Preview/Prediction

With the 2015 MLB season finally set to get underway next week, 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.

Last year's NL batting title race is the perfect example. It's fair to guess there was no one out there who predicted Justin Morneau to win it over Josh Harrison in the final days of the season.

Heading into spring training's final week, most teams around baseball have a pretty good idea which 25 players will comprise their Opening Day rosters. The next seven days are more about players rounding into shape—and hopefully avoiding injury—than anything else.

But those 25-man rosters have yet to be etched in stone, and if history has taught us anything, it's that crazy things can—and will—happen when we least expect them.

This is one exclusive club. Simply put, there just aren't that many big leaguers who earn the title of MLB superstar.

Players like Clayton Kershaw and Miguel Cabrera easily fit the bill, and each season, a host of rising stars aim to join the ranks. "Superstar" is a tricky term to define. For the purposes of this list, the idea is to find five big leaguers on the verge of joining that stratosphere.

We are now just a week from the start of the 2015 MLB season, but there is still a lot of work to do as teams make their final and, generally, most difficult decisions to trim their rosters down to 25 players.

That roster crunch always makes for at least a few surprises.

Whether it's an unexpected non-roster invitee forcing his way onto a team, a deserving player winding up on the outside looking in, a late-spring trade or the outright release of an established veteran, a lot can happen before teams pack up and head north.

It's not always easy to be optimistic for 2015 when your team finished the previous season with the worst record in MLB.

However, the Arizona Diamondbacks are not a typical last-place-caliber team. With most of the team returning strong, along with several key offseason acquisitions, anything less than an improvement from 2014 would be a disappointment.

Here are three reasons why the D-Backs should be optimistic as the 2015 season rapidly approaches.

We'd all be better off if Major League Baseball didn't bother to keep track of what happens in spring training. That way, we wouldn't be tempted to read into records and statistics.

But the league does keep track of these things, and we are tempted to read into them. And when it gets to be this late in the spring, the rationale really just comes down to "might as well."

The 2015 MLB season is set to begin on Sunday, April 5 when the St. Louis Cardinals meet the Chicago Cubs on Sunday Night Baseball. The rest of the league gets things started the next day.

In the meantime, teams are wrapping up their spring schedules and putting the finishing touches on their Opening Day rosters. For the most part, however, we know how all 30 clubs will stack up heading into the year.

As spring training nears a close for MLB teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers can start to focus their attention on Opening Day.

Besides a completely new front office, half of the infield and about 40 percent of the starting rotation will feature new faces, ones the Dodgers have entrusted to carry the team back to the top of the National League West and beyond.

This winter, the Washington Nationals set themselves up to mow down any team that stands in the way of a World Series title, but now it's time for the Nats to put their $156 million where their mouth is. 

That number is Washington's total payroll obligation in 2015, according to Baseball Prospectus.

With each passing day, baseball's rumor mill begins to gain a bit more speed. Opening Day looms large on the horizon, and with its steady approach, teams are beginning to look at potential deals involving players that are out of minor league options.

Being out of options doesn't automatically put a player on the trade block, mind you. But having too many out-of-options players on a roster can limit a team's flexibility as needs arise during the regular season.