Rankings/List

As the 2013 Major League Baseball season winds down, the sport looks ahead to new beginnings in 2014. 

On Tuesday, via MLB.com, a tentative schedule was released for next season, marking the path to the pennant races through a 162-game marathon.

Predicting the winners and nominating the top candidates for MLB's end of season awards is kind of our thing here at Bleacher Report. Since entering September there has been an updated stock watch for one award or another on what feels like an hourly basis.

But listing the top five candidates for each major award in order and predicting how many votes they'll actually get? Well that's something of a new wrinkle.

All MLB stars must cope with immense pressure in September. They're either leading teams into the playoffs, trying to buff up their stats for upcoming contract negotiations or responsible for exciting a non-contender's fanbase down the stretch.

Taking advantage of the first competitive season of your career can be just as important as ensuring that your last season before a deal ends finishes on a positive note.

The B/R MLB 500 series has just one position on the infield left to visit: the hot corner.

Like first base, third base is a primarily offense-oriented position. But since third base is undoubtedly a more important defensive position than first base, we came up with the following scoring system.

Third basemen get 30 points for hitting, 30 points for power, 10 points for baserunning, 20 points for defense and, like all players, 10 points for health. Add it all up, and you get 100 points.

For the first time since 1992, the Pittsburgh Pirates can call themselves winners.

The Chicago White Sox have finalized the group of players that will participate in Arizona Fall League (AFL) play after the season ends.

The two names atop the leaderboard for batting average in the National League are certainly not players that were thought of as contenders for the batting crown at the start of the season.

Chris Johnson entered the season as a career .276 hitter and was transitioning to a new team in the Atlanta Braves. Michael Cuddyer does have the advantage of playing at Coors Field, but that was not a help to him last season as he hit just .260. With less than a month left in the season, both of these players are in a race to lead the NL in batting average.

The latest installment of this feature includes two White Sox pitching prospects heading in opposite directions, the best Giants pitching prospect to emerge since Zack Wheeler was traded away and a trio of intriguing yet unpolished prospects that have had issues finding the strike zone this season—they've combined for 168 walks in 252 innings pitched this season. 

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The deeper we get into the regular season, the harder it becomes for players to elevate their games.

Not only do months of wear and tear begin to take their toll on a player's body, but for those players who find themselves on teams that are out of contention for a playoff spot, the mental aspect of the game begins to wear on them as well.

A month that began with the A's scuffling and ultimately losing their lead in the American League West ended with a 5-1 flourish that enabled the team to record its ninth straight winning month at 14-13. And don't be fooled, that record is indicative of how the A's played in the month of August: up and down and all around.