Kuzul

Our position-by-position MLB player rankings will once again be a monthly staple throughout the upcoming season, and it’s time for our first update roughly three weeks removed from Opening Day.

The preseason edition of these rankings was published March 4, and that will serve as a jumping-off point for our first update.

Similar to the way expectations still play a major role in our weekly team power rankings early in the year, an individual player’s track record and past success are still weighted heavily in the following rankings.

Simply basing these rankings off what guys have done so far in 2016 would not paint an accurate picture of who the 10 best players currently are at that position, and that was the ultimate goal.

With that in mind, it was much tougher for a player to push his way into the top 10 with three strong weeks than it was for a player to drop out of the top 10 as a result of a slow start.

Positional depth also played a role, as it was easier to climb into the shortstop rankings than it was to earn a place among the top first basemen.

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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Let’s begin with this caveat: We are a little more than two weeks into the 2016 MLB season.

Making definitive predictions about a season not even 10 percent finished is as futile a task as predicting the Republican nominee. Depending on your loyalties, if these were two random weeks in July, emotional reactions wouldn’t be nearly as polarizing.

The last-place Houston Astros wouldn’t be as panicked. The first-place Colorado Rockies may not be as optimistic. But this is all baseball has provided with which to rank its six divisions.

So don’t take this as a prediction of any kind. Simply, it’s an evaluation of MLB’s divisions over the first two weeks, top-to-bottom, regarding how well each has lived up to expectation, and a look into why each of these divisions may be struggling or thriving.

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Two weeks are now in the books here in the 2016 MLB season, and already there has been no shortage of excitement and intrigue around the league.

That being said, we are dealing with an incredibly small sample size at this point, so it’s important not to put too much stock in the early returns—both good and bad.

That’s especially true with our weekly power rankings, as this exercise is not meant to simply be a mirror of the current standings.

Instead it’s a fluid process, with teams rising and falling based on where they were ranked the previous week. If a team keeps winning, it will keep climbing—it’s as simple as that.

This early in the season, preseason expectations and long-term outlook still play a role in where a team falls, though the more games we get into the season, the less of a factor that becomes.

So two weeks into the 2016 season, here is a look at where all 30 MLB teams stand.

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In the grand scheme of things, one week in April doesn’t mean a whole lot over the course of a 162-game MLB season.

However, for a handful of players around the league off to slow starts, one week must feel like an eternity when the scoreboard shows a sub-.200 batting average or a double-digit ERA.

With that in mind, what follows is a look at Week 2’s biggest duds of the 2016 MLB season, with one player chosen to represent each position along with a starting pitcher and a closer.

To qualify as a dud, a player needed to significantly struggle relative to his expectations over the past week.

There is still plenty of time for the following players to get on track, but the early returns have not been good.

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We saw a lot of old and new during Week 2 of this baseball season, but little in between.

MLB’s youngest grabbed this week’s headlines, whether it was Bryce Harper reaffirming his status as the face of baseball or rookies Trevor Story, Jeremy Hazelbaker and Kenta Maeda continuing stellar freshman campaigns.

The old came in the form of discussion over Pablo Sandoval’s weight—a storyline that has followed the third baseman at every stop in his MLB career. Fan safety again was in the spotlight, a question that is getting old and one that desperately needs an answer.

Then, there was also a storyline that fused the two: The old, rundown Cubs clubhouse morphed into a futuristic, new locale for its players that looks like an athlete’s version of Disneyland.

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We’re two weeks into the 2016 MLB season, which means—well, who knows?

The Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers are in first place in their respective divisions, which sounds about right. On the other hand, the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox are also in first, which fewer would have predicted.

The point is, it’s way early.

Here’s something we do know: Some players stuffed the stat sheet over the past week, and for that, they deserve to be recognized.

Enter Bleacher Report’s Team of the Week. 

For those who are new to the party, these are the guys (one per position plus a designated hitter) who busted box scores between April 9 and April 15.

To qualify, a player needs at least two starts at the position in question or at least one start in the case of pitchers. Speaking of which, we’re only considering starting hurlers—sorry, relievers.

And while this is chiefly about individual output, we awarded bonus points if a strong performance led to a notch in the win column.

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As the Washington Nationals learned in painful fashion just a season ago, in the bigs, everything that can go wrong will go wrong.

While the neighboring New York Mets rose as the power in the the National League East, a flood of injuries combined with underwhelming play by just about everyone not named Bryce Harper ensured that the Nats would be left out of the October conversation.

After so much went wrong in 2015, Washington will need a lot to go right if the team is going to vault back into the postseason picture in 2016.

It all starts with the reigning MVP, but the Nats will also need a bounce-back season from another emerging star who was also an MVP factor not that long ago and some steady leadership from the new boss in town, Dusty Baker.

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One of the most exciting parts of any new MLB season is watching the next wave of stars arrive with breakout performances.

Whether it’s a rookie making a major impact in his first campaign or an established MLB player taking that next step, there are always a handful of emerging stars each year.

The tricky part in the early-going is deciding whether a hot start over the first couple of weeks is the real deal or if significant regression will follow in the days and weeks to come.

Making that determination requires a long look into a player’s track record, keeping an eye out for any major regression indicators and taking into account any adjustments the player might have made in the offseason, such as tweaking his batting stance or adding a pitch.

So with all of that in mind, ahead is a look at 10 scorching MLB starts that could lead to legitimate breakout seasons in 2016.

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The minor league season may only be just over a week old, but there have already been a number of impressive performances put forth by some of baseball’s most highly touted prospects.

But not all impressive performances are of the head-turning variety—and they don’t all belong to baseball’s top young talent.

Take Texas’ Joey Gallo, for example. We’ve come to expect big power numbers from the slugging third baseman, so while his four home runs in seven games in a return to Texas’ Triple-A affiliate is noteworthy, it’d be far more impressive if he had done so without striking out seven times in the process.

Boston’s Aaron Wilkerson has done his best Pedro Martinez impression thus far, allowing one earned run and six baserunners over 10.2 innings of work while striking out 17 batters for the team’s Double-A affiliate, but he’s not considered a prospect, much less a highly touted one.

The only requirement for inclusion on this list is that a player appears on MLB.com’s top 100 prospects list. Wilkerson not only fails to meet that criteria, he doesn’t even make an appearance on Boston’s top 30 prospects list.

Which top prospects have done enough to turn our heads? Let’s take a look.

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Major League Baseball isn’t hurting for young stars these days. It has enough. More than enough, even.

But since more are on the way, you might as well get to know them ahead of time.

After 2015 gave MLB one of its best rookie classes ever, notables like Corey Seager, Byron Buxton, Steven Matz and Nomar Mazara are already in position to keep the good times rolling in 2016. And looking ahead, there are at least eight more future superstars who could make the leap from the minors to the majors before the end of the year.

Since they’ve already debuted in the majors, slugging Texas Rangers prospect Joey Gallo and speedy Washington Nationals prospect Trea Turner are not included on this list. As for the players who are included, they stand out because they’re solid bets to become great players, rather than great bets to become solid players. We’re prioritizing high upside as highlighted by scouting reports and minor league production.

Step into the box whenever you’re ready.

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