Opinion

In 2007, the Arizona Diamondbacks made a surprising run toward the playoffs and reached the National League Championship Series before finally falling short against the Colorado Rockies. Three years later, the architect for that surprising run, general manager Josh Byrnes, was fired in July 2010.

An important day has arrived, baseball fans. With the 2014 Major League Baseball season graduating from April to May and five weeks of play in the books, it's officially time to stop using "small sample size" to justify or defend statistics, trends and narratives.

With every passing the day, results from 2013 matter less and early season headlines become more instructive as we dissect what is happening on the field. Every pitch, inning and game brings us closer to clarity on surprise teams and players. 

Tradition dies hard when it comes to Major League Baseball clubs. They're not afraid to make little changes, but it's not especially often that a franchise says "Screw it!" and goes for a completely new look.

There are a couple clubs out there, however, that ought to give it a shot.

Maybe even more than a couple, come to think of it. Heck, there might be as many as a dozen teams out there that could benefit from making like the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008, the Miami Marlins in 2012 or the Houston Astros in 2013 and going for a full-on rebrand.

In his first start for the 2014 Atlanta Braves on Friday night, young lefty Mike Minor was confronted with the reality of the 2014 Atlanta Braves.

With Minor doing his part by turning in a solid performance, he provided further evidence that this Braves team has the whole pitching thing down solid.

The whole hitting thing, on the other hand, is a work in progress. And at this point, one is starting to get the sense that's just how it's going to be.

Expected to be a major strength for the team heading into the 2014 season, the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen has been very unreliable out of the gate.

Toronto has already lost several winnable games because of late-inning meltdowns. The Blue Jays relievers have picked up six of the team’s 15 losses, which were attributed to them after they were called in with a lead and ended up losing the game.

That’s not the only concerning stat. In fact, it’s not pretty whichever way you look at it.

Hey, want to see how legendary scandals are made?

Sports rivalries can reach ridiculous heights, but few turn into grueling and personal legal battles.

Such has been the case for New Jersey club owner Lawrence Blatterfein, a loyal Yankees fan in the New Brunswick area whose only wish was to open a new bar called Buck Foston’s Road House.

Unfortunately for Blatterfein, when he attempted to secure a liquor license for his new venture in 2011, the city of New Brunswick and its mayor stepped in and put the kibosh on the entire operation.

At the end of April, 14 MLB teams had a winning record, and outside of a streaking Milwaukee Brewers team, no squad had really separated itself from the pack yet.

Obviously a lot can change over the course of a season, but we also have a big enough sample size to get a feel for what the strengths and weaknesses of each team are going to be and how their season might shape up.

What follows is a closer look at those aforementioned 14 teams, along with my take on whether they are a contender or pretender moving forward.

The Boston Red Sox are scuffling as the calendar turns to May, and Felix Doubront is becoming a poster boy for their struggles. Soon, he could be a part of a wave of changes for the team, as the Red Sox should think long and hard about replacing Doubront in the rotation if his inconsistency persists into late May and early June.

April has been good for the San Francisco Giants. They finished the month with a record of 17-11, in first place in the NL West.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies are hot on the Giants' heels as they trail by only a half game and one game, respectively.