The great thing about sports is their unpredictability. We can crunch numbers and utilize more and more advanced analytics, but that only tells us why someone succeeds as often as they do and how often they will succeed. It won’t tell us exactly when they will succeed or the relative

The Cardinals are one of the model franchises in the big leagues. They’ve established a pipeline of talent that consistently seems to produce one or two surprise players every year. Yet, they also have a consistent pool of veterans that keep them in the pennant race. The Chicago Cubs have

The Tampa Bay Rays are one of the more successful have not franchises in baseball. A large part of their success has been their ability to develop their own talent. Yet, they may not be the best developmental franchise in baseball. The key to their success has been their ability

The New York Yankees are the very antithesis of a breakout team. They advanced to the wild card round of the playoffs last season, so this isn’t a knock on their ability. It’s just that they might be the oldest team in the league in terms of their position players.

We have now profiled every team in the AL Central and it shapes up to be the most competitive division in baseball. The Twins came within a few games of making the playoffs last season and most of their lineup is still young and on the come. Most of the

The Milwaukee Brewers are following a new pathway to contention. The pathway got its roots from the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros. In essence, both teams used a scorched earth methods to rebuild through their farm systems. The Brewers even hired an assistant from the Astros (David Stearns) to oversee

The Marlins suffer from baseball’s version of bulimia. Jeffrey Loria may be the most hated man in baseball because he can’t seem to commit to funding his team on a consistent basis. 2016 would appear to be in the binging cycle. They added Wei-Yen Chen and Edwin Jackson in free

For years, the Yankees were the symbol of decadence and willful spending in the sport. George Streinbrenner made no bones about outspending anyone and everyone to get his team to the playoffs. When he passed away, his sons reigned it in some in an effort to avoid paying the onerous

Keith Law of ESPN.com had some pointed words for the Angels farm system. He said that it wasn’t only the worst farm system in the big leagues now, but it was the worst he had seen in quite some time. In that kind of environment, it’s difficult to find breakout

By sheer definition, when you are the defending World Champions and two time defending AL champions, you aren’t going to have many (if any) breakout candidates. If you did, then you would be on your way to running off a series of pennants that would be reminiscent of the Yankees