Way, way, way back in January, we ranked the lineups across Major League Baseball. It was a nice, little, by-the-fireplace glance. It was in preparation for a season that was just a couple of weeks from getting its sleepy start on spring training diamonds arrayed in the sunnier corners of the nation.
Obviously, a lot has changed since then. There will be books written about the non-baseball changes we've seen over the past eight months, but things have changed in baseball, too. The challenge is understanding just what has changed -- and to what degree.