Preview/Prediction

With spring training just a couple of months away, the MLB trade rumors are still swirling around the league.

There have already been a lot of big free-agent signings around the league, including big names like Robinson Cano, Carlos Beltran and Jacoby Ellsbury.  The biggest trade of the offseason so far came in November, with the Detroit Tigers trading Prince Fielder to the Texas Rangers for Ian Kinsler.

The major MLB awards have seen something of a renaissance in recent years—or at least the debate around them has. Voters still cling to dubious criteria to determine how to cast their ballots, but the discussion surrounding the MVP, Cy Young and, to a lesser extent, Rookie of the Year awards is increasingly shaped by the growing influence of sabermetrics analysis.

The San Francisco Giants won the 2012 World Series, their second title in three years. Expectations were very high as they entered the 2013 season, but a myriad of injuries and a few mediocre performances by key players derailed their hopes.

The Giants finished the 2013 season with a disappointing 76-86 record, a distant third behind the NL West-winning Los Angeles Dodgers.

I want to take you back to 2007. The Dodgers had a young outfielder by the name of Matt Kemp, who had just completed a very strong season in which he appeared in 98 games, hit .342, and collected 10 home runs and 10 stolen bases.

However, he wasn't garnering very much media attention outside of Los Angeles. He was off to a fast start but hadn’t quite hit the national news yet.

Everyone loves a good guessing game.

The MLB provided plenty of twists and turns in 2013 that nobody could have saw coming. The Pittsburgh Pirates were slowly revamping their squad for the better, but who tabbed them to finish with a superior record than the Washington Nationals?

Lose 10 pounds. Do more volunteer work. Pay off credit card debt. Hit 30 home runs?

Baseball players probably have different New Year's resolutions than the rest of us common citizens. But the basic idea of setting an attainable goal for a new year still applies to the stars of America's pastime. Plus, since baseball is the only sport of the Big Four with a season contained entirely within a calendar year, New Year's resolutions seem all the more appropriate.

The blockbuster trade that sent Prince Fielder to the Rangers and Ian Kinsler to the Tigers was one of the offseason's first landscape-changing transactions. There have been relatively few swaps since then, with the Diamondbacks-Angels-White Sox three-way deal leading the way, but perhaps the winding down of the free-agent market will spell the re-opening of the trade market.

As the MLB offseason winds down and the pickings get slimmer and slimmer for every team, each club figures to have a couple of more players on their Christmas wish list that didn't quite make it for the holiday season. For the Chicago Cubs, there are two remaining players that could land in Chicago by the time the snow melts in the spring. 

The holidays have nearly run their course, but MLB hot-stove action is still going strong and figures to play out weeks into the new year. Offseason dealings can bleed into February, so this isn't entirely novel, but this year's strangely forming market can be attributed mostly to the circumstances surrounding Japanese ace Masahiro Tanaka.

Looking at an MLB player's stats alone, it can be difficult to distinguish between simple disappointment and the onset of a decline.

However, evaluating these 10 individuals within the proper context suggests that their 2013 seasons fell into the former category. They're due to bounce back strong this coming year.