Preview/Prediction

There's nothing quite like late September baseball. The air is crisper, the ball makes a different sound when it comes off the bat, every game takes on increased importance and teams and players alike are jockeying for position in races for playoff spots and individual awards.

While all of that is enough to keep much of the baseball universe's focus squarely on the action, it hasn't kept the rumor mill from looking ahead and beginning to pick up steam in advance of the upcoming offseason.

The St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates have punched their tickets to October, but the 2015 MLB playoff picture remains jumbled—especially in the American League.

For fans of teams no longer in the hunt for a playoff spot, I've got some good news: It's almost over.

Roughly seven weeks from now, the doors to the free-agent market will swing open, officially signalling the start of baseball's offseason. And while you can be sure that each and every one of MLB's 30 teams will be talking to potential free-agent additions, you can bet that those teams will be talking to each other as well.

It's tough to say just how valuable postseason experience can be when the MLB playoffs roll around, and for rookies it's a whole new ballgame.

One of the biggest storylines of the 2015 MLB season has been the influx of high-end rookie talent, and that story should continue to play on into October with more than a few first-year players poised to make a significant impact for their respective teams.

Predicting the World Series matchup at the beginning of the season is more times than not an exercise in futility.

That from a guy who picked the Washington Nationals to knock off the Seattle Mariners in his preseason predictions.

Even when the postseason picture takes shape and we have a good idea of which 10 teams will be fighting it out to reach the ultimate goal, it's still hard to predict who will come out on top when the lights shine brightest.

The injury bug often rears its mighty head at the most inopportune times in Major League Baseball. The optimism of a team can quickly disappear when a key player goes down. And when the injury warrants a lengthy recovering time—sometimes—that optimism is crushed completely.

With the 2015 MLB playoffs right around the corner, postseason contenders will have their fingers crossed that injuries will be avoided from here on out.

Last week, we were focused on the goings on out East, with an eye firmly affixed on 2016 and beyond.

This week finds us back in familiar territory, as we make the rounds from coast to coast breaking down the buzz and rumors floating around the baseball universe.

Crunch time in the 2015 MLB season has arrived, as teams have just a couple more weeks to make a final push for a postseason spot.

The National League playoff picture looks to be set, at least as far as which five teams will earn a spot, but the NL Central standings are still far from decided.

Meanwhile, the American League picture is a bit more crowded with a tight race for the AL West crown and as many as five teams in the mix for the second wild-card spot.

Thanks to the brilliance of Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, the Los Angeles Dodgers are one of the October hopefuls whose 2015 MLB playoff odds have been on the rise over the past couple of weeks.

While Josh Donaldson just keeps padding his lead in the American League MVP chase, many of the other 2015 MLB award races remain crowded as the season hits the home stretch.

A lot has changed since the last time we set the odds for baseball's most prestigious individual honors just two weeks ago. In the process of resetting the odds, we took all sorts of factors into consideration.