Rankings/List

From Andrew McCutchen to Chris Sale, some of baseball's biggest names have been big-time duds in 2015.

The good news for the Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder and the Chicago White Sox ace is that it's still early—really early. The bad news is that their teams play in two of the most competitive divisions in baseball—the type of divisions where a sideways start could be the kiss of death.

Because the baseball season is so long, it's often unwise to put too much stock in early-season performances before teams and players have a chance to find themselves. This is particularly true for prospects, who can be even more volatile while needing even more time to figure things out.

The other angle, however, is that these young players have provided less to go on in their still-nascent careers—they are prospects for a reason—making any noticeable change in production that much more stark.

The saying goes that April showers bring May flowers, but it's apparently not a theory that the baseball gods subscribe to.

More than a few of the top potential trade targets that we looked at heading into May last week continue to deal with stagnant or dropping stock values as a possible trade chip for their current club to play.

Every year, a handful of young players across the Major League Baseball landscape step into key roles and wind up making a significant impact for their respective teams.

Oftentimes, it's a team's top prospect finally getting the call and establishing himself as an everyday contributor, but occasionally it's a less-heralded young player who breaks through to make his presence known.

With that in mind, what follows is a look at 10 young players on the verge of making a big impact at the major league level.

One month through the season, expectations are as high as ever on the North Side of Chicago. The Cubs are looking like a competitive team, and that's a breath of fresh air for baseball in the Windy City.

While it's still early, here are five takeaways from the beginning of the 2015 season for the Cubs.

All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

The Atlanta Braves spent a great deal of the offseason overhauling the roster to change their style of play, find some leadership and build toward the future.

The new roster got the Braves off to a hot start in 2015 but has since cooled to around the .500 mark.

Playing .500 baseball is likely the ceiling for this 2015 team, but with some luck and elevated play, it could push for a wild-card spot.

This will depend on many factors, with one of those being the play and leadership of their offseason acquisitions.

Each week of baseball's regular season brings any number of fascinating news, noteworthy developments and/or curious behavior.

The week that is about to conclude, Week 3, has been no different—and there's still part of the weekend left for something else to happen.

In the meantime, here are a handful of the biggest takeaways from the goings-on of the past seven days.

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If we didn't freak out about our favorite team's performance three weeks into the regular season, can we really claim to be fans? Luckily for you, we're here to think of some ideas to help fix your squad's biggest problems. 

The Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays both have the ability to win the American League East, but not without improvements from their starting rotations. While big names like Cole Hamels and Johnny Cueto remain at the forefront of trade speculation, cheaper options are available that can offer improved production. 

If baseball is America's favorite pastime, our second-favorite pastime might be predicting which players are going to be breakout stars in a new season.

Sometimes, we're right on the money with our predictions. But other times...well, other times it seems we might have spoken too soon.

If you want an example of how the latter can happen, here's some good news: I have 10 of them.

For the first time in a very long time, the Cubs were active in free agency and the trade market (from the buying end) this offseason. That meant a lot of roster turnover and a lot of questions going into this season.

Some of those questions have begun to be answered, while others remain unanswered. Whatever the case may be, here are grades through the first two-and-a-half weeks of the season for the team's seven key new additions for 2015.