Opinion

With the MLB All-Star Game in the books and the second half of the season set to get underway, the league's collective attention will now turn to the upcoming non-waiver trade deadline.

Whether you're a contender looking to upgrade for the second-half push, a rebuilding club looking to sell off more veteran assets or a team on the fence, all 30 franchises have something that would constitute a successful trade deadline.

At the same time, all 30 teams also have the dreaded nightmare scenario.

The All-Star break is over. It's back to the grind now, and chances are the second half of the 2016 Major League Baseball season will look a lot different from the first half.

That makes this a good time to check in on the guys to beat in the awards races.

There was some debate at Bleacher Report's MLB Team of the Week headquarters about whether to include All-Star Game stats.

After all, with home-field advantage in the World Series on the line, it's more than a meaningless exhibition.

Following some careful deliberation, however, our highly democratic committee of one decreed that only games played July 8-10 would factor in. That makes an already small sample even smaller, but there you have it. Take it up with the committee.

For the second time in less than a year, the Boston Red Sox have paid a heavy price for a left-handed starter they hope can take them over the top. Actually, better make that a very heavy price.

But just like the first time, you can see where they're coming from.

There are some skills Alex Rodriguez will never lose. He'll always be able to tell us how good he is, how hard he works, how great he can be.

"I've been working really hard, tweaking, running and training," he told reporters, including Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News. "My time will come."

In an era in which teams like the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros have seen an organizational renaissance after overhauling their minor league systems, the term “rebuild” is thrown around as frequently as pie dough in a pizza kitchen.

It was all about the Kansas City Royals and the American League at Tuesday's 2016 MLB All-Star Game at Petco Park in San Diego.

A year ago, Mike Trout took home MVP honors, but it was the Royals who took advantage of the home-field advantage to triumph in the World Series.

This year, Kansas City's Eric Hosmer took home the MVP award in the 4-2 win, putting his Royals in an advantageous position to defend the title while giving the American League a dominant fourth win in a row.

Welcome to MLB's summer silly season, when trade talk takes to the wind like hot-dog wrappers in a monsoon. 

Over the next few weeks leading up to the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline, you'll read and hear countless rumors, whispers, unconfirmed reports and statements from people familiar with a team's thinking. 

A lot will shift as July unfolds. Injuries, hot streaks and cold spells will upend races, change clubs' calculuses and sort the buyers from the sellers once and for all.

Apart from Mike Trout being all forms of awesome and Jacob deGrom having marvelous hair, little is predictable in a given Major League Baseball season. The sport deals in surprises and disappointments.

That gives us quite a few options to choose from for this list.

SAN DIEGO — On the plane ride to California, where so many over the years have found only fool's gold, David Ortiz gathered his young Boston Red Sox All-Star teammates and delivered an All-Star message.

He looked at Jackie Bradley Jr. Looked at Mookie Betts. Looked at Xander Bogaerts and Steven Wright. It was a JetBlue charter flight from Boston, and they were eating burgers, but it was Big Papi's message they devoured.