Opinion

Yasiel Puig ignited millions of imaginations when he first broke into the majors in 2013. With all his speed, power and energy, surely there would come a season when he would do it all.

Three years and many twists and turns later, the early evidence suggests 2016 may finally be that season.

Watch your backs, opposing hitters. There's a gang of gunslingers in the National League East, and they've got their sights aimed at you.

We're not talking about the New York Mets, though their starting rotation is indeed sterling despite some early hiccups.

Anyone who came into the season thinking Bryce Harper couldn't possibly improve on his superstar-making 2015 season should know this: Harper's 2016 self is making his 2015 self look like a chump.

It's a really small sample size, so there's no reason to panic.

That's something you hear time and again in the early stages of every MLB season, and more times than not it's correct.

When you're talking about a 162-game season that spans seven months, a few weeks don't add up to much in the grand scheme of things.

However, it's easy to overreact early on now that the games finally matter and fans around the league are hyped for the season.

Though they're rare, trades in the first few weeks of an MLB season do occasionally take place. We need only look back to last season for evidence, as Atlanta traded All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel to San Diego just a few games after Opening Day.

When Chicago Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber tore his ACL and LCL on April 7 after colliding in the outfield with Dexter Fowler, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if a few fans reached for a defibrillator.

Hysteria consumed parts of a tortured Cubdom on social media, with some fans panicked that the promising Cubs’ 2016 season was trashed. But that was just an overly emotional reaction.

It's not a set-in-stone rule or anything, but it sure seems like a Major League Baseball season can't qualify as modern unless at least one top-ranked hitting prospect takes the league by storm. 

In Nomar Mazara, the Texas Rangers may have just the guy for 2016.

Since they've all been heard by now, let's skip the puns and grant that Trevor Story and his many dingers have been one of the best parts of the first couple of weeks of the 2016 season.

But in a related story, things have also gotten to a point where the question needs to be asked: Just how many more dingers can be expected from Story?

Two former St. Louis Cardinals returned to Busch Stadium in Chicago Cubs uniforms Monday. One of them made an indelible impression in the Cubbies' 5-0 win.

Clay Buchholz was right about one thing.

It's far too early in the season to declare the Boston Red Sox are in any kind of trouble.