Opinion

The NFL wants you to think this is Super Bowl week.

But when you got up Monday morning and turned the calendar to February, that can only mean one thing: Baseball is back! Winter is over. Pitchers and catchers report this month, and so does everybody else.

It's time for spring training, time for the sun and the fun and the "everybody has a chance" cliches.

And time to remind you those cliches aren't true, because not everyone has a chance to win this year. The Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers? They have no chance.

With apologies to Mike Leake, the St. Louis Cardinals didn't get an ace this winter. But they might be getting an ace back, which could be equally huge.

We're talking about Adam Wainwright, one of the best pitchers in baseball when he's right.

Determining offseason winners and losers can be a futile task of sorts. We’ve all heard the cliches about playing the games, right?

There’s a paper champion and then the real champion. Very rarely do they match. Who is to say whether a contract is good or bad until we actually watch a player during the season?

The Los Angeles Dodgers have won three straight National League West titles, and they really didn't need to do anything else this winter to have a good shot at making it four in a row in 2016.

But why settle for "good enough" when you can go for "even better"?

Spring is approaching, people. We know this because with pitchers and catchers due to start reporting on February 18, spring training is now just a couple weeks away.

That means there's precious little time for teams to do any last-minute shopping before spring training begins. So, we're here to help out with a few suggestions.

Five suggestions, to be exact. There are four big-name free agents who are still looking for work. We're going to find homes for them, as well as one big-name trade candidate.

There's a new star duo in town in Arizona. Determined to upgrade their starting pitching, the Diamondbacks aggressively added ace right-handers Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller to their rotation earlier this winter.

With just about three weeks to go before pitchers and catchers begin reporting to spring training, the baseball season draws ever closer. Yet a number of notable free agents remain unsigned, which—you'd think—would lead to a flurry of activity in the days ahead.

Yet the rumor mill has remained silent in regard to many of those players. Whether it's because teams are at their payroll limits or choosing to hold onto some disposable income for later, when injuries could require them to make a substantial addition, there's not much cash available for those free agents.

Of ESPN's first 10 announced Sunday Night Baseball telecasts for 2016, five feature either the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox. Three feature the Yankees and the Red Sox.

Why, some things aren't even worth the paper they're printed on! Good thing you're reading this on your computer or phone…

1. Best Paper Tigers

Remember last winter at this time, how we all loved the Seattle Mariners, Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres? And to think, we weren't even buried under a blizzard back then. So yes, things might look way different when the summer sun starts melting stuff. But for now…

For New York Mets fans, the final days of July 2015 will always be the time when Wilmer Flores cried and Yoenis Cespedes arrived.

It's fair to wonder if it will sometimes be best remembered as the time when Zack Wheeler stayed.