MLB

The technical term for Andrew McCutchen's performance in 2012 and 2013 is "a hard act to follow."

All he did was hit .322 with a .932 OPS across those two seasons, with last year's National League MVP award being the bow on top of it all. It's hard to ask a guy to be any better than that.

1. How the Dodgers Could Fix Themselves

The Dodgers are stuck in neutral. Matt Kemp’s mind is stuck in 2011, the year he finished as runner-up to Ryan Braun in the NL MVP race.

Little of the math surrounding this most expensive team in baseball history adds up, including, still, the four-outfielders-for-three-positions equation.

The Cincinnati Reds' farm system is flush with young pitchers right now. A quick look through my most recent prospect rankings and you'll see that nine of the team's top 15 prospects are pitchers.

Of those nine prospects, only one is a can't-miss starter. That young man, Robert Stephenson, headlines the group of starters we'll analyze in this piece.

Despite a 32-38 record, the Boston Red Sox are still only 5.5 games back of a playoff spot in the American League.  Barring a complete collapse, the Red Sox figure to be buyers when the July 31 MLB trade deadline arrives.  With that in mind, what are Boston's greatest needs going forward, as they look to stay alive in the postseason race?

In his last start, June 14 against the Atlanta Braves, Garrett Richards tossed six scoreless innings and struck out 10 en route to an 11-6 victory. (Richards was denied the win when the bullpen coughed up the lead, but the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim ultimately prevailed in 13 innings.)

Generally speaking, the Oakland A's are a very good baseball team—one of the best teams in baseball during the 2014 regular season. But if they want to legitimately compete for a World Series title, there are a few things they must shore up.

Don't mistake that statement as doubt.

Here come the Kansas City Royals. After getting off to a troublesome 29-32 start, the AL Central contenders have caught fire by winning eight games in a row. The latest—an 11-8 victory over the Detroit Tigers—has put the defending division champions on notice.

With the 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Game now just a month away, crunch time for the voting has arrived.

And thanks to the latest batch of updates, now we know where the voting stands going into said crunch time.

Despite their recent struggles in June, the Toronto Blue Jays still hold the top spot in the American League East and have a 4.5 game lead over the second-place New York Yankees.

While the Blue Jays have looked like a playoff club for the most part this season, there have also been instances where their lack of depth in certain places has been exposed and cost them games. This doesn’t bode well for a team with aspirations to play in October.

Six starts into his MLB career, Mets right hander Jacob deGrom could hardly be considered wholly responsible for his winless record. deGrom, after all, compiled a 3.44 ERA while lasting at least 5.2 innings in each outing. The Mets' moribund offense was at least partly to blame.

But on Monday night in front of a nationally televised audience, deGrom become undone. He failed to make it out of the fifth inning, surrendering 12 hits to a Cardinals offense eager to pounce. St. Louis torched deGrom for six runs en route to a 6-2 victory.