Preview/Prediction

No team is playing better baseball right now than the San Francisco Giants (25-18), who have won eight games in a row, allowing three runs or fewer in their last seven and only one run in four straight.

Had Stephen Strasburg waited another day, he would have topped the list of MLB's best players entering free agency this offseason.

The Washington Nationals ace had all the ingredients necessary to secure a massive payday. Since last year's All-Star break, the former No. 1 overall pick boasts a 2.26 ERA and 150 strikeouts over 115.1 innings. This is the guy whose MLB arrival was more hyped than any baseball player in recent memory until Bryce Harper joined him in D.C.

The MLB trade deadline is still three months away, but it's never too early to start speculating about what might go down this summer.

We may be just a month into the new season, but there are already a handful of rebuilding teams that look like clear sellers, and contenders have already started mentally dissecting those rosters as they assess their own internal needs.

One MLB midseason trade can make all the difference for a contender needing a push to the finish line. 

Just look at last year's World Series representatives. The New York Mets fortified their lineup by acquiring Yoenis Cespedes, who has since hit 25 home runs in 78 regular-season games. While the Kansas City Royals weren't as lucky to retain Ben Zobrist and Johnny Cueto, both rentals played instrumental roles in capturing the championship.

While the 2016 MLB regular season isn't yet one month old, it's never too early to jump to conclusions about the action we've seen unfold before us.

Some teams, such as the Colorado Rockies, have enjoyed a hot start and exceeded expectations, while others, such as the Houston Astros, have struggled.

Can the Rockies sustain their hot start? Are the Astros really a non-contender? These are the questions we're here to answer.

Major League Baseball has honored Jackie Robinson's breaking of the color barrier every April 15 since 2004, and the tradition will continue Friday with a special celebration involving all 30 teams.

Robinson became the first African-American to play in MLB on April 15, 1947, making Friday's event the 69th anniversary of that historic moment.

Normally, we play "Fact or Fiction" with the latest rumblings and speculation floating around Major League Baseball. But with the rumor mill still emerging from a short (but well-deserved) post-spring training nap and teams still trying to figure out exactly who they are, that's not an option this week.

The New York Mets (2-4) will turn to Noah Syndergaard (1-0, 0.00 ERA) in an effort to get back on track Tuesday when they take on the Miami Marlins (2-3) in the second of a three-game series.

It's easy to dismiss a dark-horse candidate as a serious contender for one of baseball's individual awards until you realize that three of the past four Cy Young Award winners could reasonably fit under that umbrella.

Nobody saw the Cleveland Indians' Corey Kluber coming when he won the American League Cy Young Award in 2014, and while both the Chicago Cubs' Jake Arrieta and the Houston Astros' Dallas Keuchel headed into 2015 with high expectations, few believed they'd be dominant enough to walk away with the award at year's end.

Yet that's exactly what they did.

The Los Angeles Dodgers started off the season a perfect 3-0 both straight up and on the run line, sweeping the San Diego Padres and winning each game by three runs or more. The Dodgers face a much tougher opponent in their weekend series against the San Francisco Giants.