MLB

There's less than two weeks to go before spring training is a distant memory, replaced by Opening Day and the start of the 2014 MLB season.

While fans, players, writers, prognosticators, hot dog vendors and everyone else associated with the game loves to say that spring training statistics and numbers are largely meaningless, they do provide a way to analyze how individual players are performing—just like they do during the regular season.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have high hopes for the 2014 season, after missing the playoffs in each of the past two years. Following back-to-back .500 seasons the D’Backs underwent an aggressive offseason makeover in an attempt to compete with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in what’s expected to be a very competitive NL West race.

The Atlanta Braves have come a long way since their humble beginnings as the Boston Red Stockings. They’ve seen cities, stadiums, owners, players and even team names come and go through a revolving door. The Braves have had high points, like winning the World Series, and low points, like devastating playoff losses and seasons with few highlights.

For Oakland A's fans, the term "March Madness" reflects their team's crazy spring training. One major player is out for the season and another isn't hitting. But there is good news: A few guys you might not have expected to hit so well have been pleasant surprises.

Spring training is meant to answer a team's questions.

As shown by their massive spending spree this offseason, the New York Yankees retool through free agency and not through their minor league system.

However, it is hard to know if they do that by choice or if they are forced to by a lack of organizational depth.

Over the course of the 2013 season, 230 players—103 position players and 127 pitchers—made their major league debuts, according to Baseball Reference's Play Index.

That's down from 2012, when 291 players (174 position players and 117 pitchers) got their careers underway. But it proves a point: every season, without fail, each and every team in baseball gets significant use out of its minor league shuttle.

It's going to happen again in 2014.

The Cincinnati Reds haven't exactly had the best of luck in spring training this year.

The team won 90 games last season, but it was tasked with the challenge of replacing Shin-Soo Choo, while questions about rotational depth and whether or not Billy Hamilton would be ready to step in as an everyday player were abundant leading up to spring training.

In short, there was a lot of work to do this spring, and to this point, next to nothing has been settled.

As we inch closer to Major League Baseball’s Opening Day, the excitement builds. You have likely already drafted or it’s in your immediate future. Every team in the league is tied for first.

It’s the perfect time to make predictions. Here’s the Lester’s Legends prediction for the statistical leader in each of the five-by-five-league fantasy baseball categories.

There's a moment in every player's career he dreads: Walking into the locker room after a game and being called into the manager's office to be told you didn't make the 25-man roster—either resulting in a trip to the minors or being released from the club. 

Most players on thin ice probably act like Willie Mays Hayes in Major League on cut-down day. He walks into the clubhouse fearing a red tag is in his locker, so he cautiously opens it up and can't bring himself to look inside. 

Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher on the National League's best team. After a 92-win season, trip to the NLCS and Cy Young campaign for the dominant southpaw, expectations were set to be sky high for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2014.