Opinion

Kris Bryant, arguably the best prospect in baseball and inarguably the crusher of more home runs than any other player this spring training, will start the 2015 season in the minor league. But don't blame the Chicago Cubs—blame Major League Baseball.

After all, it's the rules that made this decision entirely inevitable and anything but surprising.

Without question, the Los Angeles Angels' Mike Trout is the most valued player in fantasy baseball. Three of the four mock drafts studied for this article had Trout as the No. 1 pick. The reigning MVP is coming off a season that saw him lead the majors in runs scored and RBI.

His batting average dipped below .300, and he led the league in strikeouts with 184, but there's no questioning his ability to put big numbers up for the Angels and your fantasy team.

Opening Day is a little more than a week away, so that means it's time to recap spring training and see what we have learned from the New York Mets in the past month.

The Mets currently have the best Grapefruit League record at 16-11. Of course, these spring training games do not count at all for the regular season, but the Mets' offense has hit its stride lately, and hopefully this will carry over into the regular season, which begins on April 6.

Here are five things we have learned about the Mets in spring training.

For as wonderful as the World Series was, the three-and-a-half months that immediately followed were just as mesmerizing. 

Armed with new front offices, and/or money and/or a directive to get instantly better before spring training, several clubs aggressively went about this last offseason with a makeover in mind.

Matt Harvey is back. That's good news for the New York Mets as they try to put together their first winning season since 2008. More than that, though, it's good news for baseball.

Even though the 2015 Chicago Cubs baseball season is just a week away, the hot topic of discussion lately has not been the state of the team; rather, it has been the fate of the historic Wrigley Field.

Chairman Tom Ricketts has already announced that the ballpark will not be ready for Opening Day, and renovations could take an extra year to complete.

Opening Day of the 2015 Major League Baseball season is inching closer. In turn, teams are inching closer to "completing" their 25-man rosters.

Yes, the quotation marks on "completing" are necessary. Because while a complete roster technically means a roster without holes, every team is going to break camp with at least one notable hole on its roster.

But some holes will be more notable than most, and those are the ones we're here to talk about.

The crack of the bat, the pop of the ball meeting leather and roster cuts—they're all an indelible part of spring.

While the first two elicit nostalgia, the last one is an undeniable bummer. Writing for Fox Sports, former major league hurler C.J. Nitkowski describes the agony of the annual ritual:

Watch out, American League. Albert Pujols is coming for you.

That's what he and the Los Angeles Angels would have everyone believe, anyway. And as far as threats go, this one appears credible.

Major League Baseball's Opening Day is right around the corner, with the Cubs and Cardinals ready to square off for the first game of the season April 5.

After an exciting 2014 campaign that ultimately saw the San Francisco Giants hoist the World Series flag, there are a ton of juicy storylines for 2015.