Rankings/List

It's been an eventful first half of the season for some of baseball's biggest stars. Some have been able to raise their games to new levels of excellence, while others have taken a step back from the top of the mountain as the best in the game at their respective position.

Unfortunately, some of baseball's premier talents, especially on the mound—Chicago's Chris Sale, Miami's Jose Fernandez and Philadelphia's Cliff Lee come to mind—have been impacted by injury, some more severely than others.

The 25-man rosters for the 2014 Futures Game were released Tuesday, via MLB, giving fans an idea of which prospects will be suiting up for the U.S. and World teams on Sunday, July 13.

Since its introduction in 1999, the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game has evolved into the hidden gem of All-Star weekend.

The event offers fans a unique opportunity to watch baseball’s brightest prospects on the same field.

It's time for the latest edition of America's favorite baseball-related game show, "Contender or Pretender."

The way it works is simple: We take a broad look at our 30 contestants, primarily focusing on their offense and pitching staffs, and come to a conclusion as to whether they are legitimate playoff contenders or merely pretending to be.

If there's one thing that year after year proves itself to be true about the playoff races in MLB, it's this: You can't contend if you don't have quality pitching.

With less than two weeks until the 2014-15 international signing period is set to begin July 2 (J2), teams are currently doing everything in their power to reach an agreement with one (or in some cases many) of the top amateur prospects in this year’s class.

Last year, both the Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers willingly exceeded their respective bonus pools in order to sign some of the best-available talent. This time around, the New York Yankees are preparing to take things to a new level.

From where David Price will end up to what will become of Bud Selig, there are a lot of storylines to keep track of as the second half of the 2014 MLB season approaches. 

What follows are 50 predictions for how the rest of the MLB campaign will shake out. We'll take a look into the future to see which dark horse will win an MVP award and which club will take home the 2014 World Series title. Now, it's time for the forecast. 

Cincinnati Reds fans will have now seen 30 percent of this list in live action following the debut of Carlos Contreras last Saturday. The young right-hander had a great outing in a low-stress situation.

Billy Hamilton has been scorching hot, and Tucker Barnhart continues to climb his way back up in batting average, in case he's ever needed again.

The rest have had mixed results. 

The Boston Red Sox should make plenty of noise on July 2, the first day of the 2014-2015 international signing period.

The international signing phase is always difficult for teams, as they have to evaluate whether a 16-year-old player is worth a multimillion-dollar bonus. These players aren't even old enough to graduate high school and have years of physical maturation ahead of them. Further, these players are much less seasoned than the pool of talent available in the domestic draft due to age and other factors.

If the Boston Red Sox intend to make a playoff push in the second half of the season, they'll likely need to go after some outside help.  Below is a shopping list that may come in handy for the Red Sox as the trade deadline approaches:

1. Offense
2. More offense

To say that Boston is "offensively challenged" would be an understatement.

It's about that time of year again.

In roughly one week, the Baltimore Orioles will have reached the mathematical halfway point in their schedule. Currently tied for second place in the AL East, the Orioles have shown that they're a strong, competitive team this season.

They've also had trouble stringing a long winning streak together and really making that push to the top of their division standings.

Due to the amount of attention paid to each organization's top prospects and early-round draft picks, many of the game's underrated prospects are perpetually obscured. Most of the time, these prospects are younger players housed in the low minors who still require considerable physical projection and time to develop. At the same time, there are countless prospects on the older side of the age curve that have dipped off the radar due to injury.