MLB’s biggest questions for 2015, answered

Grant Brisbee: I have the Brewers fourth in my predictions, but of all the fourth-place teams, they’re the ones who would surprise me the least by winning the division. They start with two of the very best players in the league, with Carlos Gomez and Jonathan Lucroy, and it’s not like they pasted in schlubs around them. Ryan Braun still has MVP talent, and he’s not pushing 40 just yet, so I would expect a bounce-back season from him. They even addressed their abscess at first base, which they hadn’t bothered to do for the last two years.

The only reason they aren’t widely thought of as contenders is because a) the pitching is filled with unknown quantities, and b) they set themselves on fire in the middle of last season, and someone please help them no no no no what happened. If they can ease the fears of the first scenario, and avoid the depressing second scenario, they’re a pennant contender.

Bill Hanstock: This year’s Royals will be the Indians. Unless it’s the A’s. But it might be the Cubs. Or the Royals! It won’t be the Blue Jays or the White Sox, two teams that spent way too much and made too many moves in the offseason to truly be considered “this year’s Royals.”

Marc Normandin: The Rays just lost almost every face of their franchise and success in one winter. General manager Andrew Friedman left for a promotion with the Dodgers. Manager Joe Maddon opted out of his deal shortly after to bring his Ultimate Dad persona to the Cubs and their pursuit of their first World Series championship in over 100 years. Then, the Rays traded Ben Zobrist, who epitomizes what the Rays have been during their successful run better than any other player, as he came out of nowhere and beat the odds to consistently produce some of MLB’s best work. Oh, yeah, and Tampa Bay traded David Price last July, too.

Things look bleak for them with all that in mind, but hey, they still have Evan Longoria, and if everyone is healthy, they could have the top rotation in the AL East. The lineup is teetering on the edge of disaster, but there is enough to like about it with that pitching staff that they could surprise everyone and make the postseason in spite of all the turnover.

Marc Normandin: Inexplicable implosions have to be just that, so let’s say Zack Greinke falls apart just in time to decide that he’s not interested in invoking his opt-out clause after all.

Bill Hanstock: Well, that’s just Max Scherzer. He’s gonna Verlander harder than anyone’s ever Verlandered before. And the Nationals will be paying him until President Rand Paul is serving his fifth (nonconsecutive) term.

Grant Brisbee: In my day, by gum, they called it “going Lincecum,” and that’s the way we liked it. This is an especially ghoulish category, and I’m not proud of picking anyone, so I’ll compound the distaste by picking someone I really enjoy watching. By the end of the postseason, Adam Wainwright looked like a different pitcher, with a curve-heavy pitch selection that seemed more necessity than strategy. His NLCS Game 5 was one of the most impressive starts I’ve ever seen, and he deserved better, but I’m not sure exactly what he would have had for the World Series anyway. He was spent.

Since Tommy John surgery in 2011, Wainwright has thrown 198 2/3, 276 2/3, and 243 innings over the last three seasons, including the postseason. That’s a huge workload, and last year he missed fewer bats than usual. I’m not saying he’s doomed. I’m saying I’m not drafting him in my fantasy league. Please note that I’m always dead last in my fantasy league and that the Cardinals are always good, so you have the counterpoint right there.

Eric Stephen: Count me all-in on Team LaTroy Hawkins. Sure, he’s 42 years old with a low strikeout rate (14.2 percent in 2014), but he has been an effective reliever the last two years and in three of the last four years. He even excelled in Colorado last year, putting up a 3.31 ERA and 3.39 FIP while saving 23 games. His final game of 2014 was the 1,000th of his career, making him one of just 16 pitchers in history to reach that milestone. You know what they say, the second 1,000 games are much easier than the first 1,000 games.

Marc Normandin: Tim Hudson is 39 years old, and dude is just to keep doing his thing out in San Francisco, inducing grounders every five days and talking trash in his down time. Hudson has had a remarkable and somehow unsung career even though he was on the Moneyball A’s, and maybe he won’t get into the Hall of Fame for his efforts, but it would be pretty great if he went out on a high note. Yes, sadly, this is our last year of Tim Hudson, so enjoy it while it lasts. Let’s hope he slow trots around the bases on another homer before he hangs ‘em up for good.

Bill Hanstock: Jamie Moyer’s still playing, right? No? Then pencil in Tim Hudson and David Ortiz.

Grant Brisbee: If the Yankees are going to horrify us all and contend -- and you know they will -- they’ll need a bunch of Colons. The likeliest candidate for peak Colon is Carlos Beltran, who has a busted knee for an elbow and a melty elbow for a knee, but has the Hall of Fame talent to surprise for one more season. Give me 400 at-bats and 25 homers or more, even if logic suggests he should be good for 200 at-bats, and exactly one home run that bounces off the rightfielder’s head.

Marc Normandin: The Blue Jays have gone the longest without a playoff appearance. They could absolutely make the postseason in 2015, and maybe easily, but that’s what makes the horribleness of a potential flop here stand out. The rotation has promise but it’s already missing Marcus Stroman, and now they’re relying on a bunch of pitchers who could be too old or too young. The lineup looks frightening for opposing pitchers, but depth could be an issue there as well, and the AL East and American League as a whole is super talented.

I feel comfortable picking them to flop, for the same reason I used to feel comfortable just assuming the Braves would make the playoffs back when they always did. You know, in the 90s, the last time the Jays made the playoffs.

Bill Hanstock: No one’s really expecting big things from the Giants, so that’s too easy. There are really only three “sure thing” superpowers as the season opens, so let’s say the Angels are the ones who fall off this year.

Grant Brisbee: This question allows me to have the veneer of objectivity, even though it’s just a spoiled brat pouting because he’s spoiled. But it has to be the Giants, right? Some people are expecting big things, Bill. Some people.

The injuries are already worrisome, the pitchers are either old, bad, hurt, or overworked, and they’re playing in the same division as a team that just spent $60 million-plus to fill a position they didn’t need filled. Logic (and the fancy projection systems) suggest they’ll be mostly fine, but I can’t shake the feeling of dread.

By signing John Bowker, you can tell the Giants are already looking toward next year’s postseason, so I don’t even feel guilty about this projected doom.

Bill Hanstock: Christian Yelich for MVP.

Marc Normandin: Alex Rodriguez, AL Comeback Player of the Year and also your American League Most Valuable Player. Listen, the Yankees are going to win when they don’t deserve to somehow, why can’t their dark magic be channeled through A-Rod?

Grant Brisbee: If it’s a true Kluber, it has to be a completely random. Like, not even in your top 50 preseason picks. So I’ll go with Nolan Arenado, a brilliant two-way player who will put up the counting stats to make the veteran voters happy and the defensive stats to get the nerds all giddy, winning the MVP in a landslide.

Kyle Kendrick gonna win 20, everyone ...

Grant Brisbee: Low-hanging fruit, but Fredi Gonzalez isn’t exactly a beloved institution in Atlanta, and this is going to be one dreadful season for them. The other teams who are supposed to be bad this year have new managers, and while that isn’t a guarantee of job security (Bo Porter, for example), I don’t think the Diamondbacks or Phillies are going to make a change that soon, just because they’re out of ideas.

Bill Hanstock: Horse race between Rockies (Walt Weiss), Reds (Brian Price), and Diamondbacks (Chip Hale).

Eric Stephen: Terry Collins has already lasted four years in New York, longer than the manager lasted in Houston and Anaheim, his two previous gigs. The Mets still aren’t very good, but have a strong enough pitching staff and play in a weak enough division to at least give off the impression of a team that should contend for a wild card spot. But when the Mets ultimately fail, someone will need to be the fall guy, and that’s Collins, who might finally blink in 2015.

Marc Normandin: Terry Collins will be fired from the Mets when principal owner Fred Wilpon decides he’s seen enough, and that it’s time to show everyone just how you manage a New York baseball team. Interim manager Fred Wilpon will then spend the summer arguing with himself about whether he can afford a real shortstop.

Wilmer Flores, tired of being at the center of so much controversy, will leave the team to escape the scrutiny, but first dress up a large rock in a Mets’ jersey and put it at shortstop in his place. The team’s defense will improve, and Fred Wilpon will take all the credit before deciding to remove the interim tag from himself.

Bill Hanstock: The Giants will trade for a bat. Two days later, the Dodgers will trade for THREE bats. So let’s say Chase Utley to the Giants for Andrew Susac and Ehire Adrianza, followed by the Dodgers acquiring Bryce Harper, Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday for Andre Ethier and half a billion dollars.

Marc Normandin: The Zombie Yankees will somehow still be over .500 despite the fact that all of their veterans are injured or awful. So, they’ll trade a bunch of minor-league players you’ve never heard of to the Reds for Johnny Cueto and Marlon Byrd, then extend Cueto for six years. Why should they ever learn? Nothing bad ever happens to them for very long.

Grant Brisbee: Craig Kimbrel to the Mariners for D.J. Peterson and others. Mariners fans will just love this idea, I’m sure! Fake Internet trades are the best.

Grant Brisbee: The Padres have been baseball’s glass of warm milk for years now, boring you pleasantly before putting you to sleep. You can’t get mad at a glass of warm milk. You can get mad because there’s no instant hot chocolate around, but you can’t get mad at the milk. You can only get sleepy.

I don’t know if the Padres are going to win 90 games this year or lose 85, but they won’t be boring. They’ll be a team worth staying up for on the East Coast, a compelling dinger factory that might also allow 485 triples on the season.

Marc Normandin: If the Cardinals aren’t any good it’s likely part of some larger plan that will see them come back as somehow even more unstoppable, so let’s go with the Mariners. They can pitch, but that’s normal for them. The difference is that they can hit (probably!). A Mariners team who can hit will (probably!) make the playoffs.

Bill Hanstock: The Mariners will break out and win the AL West and the Blue Jays will contend for the AL East all the way to the final week, proving both stereotypes wrong. The Cardinals will always be good, though. Don’t worry about that one.

Bill Hanstock: Oh, lord, no. He’ll be around for at least five more years.

Marc Normandin: If A-Rod has a quality year, I could see him retiring and leaving the rest of the money on the table. He would have left on his own terms, and after proving something to himself and a whole lot of his doubters. Plus, it would infuriate Bud Selig that A-Rod didn’t leave the game a monster.

Eric Stephen: Of course Alex Rodriguez will be back after 2015. There are 40 million reasons for him to do so, namely the $20 million per season he will earn in 2016 and 2017 per his contract. A-Rod will be vilified and booed all year in 2015, but none of that will deter him from coming back. In fact, the real question should be is how long A-Rod will play beyond his current deal, which expires after 2017. We aren’t getting rid of him that easily, after all.

Grant Brisbee: Ha ha ha ha ha, no.

2015: $22 million
2016: $21 million
2017: $21 million

For $42 million, I would eat a VW Bug piece by piece, over a 10-year period. All Rodriguez has to do is play baseball. If he can’t do that, all he’ll have to do is rehabilitate whatever is hurt. What, he’s going to turn down $42 million -- with a possibility of huge incentives -- because he’s sad and doesn’t like booing?

Also, the VW Bug could be covered in centipedes, I don’t care. Make me an offer.

Bill Hanstock: Oh, lord, yes. By some degree.

Grant Brisbee: Yes, I’m convinced of this. We’ve taken Harper for granted for far too long, and this is the season that he ascends into the pantheon of supremely productive and unlikeable bros.

When Barry Bonds was 21, he hit .223/.330/.416, with 16 homers and a 103 OPS+. When Harper was 21, he hit .273/.344/.423, with 13 homers and a 111 OPS+. That isn’t to suggest that Harper is on that Bonds path, but that it is utterly absurd to suggest he’s overrated because he was merely good before he was 21, not great. The only thing that can stop him is his own body, which isn’t a mild concern, but Harper has the talent to do almost anything.

Marc Normandin: It just feels like this is the year Harper stays healthy and puts it all together and brings the Nationals to the World Series, doesn’t it? He’s 22, he’s in his fourth season in the majors and is somehow still younger than a whole bunch of 2015 rookies will be, his ceiling is still astronomical in nature. There is maybe nothing more I want in baseball in 2015 than for Harper to break out and silence his many critics.