Preview/Prediction

Entering Friday's action, Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins is the current National League leader in home runs (36), RBI (102) and slugging percentage (.566). If he's able to maintain his status in all three categories through the end of the season, he'll be the first NL player to do so since Dante Bichette of the 1995 Colorado Rockies, per ESPN Stats & Info.

The road to the majors is often a long and difficult travel.    

With only four weeks left until the much-anticipated month of October arrives, the Milwaukee Brewers have set themselves up for a chance at a run for the World Series, but it won't be easy getting there.

Few things stir up more debate during the course of each MLB season than who should take home the major awards, and as we enter the final month of the season, those races are heating up around the league.

The following are full predictions as to how the voting will shake out for each of the five major awards:

Jon Lester and Max Scherzer are about to cash in. 

Those aces headline the 2015 MLB free-agent class, but they're far from the only players destined for big paydays this winter. The following 25 big leaguers are ranked in order of the total value of the contracts that they're predicted to haul in. 

For much of the first half of the 2014 regular season, the Pittsburgh Pirates looked lost as a team, falling as far out as nine games behind the Milwaukee Brewers on June 28.  

Why are we here? Is man the product of chance or creation? Where do we go after we shuffle off this mortal coil?

These are all important questions, but today our aim is to discuss a greater quandary in the pantheon of intellectual discourse: Why does Adrian Beltre freak out when you touch his head?

While injuries and bullpen woes have been staples of the Cincinnati Reds' 2014 campaign, offense has been similarly woeful. We can't say for certain whether it's related to injuries to crucial players or not. Is Jay Bruce suffering his worst professional season in seven years because of the shift or because he had a knee surgery in May?

The New York Mets are desperately trying to stick around in the NL postseason race, even though it will be difficult to overcome what is currently a 9.5-game wild-card deficit.

The team, though, seems more ready to really compete in 2015, particularly with all the young pitching it has. However, this is not to say that the Mets are perfectly fit as is to be a postseason contender next season. There are certain areas that the front office will need to address for the future.

The Boston Red Sox have been one of the worst teams in baseball in 2014, and their offensive ineptitude is a big part of the reason why.