For a Major League Baseball superstar, the pressure is inherited with the title.
That much is a given. Whether it is a player’s past production or simply his price tag, the stars of the game are looked upon to be among the best. This becomes especially true when that player’s team is expected to win. There is little pressure on a player like Joe Mauer, whose season is not expected to dictate how his team fares.
However, for other players, the pressure is going to be turned way up this year. And the abundance of those players has grown now that there is an extra Wild Card playoff slot and since a team not believed to be a championship contender at the start of last season—the Kansas City Royals—came within one swing of winning the World Series. Now even star players on fringe teams are feeling the heat.
This season it is easy to go up and down rosters and find these players. The massive amount of turnover through trades and free agency this offseason makes this even more so since those superstars are now expected to live up to marquee billings for different franchises.
It was easy to pick out more than 10 players who fit this bill, but for round-numbers’ sake, here they are in no particular order (you can determine that at the barstool or water cooler):