For the Los Angeles Dodgers, the disappointing start to their 2013 season isn't a question of when it all went so stunningly wrong so incredibly quickly. It's a question of how.

The short answer? There's plenty of blame to go around.

The long answer? Well, buckle up.

Think back to Opening Day for a minute. Ready to deliver the ceremonial first pitch, part-owner Magic Johnson was relieved of his duties at the last moment by manager Don Mattingly, who took the ball from Johnson and called for the lefty, Sandy Koufax.

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"Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!"

Oscar Wilde wrote that in "The Picture of Dorian Gray." It was either meant as a satirical lamentation of some sort, or as a prophetic appraisal of the pitching landscape in today's MLB.

It just might have been, for it seems that every time one happens to look up, a guy like Matt Harvey, Shelby Miller, Matt Moore or Patrick Corbin is doing something awesome. In the realm of pitching, youth is ruling.

Granted, we've seen pitching youth movements before...But this one is different. Perhaps not the best, but certainly extraordinary in its own way.

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In the realm of Major League Baseball's first-year player draft, first base is hardly the sexiest position.

The guys who make scouts drool the most are the guys who have either eye-popping fastball velocity or all five tools. The latter typically isn't associated with first basemen, and there's also the reality that great first basemen don't necessarily have to be found. They can be made easily enough, as any guy who's all bat and no glove can be stashed at first base without much fuss.

These sorts of prospects are probably more plentiful than, you know, actual first base prospects.

But actual prospects are certainly out there to be found, and there are a few names with whom you should familiarize yourself as we inch closer to the 2013 MLB Draft (June 6-8).

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The Steroid Era isn't that far in the rear-view mirror. Major League Baseball hasn't even been testing for PEDs for a decade yet, and it was only a dozen years ago that Barry Bonds broke the single-season home run record.

However, the point stands that the Steroid Era is in the rear-view mirror. You can tell just by looking around, as you just don't see that many Incredible Hulk lookalikes wearing baseball uniforms anymore.

That, and you can also tell by looking at the numbers.

I did so back in January, but only in a scratch-the-surface sort of fashion. I took a deeper dive into the numbers this week and found a heck of a lot more worth talking about. There are plenty of numbers that can highlight just how obvious it is that there was some unnatural power in the game, and how obvious it is now that it's gone away.

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Mariano Rivera has many awards in his collection, but he doesn't have an American League Cy Young Award yet.

Maybe you missed it tacked onto the end there, but the key word in that lead-in would be "yet." He still has this year to win one, and his chances are looking pretty good.

The longtime New York Yankees closer is proving all over again that there's nothing he can't do. And while the stars aren't perfectly aligned for Rivera to walk away with a Cy Young at the end of the year, there's certainly a hint of some sort of alignment.

Entering Tuesday's action, Rivera is tied for the major league lead in saves with Jason Grilli of the Pittsburgh Pirates with 17. Mo owns a 1.47 ERA, a 0.87 WHIP and is holding opposing hitters to a .541 OPS with a 7.0 K/BB.

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In Major League Baseball, how a free agent-to-be finishes the season is much more important than how he starts. The player's agent can chalk it up to a mechanical adjustment or a player getting back to full health or just finally "figuring it out" to explain why things didn't click until the second half.

In any case, agents will try to sell interested teams on the player that ended the season on a roll as opposed to the player who struggled early on. The other way around would be a much tougher sell. 

So while a consistent performance throughout the season would certainly help boost value and make that player less of a risk in the eyes of a team who will be investing millions of dollars, any struggling free agents-to-be still have time to turn things around as long as they're still playing regularly.

Here are eight of those players.

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The designated hitter has been in the American League since 1973, and it probably won't be much longer before it's in the National League, too. Now that interleague play is an everyday thing, it's just not practical for MLB's two leagues to play by different sets of rules.

But having pitchers bat for themselves in National League games (and in games at National League parks) isn't just impractical in this day and age. It's also as dangerous as it's ever been.

Isn't that right, Ryan Vogelsong?

If you missed it, the San Francisco Giants veteran right-hander took a wild swing at an inside fastball from Washington Nationals reliever Craig Stammen on Monday night. Instead of hitting the bat, the pitch hit Vogelsong on his moneymaker. 

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Last week, the case was made for WAR as baseball's best statistic. Now it's time to dig a little deeper to find out if some of the early-season leaders in Wins Above Replacement are for real.

Take a look at the WAR leaders, per FanGraphs, and amid proven studs like Miguel Cabrera, Evan Longoria and Joey Votto, you'll notice a bunch of hitters who seem like potential new entries for breakout stars.

But given that we're only a month-and-a-half into the 2013 season, it's possible that some of these stars-in-the-making actually are closer to stars-in-the-faking, inflated by luck or unsustainable underlying numbers.

Let's examine a batch of these players to uncover whether each of the following is a Breakout Star, a Legitimate Starter...or Just Lucky.

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