Preview/Prediction

There are countless reasons why some players take time to finally reach their potential—to deliver that career-changing breakout season—but when they do, it's usually in a big way with big numbers and memorable moments.

Without fail, it happens each and every season.

The 2016 MLB season is finally in full swing, but it's never too late to make some long-term predictions about how the season could shake out.

Things rarely play out as expected over 162 games, and that's one of the things that makes baseball so great, but here in the early going, we can get a decent idea of what the postseason picture might look like come October.

So with that in mind, what follows is a look at each team's odds of making the playoffs for the upcoming season.

The 2016 MLB season is finally in full swing, but it's never too late to make some long-term predictions about how the season could shake out.

Things rarely play out as expected over 162 games with so many moving parts on an MLB roster and injuries impossible to predict.

However, even with that uncertainty, some teams obviously have a better chance of extending their seasons on into October than others.

With that in mind, what follows is a look at each team's odds of making the playoffs in 2016.

Baseball is back, and if the first two days of the 2016 regular season are any indication, fans are in for one heck of a year. Late-inning rallies, superhuman defensive plays (we're looking at you, Kevin Pillar) and no-doubt home runs littered the Opening Day landscape.

In a unique twist, the 2016 MLB season will kick off Sunday with a tripleheader of games to be televised on the ESPN family of networks throughout the day.

Who's ready for baseball that actually counts?

Yes, it's finally here. Sunday is the day the 2016 Major League Baseball season begins, and not just with one game to whet everyone's appetite for Opening Day proper.

There are three games on tap. The St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates will kick things off, followed by the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays. The nightcap is a World Series rematch between the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals.

The Kansas City Royals will begin the defense of their 2015 World Series title Sunday night against the team they beat to win the championship, the New York Mets.

The Royals are listed at 14-1 odds to win the World Series again this season at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark, while the Mets are 12-1.

Imagine, if you will, that the year is 2021.

Suspected performance-enhancing-drug cheats still haven't gained entry into the Hall of Fame, but the Tampa Bay Rays have relocated to Montreal, the Oakland A's now call San Antonio home and Bartolo Colon, at the age of 47, is still pitching.

The 2016 Major League Baseball season is nigh, so it's time to offer some predictions to the baseball gods.

We need to get them in before Sunday, when Opening Day will arrive in the form of a tripleheader highlighted by a World Series rematch between the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals. And when it comes to predictions for a new season, we dare not skimp the baseball gods.

With Opening Day finally in sight, now is the time to predict who will lead each league in some notable statistical categories.

This is obviously a shot in the dark, and there are always at least a few surprises that emerge over the course of the season.

At any rate, it's still fun to make an educated guess as to who could pace his respective league in some notable categories, and that's exactly what we've done here.

In fact, the following goes one step further, with predictions for the top five finishers in each league for the following categories: