Opinion

Top prospect Kris Bryant, who made his major league debut Friday afternoon for the Chicago Cubs, is going to be a stud. He just didn't look the part in his first shot at The Show. Big whoop.

Bryant, whose massive potential and prodigious power have captured the baseball world recently, more or less has not stopped hitting between the minors, Arizona Fall League and this past spring training since being selected second overall in the 2013 draft.

The 2015 Major League Baseball season has reached the midpoint of its first month and, with it, the deadline for all 30 teams to hand in their first tests.

Time to see how they did.

What we're going to do is grade the early performances of all 30 MLB teams. That means looking at their records, obviously, but more so at how they've played in the key phases of the game: offense, defense and starting and relief pitching.

There's an epidemic-like problem facing pitchers in Major League Baseball, and this one has nothing to do with arms, elbows or shoulders.

The Los Angeles Dodgers wrapped up Week 1 of the 2015 season with mixed results, splitting six games against fellow National League West opponents.

It was a roller-coaster ride of emotions, with several exciting moments peppered with the sobering reminders that some old wounds may still need tourniquets.

The sample size is undeniably small, but here are the three main takeaways from the first week of Dodger baseball.

It's only six games! It's such a small sample size! Don't care.

Well, I mean, I do care, but there's always something you can take away from a couple of games, or one game, or one at-bat even. So, that's what I'm going to do here with the first few games of the Cleveland Indians' 2015 season.

In news that comes as a body blow to baseball and American sports at large, Yasiel Puig says he plans to cut back drastically on the trademark bat flips fans have come to know and love him for.

You’ll come across some weird sights if you head down to Marlins Park this spring.

There's rain falling indoors, but perhaps even stranger, a pitcher who leaps like a hunter-gatherer throwing a spear while hurling the ball over the plate.

The New York Yankees are always one of the most divisive teams in Major League Baseball. It's also true, though, that the 2015 season brings about one of their most divisive on-field products in recent memory.

As is true of any professional sports team, there's always a divide between what fans of that team feel their chances for success are and what fans of other teams feel. However, with the 2015 Yankees, it feels as though the predictions for this team range anywhere from a sub-.500 record to 90-plus wins.

The Detroit Tigers possess no ordinary starting rotation. At least, not during their four-year postseason run that preceded this campaign. The likes of Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, David Price and Rick Porcello have combined to make them the most dominant group in the American League.

1. NL West: Change, Money and Bubble Gum

One week in, and you know what's more fun than Furious 7 meets Coachella?

The National League West.

Grab a fistful of Dubble Bubble, because that's the first checkpoint for a summer of bubble-blowing good times: Padres home opener Thursday, ninth inning, Giants center fielder Angel Pagan at the plate and suddenly he and San Diego catcher Derek Norris are jawing and must be separated.