Preview/Prediction

The final month of the MLB regular season is here, and this year's stretch run promises to once again be exciting on a number of fronts.

There are still several playoff spots up for grabs in both leagues, and the second wild-card spot has once again made more teams contenders heading into the final month.

Even on non-contending teams, there is no shortage of interesting storylines to follow, as September also brings an influx of young talent with expanded rosters.

While the Toronto Blue Jays' Josh Donaldson is clubbing his way toward the American League MVP Award, the field is starting to close in on the Washington Nationals' Bryce Harper for the National League's top honor.

From those two chases to the battles for the AL and NL Rookie of the Year trophies, there's still a lot left to be determined in the season's final five weeks. From this vantage point, the most competitive race of all appears to be the fight for the AL Comeback Player of the Year award, where players both young and old have played their way into the mix.

Don't be fooled.

Just because baseball's second trade deadline has passed, and swaps between clubs can no longer be consummated, don't think for a second that general managers aren't constantly working the phones. Some of these conversations are new, while others were started months ago and only now are being revisited.

Trade talk goes on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year—and we never hear about most of it.

The big question when September call-ups roll around is whether or not a team will promote its top prospects, but those are not always the guys who wind up making the biggest impact.

Case in point: Terrance Gore.

When rosters expanded last season, the Kansas City Royals included Gore among their call-ups, despite the fact that he was hitting just .221/.289/.257 on the year and was nowhere to be found among their top 25 prospects when the season began.

So why was he bumped up to the big leagues?

Aside from the Kansas City Royals winning the American League Central, we're left with more questions than answers when it comes to baseball's division races and playoff picture as the regular season roars toward its final full month of action.

For teams that are still in the hunt for a spot in the postseason, those questions are all about the immediate future. Do they have enough in-house to make a successful playoff push, or do they need help from outside the organization? For those out of the hunt, the time has come to start answering questions for 2016.

Just ask Clayton Kershaw. It's time for the Los Angeles Dodgers to hit the panic button.

"I hope we're panicking a little bit," Kershaw told Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times after the team recently tumbled through a season-worst five-game losing streak. "I think panic's a good thing, to a certain extent."

The July trade deadline and the August waiver period are not the only ways teams can add to their rosters for the stretch run, as September also brings an influx of new players when the active rosters expand from 25 to 40.

Generally this is a time when teams promote the guys that have bounced between the minors and majors for most of the season, adding a few arms to the bullpen and bats to the bench in the process.

However, there are always at least a handful of top prospects who are given a chance to show what they can do during this time as well.

The Aug. 31 Major League Baseball waiver trade deadline is less than a week away, but teams prepping for their playoff push still have time to land a player that could help with that.

Many big-name players were taken off the market before July 31, but several players are still available to help fill a necessary void. Plus, some teams would be more than happy to let one of their players go who may have a hefty contract on the books.

Few things inspire feelings of dread like the crackle of a store's public address system on Christmas Eve, informing us that the store will be closing in five minutes when we've yet to find the gift (or gifts) we need to stick underneath the tree when we get home.

General managers around baseball are beginning to feel that knot in their stomach, for there are only six shopping days left—and it's only going to get tighter with each passing day. The rumor mill is immune to such maladies, but it's noticeably begun to pick up speed as we race toward the season's final month.

The speculation just never ends for the likes of Carlos Gonzalez and James Shields.

Both standouts survived the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline and have so far survived the August waiver period, but the next big question is if those guys could be headed out of town when the offseason arrives. In the process of ranking the 10 MLB stars who are most likely to be traded this winter, an assortment of factors were taken into consideration: