MLB’s Breakout Players

Several Major League Baseball players are having breakout seasons, this year, and helping their teams exceed expectations, in the process. Former MLB GM, Jim Bowden, now with espn.com, gives his list of breakout players, below.

Asdrubal Cabrera #13 of the Cleveland Indians fields a ground ball against the Seattle Mariners during the game on May 13, 2011 at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio.

A breakout player is someone who has always had the talent and potential, but has never been able to live up to it at the major league level. The reasons players have breakout seasons include but are not limited to: an opportunity to play full time, rebounding from injuries, making adjustments they've never made before, maturity, learning from experience, getting significant playing time, increased physical ability due to different training methods.

There are several great breakout stories so far from this 2011 season and I found it difficult to decide who qualifies. Therefore, players like Matt Kemp won't be included because he already had his breakout season, while players like Mike Stanton and Starlin Castro showed us last year what they could do. Others like Ryan Vogelsong and Phil Humber could have made list, but I wanted to limit it to five pitchers and five position players.

http://espn.go.com/blog/the-gms-office/post/_/id/141/year-of-the-breakout-player