Kuzul

Another year, another season of Major League Baseball having more talented rookies than it knows what to do with. And if nothing else, that makes for enticing Rookie of the Year races.

This year’s Rookie of the Year contestants might not be quite as strong as a 2015 class that was among the best in recent memory, but it’s no slouch. There are good competitions going for the American League and National League Rookie of the Year awards, and our aim is to break down how they’re looking.

That involves weighing two things: total body of work and the way each player is trending. And in these rankings, the second thing matters just as much as the first.

We’ll begin with a quick look at some rookies who are on the edges of the races, and then dive into the top five contenders for each league.

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It seems as if Opening Day was only a few weeks ago, but here we sit, with Memorial Day fast approaching and nearly two months of baseball’s regular season already behind us. Time flies, whether you’re having fun or not.

While there’s lots of baseball left to be played, we’ve already gotten the answers to some of the questions we had heading into the season. David Ortiz is doing some serious damage as he takes his final lap around the majors, Byron Buxton still isn’t ready for prime time, and performance-enhancing drugs are still an issue, albeit not on the same scale they used to be.

But there are still plenty of queries that remain—and it might be weeks, if not months before we get the answers we seek.

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The 2016 MLB draft is rapidly approaching, as the three-day event begins on June 9.

There’s been plenty of talk about who the Philadelphia Phillies might grab with the No. 1 overall pick, and most baseball fans are well-acquainted with this year’s crop of projected first-round picks, but there’s a full 40 rounds worth of picks to be made.

Hitting on your first-round selection is paramount, but finding value in the rounds to come is equally important as teams look to bolster their farm system with the next late-round steal.

What follows is a look at one sleeper at each position in this year’s draft class, with the focus being on players who likely won’t be selected in the first round but are capable of making a first-round impact down the line.

Included along with the specifics for each prospect is a look at where they rank among the Baseball America Top 500.

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Roughly a quarter of the 2016 MLB season is in the books, but there’s still a ton of baseball ahead.

Another shaky week from the Chicago Cubs has a handful of teams chomping at the bit for a chance to claim the No. 1 spot in these rankings, including the San Francisco Giants, who just took two of three from them over the weekend.

Meanwhile, things continue to shuffle around in the top 10 with terrific battles going on atop the AL East, AL West and NL East standings.

With so many teams clustered within a few games of the .500 mark in either direction, one particularly good or bad week of play can result in a significant climb or drop in the rankings.

We see that this week as the Kansas City Royals rise and the Los Angeles Dodgers fall.

One thing remains true: These rankings are a fluid process, with teams moving up or down based on where they ranked the previous week. If a club keeps winning, it will keep climbing—it’s as simple as that.

Here’s a look at where all 30 MLB teams stand.

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And we’re back!

After taking last week off, B/R’s All-Dud Team of the Week makes its triumphant return, and just in time. There were some truly awful performances put forth in the seventh week of the regular season. How awful were they?

If we were making a movie, these are the type of nausea-inducing showings that would garner a rare NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. That’s right—we’re talking Showgirls awful.

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Rougned Odor certainly grabbed the attention of MLB and may have caught the eye Dana White, president of the UFC.

Odor, a promising second baseman for the Texas Rangers, hit Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista flush on the jaw with a hook that would make Conor McGregor jealous. It was not a good look for baseball or Odor.

The brawl between the two teams was Sunday—the start of a tumultuous week in baseball.

It continued with the firing of Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. Many came to the defense of Gonzalez, who was managing a Braves team in rebuild mode with no intention of contending this season.

But his dismissal raised greater concerns about the diversity among baseball managers. That’s a discussion that continued through the end of the week.

Commissioner Rob Manfred later expressed his concern over the increasing length of games this season. MLB has made an effort to shorten games.

And New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey, once considered a rising star, has suddenly become a liability in 2016. He has a concerning 5.77 ERA and 1.655 WHIP through nine starts this season.

Brighter headlines included Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg’s continued dominance. He looks like the player many expected he would develop into when the Nationals drafted him first overall in 2010.

But this week had a negative undertone. What can we take away from a topsy-turvy Week 7?

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There are countless reasons why some MLB players take time to finally reach their potential and deliver a breakout season. We’re talking about the kind of campaign that makes us change the way we look at them.

It could be a change of scenery or a managerial change that leads to something finally clicking. It could be a mechanical or mental adjustment. It could be that a player decided to finally ditch the nasty pair of lucky socks he’s had since high school and put a fresh pair on his feet.

Whatever the reason, every regular season delivers a number of breakout performances, and this year is no different. While it’s true that most All-Breakout teams are composed of younger players, some veterans have reached new heights and are worthy of inclusion as well.

As for how we went about determining who got a starting nod at each position, much of the decision-making was left to a player’s individual numbers. How far above his previous career norms he’s playing was a big factor, but expectations and reputation played a part as well.

In situations where the numbers were so close there wasn’t a clear choice, personal preference entered into the equation.

For example, let’s say we’ve got two players battling it out for a roster spot at shortstop. One is a highly touted 24-year-old prospect, the other a 28-year-old whose career, thus far, has been relatively unimpressive. Like most people, we love an underdog and might lean toward the 28-year-old.

Then again, maybe we wouldn’t.

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Our position-by-position MLB player rankings will once again be a monthly staple throughout the 2016 campaign, and it’s time for another update as we’ve reached roughly the quarter mark of the season.

Preseason rankings were published on March 4, with our first update coming on April 21.

The following takes into account players’ all-around offensive abilities, their defensive contributions as well as what they have meant to the success of their respective teams.

This is an overview of the top 10 players at each spot based solely on what they have done in 2016, so unlike in our preseason and March rankings, past success and future expectations did not play a part.

On top of naming the top 10 overall players at each position, we’ve included a quick look at who has fallen out of the rankings since last time as well as the top rookie performers in an effort to shine some light on who may be the future at each spot.

There’s obviously some level of subjectivity with an exercise like this, and chances are no one will agree entirely with these rankings, but hopefully this can provide an overview of where things currently stand at each spot on the diamond.

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High expectations lead to grand disappointments. For an alarmingly high number of MLB stars slumping in 2016, small sample sizes also don’t help.

Any baseball player who sticks around long enough will endure a rough patch during his career. Most of these guys, however, are paid exorbitant salaries to avoid those ebbs and flows. It’s one thing when the No. 7 hitter or back-end starter labors, but the award-winning star and nine-figure investment are supposed to rise above human fallibility.

Even studs can conceal a tumultuous July, but a poor start sticks out like an original summer blockbuster not about superheroes. Look back to this list in October, and it shouldn’t be all gloom for these slumping stars.

Yet the disappointing players highlighted carry legitimate flaws that can’t be discredited as flukes. David Price could have frequented the list, as he opened his megadeal with the Boston Red Sox by posting a 6.00 ERA. He has struck out 65 batters over 48 innings while sporting a 2.55 fielding independent pitching (FIP), though, so he gets a pass since his struggles look reversible. 

Unfortunately for the following players, advanced stats can’t cover their blemishes. Approaching the one-quarter mark of 2016, they have yet to turn the corner on discouraging starts.

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For a sport that’s not known for being fast-paced, time really flies in baseball. The 2016 MLB season is already a quarter of the way in the bag.

That means we’re here for an updated look at the major awards races.

We last checked in with the four big honors—Manager of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and Most Valuable Player—in the American and National Leagues as the season headed into May. Not all of the races have changed leaders since then, but enough have to make things interesting.

Read on for our pick for each award, complete with one runner-up in every category.

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