Evan Longoria is a candidate to win the American League’s MVP award, but where exactly does the man fall among the game’s greatest? Harlan Ambrose takes a thorough look at the numbers behind Longoria’s unassumingly dominant 2013 campaign, arguing that not only is he among the game’s best, he quite possibly already could be.

Between Jimmy Negrych and Chris Bootcheck, the International League’s most productive hitter and most effective pitcher, arguably, are non-prospects. This is far from unusual. In Triple-A, prospects are often outnumbered by journeymen, role players, veterans and free agents, floating freely between organizations, continuing to chase their own Major League dreams. The Majors are, after all, right there, one step above the International League! How do such circumstances affect the atmosphere in the clubhouse?

The Mississippi River has flooded parts of the Quad Cities stadium parking lot, encroaching on the ballpark and the downtown streets of Davenport, Iowa. This, not first overall MLB draft choice Carlos Correa, is the type of headline that’s dominated River Bandits media coverage for the past few weeks. Is baseball in April, unpredictable weather and all, worth it?

With all this talk about the must-watch storylines that have already unfolded in this young Major League Baseball season, it’s been easy to overlook the battle that the Miami Marlins and Houston Astros are fighting for the title have cellar dweller in the big leagues. While the Astros make a compelling case, few have mastered futility as well as Jeffrey Loria.

The actual fictional book edition of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” according to the inimitable Douglas Adams, “has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover. But there is no official Guide to the Baseball Season, and so panicking comes easily.