian Desmond, Yovani Gallardo and Howie Kendrick have a lot in common.

They’re all quality big leaguers, and they’re all unemployed. That second similarity is a product of that nasty draft-pick compensation they’re lugging around after declining qualifying offers from their old employers.

With MLB spring training just a couple of weeks away, the murky futures of that forgotten foursome stand out as the biggest question mark of the offseason.

As we tackle the latest round of questions and answers, there’s also time to explore the most recent speculation surrounding one of the game’s most polarizing players.

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With MLB spring training still two weeks away, now is not the time for big league skippers to be writing in their lineups with a Sharpie.

But it’s also not too soon to break out the No. 2 pencils and sketch out the batting orders for all 30 major league squads.

In order to project how all these lineups will shake out, we took a look back at the iterations that each manager chose in 2015 and also considered how the new free-agent and trade acquisitions fit into the mix.

For a variety of teams around the game, the biggest question with spring training looming is trying to figure out who will be leading off. That’s true for a club like the Toronto Blue Jays, who own the scariest lineup in the majors. It’s also true for the Chicago Cubs, who might just have the scariest lineup in the National League.

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One of the best parts about MLB spring training is getting the chance to watch dark horses like Trayce Thompson and Aaron Sanchez, who will be angling to steal jobs from more-established teammates.

Surveying the bigs, there is an array of low-key guys like Thompson and Sanchez who don’t have the inside track to a regular gig but who have the potential to make it happen.

All of the players who cracked this list offer tremendous upside, and all but one posted superb numbers—either in the minors or the majors—in 2015. They’re all about to be embroiled in big-time position battles this spring.

In the case of Sanchez, he’s not only got the stats to back up his bid but also a vote of confidence from one of his higher-profile teammates.

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It’s been a long winter for Carlos Gonzalez—one of those MLB stars who just can’t seem to shake those pesky trade rumors.

CarGo is the most prominent player left stranded on the block, but he’s got plenty of company from some fellow outfielders who are also twisting in the trade winds. With Yoenis Cespedes finally off the board, there’s reason to believe the trade market for those guys will begin to ramp up.

To figure out the top potential landing spots for each of those bats, we’ve considered two key factors:

• Published reports from throughout the winter
• The remaining needs of the various logical suitors

Outfielders like Gonzalez dominate the list, but there’s also room for one big-time backstop who is not only a top bounce-back candidate but is also playing on a bargain of a salary.

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Finally, after much delay, Chris Davis and Justin Upton are off the board, but Yoenis Cespedes has yet to escape his winter purgatory as the MLB offseason draws to a close.

Based on some puzzling comments from the New York Mets’ top decision-maker, it doesn’t sound like a return to Citi Field is in the works. But there is a real chance Cespedes could remain in the National League East in 2016.

Cespedes is easily the most prominent big leaguer who’s left unemployed, but he’s far from the the only quality player who’s still on the job hunt.

Aside from those free-agent question marks, there’s also room in this week’s round of questions and answers for a breakdown of a new big-time trade chip and an examination of all the latest on the Aroldis Chapman front.

Will Jonathan Lucroy Be with the Milwaukee Brewers on Opening Day?

Jonathan Lucroy isn’t afraid to speak his mind.

“I’m not going to sit here and say we’re going to compete for the playoffs this year,” Lucroy told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “If I did that, you’d call me a liar. I’d lose credibility and respect.”

As the backstop went on to admit, “Rebuilding is not a lot of fun for any veteran guy.” The Brew Crew, which dropped 94 contests in 2015 and has been shedding valuable assets at a furious rate, is clearly rebuilding.

But that doesn’t mean jettisoning the 2014 NL All-Star is the ideal way to proceed with the teardown. As Haudricourt argued, moving Lucroy now would be a classic example of “selling low.” Last season, the right-handed hitter posted just a .717 OPS as a busted toe and a concussion derailed his campaign.

The best route for the Brewers would be to slow-play it with the 29-year-old.

What Milwaukee needs to do is let Lucroy regain his 2014 form, which saw him land in the No. 4 spot on the Senior Circuit MVP ballot. The team could then spark a bidding war in July as October contenders jostle to find that final piece.

Based on the numbers, the Seattle Mariners look like a potential summer match. Last season, M’s catchers combined to post some staggeringly bad numbers. As a group, the players were worst in the bigs in categories like average (.159) and OPS (.464).

As Dave Heller of Fox Sports wrote, one complication is that the Mariners have already imported Chris Iannetta to step in behind the plate. Then again, Iannetta hit .188 in 2015, and if there’s one takeaway from Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto’s brief reign in the Pacific Northwest, it’s that the exec loves to make trades.

The Answer: Yes, the team will wait until July to trade him.

Is Aroldis Chapman Going to Get Suspended?

Aroldis Chapman won’t be facing any charges for an alleged domestic dispute from last October, per Ken Davidoff of the New York Post.

As Davidoff reported, here’s the breakdown about how the decision was made: “Broward Assistant State Attorney Stefanie Newman wrote in a close-out memo Wednesday that conflicting accounts and insufficient evidence from the October incident made a conviction unlikely.”

Even if Chapman is out of the legal woods, the memo, which can be read in its entirety via Diana Moskovitz of Deadspin, provides plenty of reason to believe there’s still a lot left to be determined about the closer’s playing status as MLB ramps up its investigation.

The memo describes a slew of “undisputed facts,” and one of the ugliest relates to Chapman’s shooting his firearm eight times in his detached garage: “Several bullet strikes were identified by police on the wall and concrete floor where the defendant may have shot into, or where the bullets had ricocheted when he fired his weapon inside the garage.”

That passage reveals reckless and horrendously bad decision-making from Chapman. It’s not just an awful look, but also bad timing for the New York Yankees relief ace.

Baseball implemented its new domestic violence policy in August, and commissioner Rob Manfred has the latitude to dish out a suspension even if a player isn’t convicted of a crime, as Davidoff noted.

During the recent quarterly meeting of MLB owners, Manfred foreshadowed what could be coming down. “When you have a new policy, the first ones take on a special significance in terms of tone and precedent and all those things,” Manfred said Thursday, per Davidoff.

Maybe the commissioner won’t hand Chapman a major suspension. But only a fool would count on seeing the four-time All-Star in pinstripes on Opening Day.

The Answer: Yes, Chapman will be suspended.

What’s Up with the Infield Market?

Winter is here, and it’s been especially unkind to one particular group of players:

Even after turning in a dud of a year in 2015 (.233 average), Ian Desmond is the headliner of that bunch. Like Howie Kendrick, the longtime Washington Nationals shortstop is lugging around a qualifying offer, and the attached draft-pick compensation is crushing his market.

It takes some digging to find any reported landing spots for the three-time Silver Slugger.

Back in December, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle reported that the Houston Astros were “eyeing” Desmond to play somewhere other than shortstop.

Aside from Desmond and Kendrick, the draft-pick baggage is stalling things out for all the other infielders.

From the perspective of a club, there’s no sense in rummaging through the bargain bin for second-tier guys like David Freese, Jimmy Rollins or Juan Uribe until they find out just how low the price will drop on Desmond and Kendrick.

They aren’t infielders, but Dexter Fowler and Yovani Gallardo are the other two qualifying-offer casualties. With the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire Dec. 1, 2016, remedying the QO-induced quagmire looms as a major talking point.

The Answer: The qualifying offer system is bogging everything down.

Who’s Going to Sign Yoenis Cespedes?

For a guy who literally runs the club and signs the checks, New York Mets CEO Fred Wilpon sure doesn’t sound like he has the slightest clue about what’s going on in Queens.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Wilpon said when reporters asked about the team’s chances of bringing back Yoenis Cespedes, via Ken Davidoff. “I’ll stick with what [GM] Sandy [Alderson] said.”

As Davidoff detailed, Alderson explained that the Mets continue to talk with the Cuban’s camp. Per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, New York is “unwilling” to give Cespedes more than three years, but their division neighbor the Washington Nationals have offered five.

Signing La Potencia would likely require the Nats to clear space by shipping out another outfielder already on the roster, but it would be opportunistic for the team to bring in the game-changer. With Bryce Harper—the unanimous NL MVP in 2015—only under team control for three more seasons, this is the moment for Washington to strike.

As Rosenthal sees it, the Nationals have the ideal new boss to help Cespedes thrive: “[Dusty] Baker speaks Spanish. His specialty is connecting with players. He managed Barry Bonds with the Giants and a Cuban star with the Reds, closer Aroldis Chapman. He surely would welcome the opportunity to manage Cespedes.”

Jon Heyman of MLB Network and WFAN reported that Washington is moving aggressively to snap up the masher:

The Nationals should also look into the idea of giving Cespedes an opt-out after three seasons that lines up with when Harper could potentially bolt in free agency.

Such a clause would give Washington the chance to capitalize on Harper’s tenure while providing Cespedes with the incentive to post monster numbers before seeking yet another payday at the end of the 2018 season.

The Answer: Washington will land the slugger.

All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and MLB.com.

If you want to talk baseball, find me on Twitter @KarlBuscheck.

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