Kuzul

Whether acquired as a free agent or via trade, the biggest acquisitions in baseball this past offseason all arrived in spring training with hefty expectations. Some have lived up to the hype. Others, well, let’s just say they wish we were grading on a curve.

For our red pen spares nobody’s feelings.

While it may seem unfair to grade someone now, considering that the exhibition season is less than two weeks old, those small sample sizes of work may provide some hints at what to expect and were the primary factor in how we handed out grades. Health, as well as off-field impact and issues, were also taken into account.

Players who re-signed with their previous team were not considered, so you won’t see the likes of Yoenis Cespedes or Dexter Fowler on the pages that follow. What you will see, however, is a wide range of marks, from the very good to the very bad.

Who made the honor roll? Who finds themselves in danger of failing? Let’s take a look.

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With spring training games in full swing and position battles going strong, all 30 MLB teams have at least a handful of major storylines surrounding the club.

We are still four weeks from Opening Day, and plenty of new storylines will pop up in the weeks to come as a result of surprise performances and unexpected injuries.

For the time being, though, what follows is a look at each team’s biggest storyline of 2016 spring training.

It’s a mix of position battles, health concerns, bounce-back candidates, fan expectations and trade talks that gives a nice overview of what each team is focusing on right now.

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Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create baseball’s ultimate lineup, one that will play in the biggest game ever played. The pitchers you’ll face remain a mystery—chances are they’ll be the best of the best—and you can only pick from current players.

Who do you choose?

It’s not as easy as it seems, as there are any number of ways to approach such a task. We kept with tradition by putting a speedy hitter atop the order, a solid contact hitter in the two-hole and a slugger hitting cleanup, while trying to create a balance of bats from both sides of the plate throughout.

Two things to keep in mind when constructing your lineup:

• We are not concerned with defensive ability, any injuries a player may be dealing with or salaries. Offensive production is the only thing that matters.

• The game will be played under American League rules, so there is a designated hitter. Any position player was deemed eligible for the DH spot.

It’s ultimately a matter of opinion, as there’s no right or wrong answer in this exercise.

Feel free to fill out your lineup card in the comments section below, but we’re confident enough in our squad to say with certainty that we’d outhit, outslug and outperform your starting nine.

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In the case of MLB‘s star players, two important factors determine how they are expected to perform: past success and the value of their contracts.

Both serve to set an expectation for their on-field product. Each year, there are those whose stellar play increases their stardom and others whose poor play brings their status among the game’s elite into question.

The 2015 season was no different.

For those star players who disappointed, this year allows them to start anew. A player may have recovered from injury this offseason. Another might have changed teams. Some could have fixed their mechanics.

Regardless, winter allows players to correct the wrongs from the previous year.

The 2016 season will provide redemption for a handful of players who used the offseason as a springboard to bounce back from their disheartening 2015 campaigns.They are poised to have bigger seasons than anyone thinks they will.

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With spring training games underway, now is as good a time as any to put together our preseason position-by-position power rankings for the 2016 season.

What follows will be a look at the 10 best players at each position, based simply on how they are expected to perform during the upcoming season.

That’s an important distinction, as these rankings are not based on how guys played in 2015 but instead are a prediction of who will be the 10 best at each position this coming year.

All-around offensive abilities, defensive contributions and what a player means to the success of his team was all taken into account when ranking players.

To put this another way, think of it as though you were building a team to compete for just the 2016 season and this being a big board for assembling said team.

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Every year finds new MLB players living up to their potential or exceeding even the loftiest expectations, delivering a fresh crop of emerging stars to the baseball world.

Kris Bryant and Carlos Correa went from potential stars to legitimate studs upon their arrival in the big leagues last season, while Jake Arrieta and Carlos Carrasco finally figured things out in their late 20s.

To be considered for inclusion on our emerging stars squad, a player must have already made his major league debut and meet the following criteria: 

• Has never made an All-Star team
• Has never won a major award: MVP, Cy Young or Rookie of the Year
• Has yet to celebrate his 30th birthday

While that helps to whittle down the field of contenders, it still leaves us with far more worthy candidates than available spots. Who made the cut?

Let’s take a look.

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Spring training is finally underway, and games are set to begin this week in the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues, so let’s kick things off with another updated version of our MLB power rankings.

We last updated these rankings Feb. 22, so any transactions or injuries that have taken place between then and now were factored into the changes you’ll see in the following rankings.

Notable additions during that span include: OF Ian Desmond (TEX), OF Dexter Fowler (CHC), IF/OF Chris Coghlan (OAK), OF Will Venable (CLE), OF Shane Victorino (CHC), OF Drew Stubbs (TEX), OF Domonic Brown (TOR), 1B/3B Casey McGehee (DET) and RP Rafael Soriano (TOR).

We also saw Abraham Almonte (CLE) suspended, Jose Reyes (COL) put on administrative leave and Hyun-Jin Ryu (LAD) ticketed for the disabled list.

There were also a few simple shifts in opinion on how some teams stack up to others.

There’s obviously no game action to justify shuffling these rankings at this point, but here in the offseason, the more you think about teams, the more your opinion is likely to change.

Call it analysis or call it overanalysis, it’s just a part of these preseason rankings—and 400-plus comments on the last version of these rankings gave me plenty to think about.

As with any offseason power rankings, these are not simply meant to be a prediction for the year ahead. Instead, they are a look at how teams would stack up with the rosters they currently have if the season were to start today.

Keep that in mind when considering where your favorite team falls in the following rankings, as a lot can still change between now and Opening Day.

Note: This time around, we’ve included a projected 25-man Opening Day roster for each club. The roster projections from Roster Resource served as an invaluable starting point in this exercise, though I made changes based on my own opinions.

In the following projected rosters, (R) indicates a player with rookie eligibility remaining, while a bold player is a newcomer to the team.

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The free-agent market was slow to unfold this offseason, leaving a number of high-profile players unsigned heading into the new year.

Most of the significant dominoes have now fallen as spring training is underway, but there are still a handful of potential impact players searching for a new home here at the end of February.

Ian Desmond is the top name still sitting out there, but he’s by no means the only position player looking for work, as a former home run champion and a World Series MVP are also available.

On the pitching side of things, we have a two-time Cy Young winner in Tim Lincecum headlining the remaining crop, while a few former All-Stars are also in need of new deals.

We’ve highlighted the top 10 free agents that teams can still snag in an effort to upgrade their rosters before Opening Day.

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No more big checks need to be signed. Negotiations have concluded. Though it may murmur quietly in the early stages of spring training, free agency is essentially over.

But that doesn’t mean that teams are done adding to their rosters. It only means it won’t be as simple as writing a check.

Now if a team wants to add, it will need a trade partner—and the assets to shop.

To identify those teams, they must be among the contenders. Any club in a rebuild will be looking to accumulate assets (translation: prospects) and not trade them away.

Instead, teams eyeing a World Series in 2016 might be willing to part with young, talented prospects to bolster their chances. We know the majority of the transactions come closer to the trade deadline, but the negotiations start now.

Teams will make calls, trying to determine which clubs are willing to trade which players. The marketplace has its constant ebb and flow. And regardless of the level of competition in the marketplace, whichever team holds the most assets is at an advantage.

Who might those teams be? You’ll have to wait for the season to progress. Or you can just read on.

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What does a pitcher need to win the Cy Young Award?

This list will undoubtedly feature some of the top arms in the game. Several of the pitchers here have won the award before, while others have come close—but not close enough. 

The top pitchers in baseball also have that certain pitch that they throw as well as anyone in the game—a true go-to pitch to get that elusive third strike. Clayton Kershaw has arguably the best curveball in the game, while Felix Hernandez’s changeup has fooled many a hitter. Chris Sale’s slider is as dominant as either of the former two pitches.

Cy Young contenders not only have a go-to pitch but also have the consistency and situational awareness to win games. This gives them the ability to win those 1-0 and 2-1 games that simply “good” pitchers can’t always win.

The criteria for this list are mostly comprised of those elements, in addition to how well they can command those pitches and truly dominate their starts. Previously winning the award (or coming close) is a big help as well.

You’ll notice that each slide is accompanied by a video of the pitcher, showing him dominate or complete some sort of amazing feat. These are crucial elements in the making of a Cy Young-caliber pitcher.

For the sake of this list, there is no league bias. Obviously, there is a separate Cy Young Award for the American and National Leagues, and typically one emerges as the more competitive race. However, this list is simply about individual abilities and will stand independent of league affiliation, although I will give my prediction for the Cy Young Award winner in each league when the corresponding player’s slide appears.

Now, let’s take a look at the most likely candidates to win the Cy Young this season.

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