Kuzul

Yoenis Cespedes and Noah Syndergaard may have trotted into spring training for the New York Mets atop horses, but neither the players nor their steeds are what we’d call a dark horse.

No, the dark horses we’re concerned with are those we’d equate with The Simpsons‘ legendary Troy McClure, whose famous catchphrase—”You may remember me from…“—is something we could envision any of the players on our all-dark-horse team uttering as they arrived in camp.

These players aren’t the best of the best. Heck, some of them aren’t even the best of the mediocre.

While there are a handful of up-and-coming prospects included, many of these players never lived up to the hype that surrounded their arrival in the big leagues, while others are past-their-prime veterans looking to keep their baseball careers alive for another year.

They’ve all got the ability—and opportunity—to do just that and crack an Opening Day roster with strong showings this spring. The next few weeks will determine whether they’re able to seize that opportunity.

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The games may not count, but with the 2016 exhibition season underway, baseball has finally returned. Split squads, games pitting professionals against amateurs, and a slew of players who have little chance of cracking an Opening Day roster are all on display as we creep closer to the regular season.

While meaningful baseball is only four weeks away, those four weeks will feel like four months, especially when things begin to go awry. Injuries, ineffectiveness and any number of off-field distractions all contribute to chipping away at the optimism that currently permeates through every team’s camp.

And we’ve already begun to see those chips emerge.

Have injuries forced two teams to look outside their organizations for replacements? Will one of the game’s premier sluggers get his wish? Is a once highly touted prospect about to become the victim of a numbers game?

We’ll hit on all of that and more in this week’s edition of Fact or Fiction.

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We could talk about Major League Baseball’s most dominant starting rotations going into 2016, but that’s too easy. Instead, let’s gaze waaaaaaaaaay into the future.

As in, all the way to the year 2020.

A wise green man once said that always in motion is the future, so we’re not going to pretend to know how all 30 MLB rotations will line up over the next five seasons. Short of a detailed map of space time or a time-traveling DeLorean, nothing can help us solve such a complex equation.

What we can do, though, is use our imaginations with a few teams in particular.

We rounded up a list 10 clubs that should have dominant starting rotations come 2020, based on the established pitchers they have locked up, the prospects they have waiting in the wings and/or any future spending flexibility that could help them afford any additional impact talent.

As far as how we determined our rankings, let’s just say that we’ll be working toward the team whose theoretical 2020 rotation is both easy to imagine and easy on the imagination’s eyes.

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It’s not a disaster that rising stars like Corey Seager and J.P. Crawford landed berths on the list of 2016 MLB rookies who are being hyped up too soon.

What their inclusions signal is that these players performed so impressively in 2015 that they are both now facing monstrous expectations as the new campaign looms. The pair of shortstops represent the two types of players who cracked this list.

The first, like Seager, are guys who have tremendous upside but who also have extremely limited big league track records. The second, like Crawford, are players who have excelled in the minors but who are unlikely to live up to the buzz because they are long shots to earn major league jobs out of camp.

As it turns out, after singling out the five rookies for this list, Seager and Crawford aren’t the only shortstops who made the grade.

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Fact: Spring training has gotten off to a hectic start in 2016.

A three-team trade nearly came to fruition; a former All-Star was disciplined under MLB‘s domestic-violence policy; and Dexter Fowler, Yovani Gallardo and Juan Uribe all found new homes in the American League.

With a slew of notable players still available as free agents, including Ian Desmond, Austin Jackson and Tim Lincecum, and multiple teams still looking to fill offseason holes, chances are things won’t slow down anytime soon.

Could a slugger become his team’s leadoff hitter? Will an injured star with little chance of playing in 2016 sign a new contract? Is a rebuilding club so desperate to shed salary that it would give away a player in his prime?

We’ll hit on all of that and more in this week’s edition of Fact or Fiction.

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It’s admittedly a tad early to talk about Major League Baseball’s 2016 awards season, but you know what they say: A day in spring training without predictions is like a day without sunshine!

Or, in other word: Eh, might as well.

We’ll be putting our focus on the four major awards in the American and National League. In case you’re new to baseball or have just arrived from an alien planet—either way, here’s bidding you welcome—those would be the Manager of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and Most Valuable Player.

How did we make our picks? Simple. All it took was a mix of logic, projections, analysis and a bit of imagination for good measure. And what we came up with looks a bit like this…

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With spring training ramping up, teams across Major League Baseball are just about ready to start playing fake games. For the contenders, the idea will be to prepare to win as many real games as they can.

But how many real games will each contender win this season? We can’t put too fine a point on it, but we can at least play around with the over/unders.

Odds Shark has yet to publish over/unders for 2016 win totals, but the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Nevada, has, according to Danny Farris of Fox Sports. We’ll take a look at the teams pegged for at least 80 or more wins and use projections from Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs as well as good old-fashioned analysis to decide whether the over or the under is more likely.

We’ll begin with the contender projected for the fewest wins and end with the contender projected for the most wins. And because there are 21 teams to address, it wouldn’t hurt to pull up a comfy chair for this one.

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For rising star Mookie Betts and prominent trade acquisition Todd Frazier, it’s far from a disaster that they’ve landed berths on the 2016 MLB All-Hype Team.

What it means is the Boston Red Sox right fielder and the Chicago White Sox’s new third baseman posted such impressive overall numbers in 2015 that they’re now the subject of unrealistic expectations.

There are two types of players who landed spots on this squad. The first group includes ascending giants of the game like Betts. The second is composed of free-agent additions and trade pickups like Frazier who joined their new employers at exorbitant price tags.

All of the players on this list impressed in 2015, but after digging through the overall track records, considering sample sizes, home/road splits and first-/second-half splits, there’s no guarantee those numbers will repeat in 2016.

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With spring training in full swing this week, a select few will be looking to make the most of their preseason opportunities. There are generally two different types of players who find themselves as non-roster invitees for an MLB team during spring training:

• A veteran player who was unable to secure a guaranteed MLB deal and is looking to play his way onto the Opening Day roster.

• A top prospect who doesn’t have a real shot at making the Opening Day roster but will benefit from being in camp with the MLB guys and getting some experience against top competition.

That being said, a handful of guys from both groups always wind up showing enough in the preseason to break camp with the big league club.

Ahead is a look at 10 guys with a realistic chance of doing just that, based on the roster situations they are facing and the players they’ll be competing against for a job.

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The Major League Baseball offseason has been as entertaining and unpredictable as we could have hoped, yet several big-name players remain in free agency.

As spring training has just gotten underway, it’s time for front offices to fine-tune their rosters before the regular season gets started.

While some of the available free agents are experienced veterans and others are young guys looking for a fresh start, the talent level remains high among available players.

I’ve listed six players who I expect will sign in the near future and make an impact in the 2016 season, so let’s get to it!

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