Opinion

The baseball season is a little more than a week away, and a number of questions loom over the 2016 campaign.

Can the Kansas City Royals repeat as champions? Who will win the toughest division races? And who is the face of baseball?

Watch Stephen Nelson and Bleacher MLB Analyst Scott Miller play "fact or fiction" before Opening Day in the video above.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Mark Appel knows all-too-well the answer to this baseball brainteaser: “Who was the lone player taken before 2015 National League Rookie of the Year Kris Bryant in the 2013 MLB Draft?”

If the Los Angeles Dodgers head toward disaster this season, left-handed starter Scott Kazmir won't be driving the car.

Kazmir is like the guy sitting in the back seat on a long road trip. He has no influence on whether or not you get lost and can only make the ride better by cracking jokes. All he can do is make the Dodgers better.

Two more seasons. That's how much time remains in the Alex Rodriguez Era—probably. And yes, it deserves a capital "E."

We learned A-Rod's possible expiration date Wednesday, when the polarizing New York Yankees slugger told ESPN.com's Andrew Marchand that he plans to hang 'em up when his current contract expires after the 2017 campaign. 

Go get an ace, we all told the Boston Red Sox. Go get an ace, and the rest of the starting rotation will fall into place.

They got an ace—one of the best. There's a reason David Price cost $217 million.

Like a poker hustler dealing from the bottom of a loaded deck, the New York Mets are flush with aces. The only question is, who's the ace? The stud among studs. The stopper. The arm you turn to when everything is on the line.

Is it Matt Harvey, the Dark Knight himself, freed from last season's ultimately moot innings-limit controversy?

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Know what? A cactus is more prickly than you think it is…

1. Zack Greinke Changes Face of NL West

A.J. Pollock, Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder, walked into a nearly deserted batting cage the other day and waited for the one player to finish his swings. It was Zack Greinke.

The San Francisco Giants did what they needed to do with their starting rotation this winter, rebuilding it into a unit strong enough to put them back atop the NL West.

But now, their rebuilt rotation is having trouble even surviving spring training.

Expectations. Every team carries them out of spring training, but not every club will end up fulfilling them.

For some, it's scratching into the postseason; for others, it's World Series or bust. All we know at this point is that a few squads will overachieve and others, necessarily, will underachieve.

While we wait for the meaningful games to begin, let's run through each division and sort the expectation-exceeders from the teams that are poised to disappoint. 

The 2016 MLB season is set to begin on Sunday, April 3, with a tripleheader of games that concludes with a World Series rematch between the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals on Sunday Night Baseball.

In the meantime, teams are wrapping up their spring schedules and putting the finishing touches on their Opening Day rosters. For the most part, however, we know how all 30 clubs will stack up heading into the year.