Fans and teams alike look to their biggest stars to come through in the clutch, especially down the stretch when every game takes on extra importance and one win—or loss—can be the reason a team is playing meaningful October baseball or watching the playoffs from its couch.

That some key players on contending clubs have found their way onto our Week 23 All-Dud Team isn't good news for those clubs, which will be hard-pressed to reach the promised land without a better showing from those stars.

From the rise of Sonny Gray to the re-emergence of Justin Verlander, there are all sorts of reasons why non-contending clubs like the Oakland Athletics and Detroit Tigers should look forward to next season.

The first step in compiling this list of reasons for optimism was to figure out just which teams qualify as "contenders" and "non-contenders." Since only five clubs have been mathematically eliminated from the postseason chase, judgement calls had to be made.

The wins are great, but the injury curbs some of the enthusiasm. 

The Toronto Blue Jays went into the Bronx knowing a series win could give them a significant cushion in the American League East. On Saturday night, they secured that victory, taking the first three games of a four-game weekend against the New York Yankees to pump their division lead to 4.5 games. 

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There is nothing small about Big Papi.

The smile. The swing. The “bombs.” The strut. The stature. The numbers. The persona. The divide among fans and media over his legacy. 

They're all bigger-than-big, even in an era of supersized everything.

The Baltimore Orioles entered the bottom of the eighth inning of Friday night's game against the Kansas City Royals trailing by two runs, but with the help of three big swings, they strolled into the ninth with a comfortable lead.

It helped that two of those big swings were grand slams.

Before the NFL distracts everyone on Sunday, DraftKings savants can devote Saturday to a full MLB slate.

Eliminated from the postseason or too far down the standings to mount a comeback, many traditional fantasy baseball players have lost interest. Worn down and defeated by the grueling season, they'll shift their attention to the gridiron, where a shiny new toy with a shorter schedule awaits.

With October baseball right around the corner, the importance of September games ramps up quite a bit. Over the next few slides, we'll analyze five of the biggest takeaways from the past week in MLB. 

As the season speeds to its conclusion, more attention is obviously being paid to end-of-year storylines. Playoff positioning and award races have become prime talking points across baseball circles.

NEW YORK — The ceremony will be simple, the New York Yankees say.

Nothing elaborate. No special guests. Just a nice little acknowledgement of what Alex Rodriguez did by reaching 3,000 hits.

Simple...as if anything with Rodriguez can ever be simple.

Just like what the Yankees did after Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit, except with A-Rod, nothing can be just like Jeter.

Johnny Cueto and Albert Pujols are just two of the MLB stars who are letting down their contending clubs at the worst possible moment.

With October looming, the Kansas City Royals righty and the Los Angeles Angels vet have been playing so poorly that their respective teams can no longer count on them down the stretch. The big leaguers who cracked this unfortunate list earned their spots for a variety of reasons.

The stretch run is here for the 2015 MLB season and the playoffs are fast approaching, but it's never too early to start looking ahead to the offseason.

Whether a team is gearing up for a run at a World Series title or still in the early stages of rebuilding, all 30 clubs are faced with at least a few big decisions over the course of the offseason.

The following is an early look at what figures to be each team's biggest offseason decision, and those decisions were broken into the following six categories: