Opinion

The Chicago Cubs are hearing footsteps, and they're coming from the West.

Yes, the Cubs still own MLB's best run differential at plus-155. And they still have the best winning percentage in baseball.

On Sunday, however, the San Francisco Giants won their 49th game. At 49-28, San Francisco now has one more victory than the Cubs, who have dropped six of their last seven and sit at 48-26.

For the most part, MLB fans are voting deserving starters into the 2016 All-Star Game.

There's a shortstop in the American League who has all the qualities of a superstar. He's very young, very charismatic and very skilled at hitting, baserunning and fielding.

Carlos Correa? Good guess. Xander Bogaerts? Another good guess. Manny Machado when he's not playing third base? Yet another good guess. 

Back when Jose Reyes was an All-Star, the New York Mets didn't even offer him a contract. Now that he's absolutely not an All-Star, the Mets want him back.

The crazy part about all that is the Mets were right then and they're also right now.

If we've learned anything through nearly three months of the 2016 MLB regular season, it's that much of what we thought we knew in spring training was flat-out wrong.

Teams like Colorado, Milwaukee and Philadelphia haven't been nearly as bad as expected. Cincinnati's Jay Bruce, who was widely thought to have become a mediocre all-or-nothing slugger, has returned to the form that made him one of baseball's best run-producers only a few years ago.

As we enter the final week of June, the MLB trade market is starting to heat up as teams continue to work toward establishing themselves as buyers or sellers.

After a number of front-line arms were on the move last summer, there is a notable lack of starting pitching talent on the block this year. Unless the Atlanta Braves wind up moving Julio Teheran, contenders will have to settle for middle-of-the-rotation help at best.

CHICAGO — Even when John Lackey is bad, he is good.

That's not to say the Chicago Cubs' starting pitcher is never off his game. But nearly every time the 37-year-old takes the mound, he is good enough to win regardless of the quality of his pitching repertoire.

That sound you heard Wednesday was every single New York Mets fan gasping in unison.

Noah Syndergaard, the Mets' bolt-throwing ace, exited in the sixth inning of a game against the Kansas City Royals with elbow discomfort, also known as a code-red ruh roh. 

The Miami Marlins have virtually the same winning percentage as the New York Mets. They've been flying, er, swimming under the radar, but they have some swagger going.

And now it looks like they may finally have their slugger going too.

Believe it or not, we are rapidly approaching the midway point of the 2016 MLB season.

When the calendar flips to July in a little over a week, the trade market will start to take shape and the rumor mill will kick into high gear.

So with that in mind, it's fair to say that there is at least one significant question that each team needs to answer in the days and weeks to come leading up to the Aug. 1 trade deadline.