The 14 most intriguing human beings playing baseball

In light of the baseball-stats revolution, you could be forgiven for thinking that baseball is not really a sport, but a random number-generator used by nerds to confer upon themselves the glory of athletic achievement. As important as this movement has been, the game remains a human endeavor, engaging not just the mind, but the bodies, emotions, and creativity of real human beings. The characters at the center of the game are why people fall in love with it. They are why I run a daily newsletter about the sport, called The Slurve.

To that end, here are the 14 most intriguing human baseball players of the 2015 season.

Coming into their own

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Matt Harvey

The Mets ace is a bit of a mystery, no? He blew away the league in early 2013, becoming the favorite pitcher of other ace pitchers. Will Leitch said watching him pitch is "like watching a bulldozer set to Mozart, it's gorgeous." Harvey is now 26, and at that age he should be heading into his prime. But he's only won 12 Major League games, and he was never a major prospect. No one has more to prove.

Bryce Harper

Harper is four years younger than Harvey, and yet it feels like he's been around forever. Among other players, he regularly polls as one of the most overrated players in the league. (Translation: He gets more commercial work than his numbers deserve). But Harper was an absolute stud on an underperforming Nationals team in last year's playoffs. He's this brash, over-groomed Mormon who isn't afraid of demanding "my ring" when his team makes a big trade.

Yasiel Puig

He has the most entertaining bat flip. He makes defensive plays like this one. Yasiel Puig is like a sheer gratuity from the gods of baseball. And his escape from Cuba is also the stuff of award-winning movies. More than Bryce Harper, Puig represents the game of the future. If all of his talents begin working in tandem, he could be the Michael Jordan of the sport. (That is, if the league bothered to market its star players.)

Daniel Norris

The league found a real Thoreau type in this young Blue Jays fireballer who spends most of his non-baseball time in a ridiculous 1978 Volkswagen camper. He achieved 11.8 strikeouts per nine innings in the minor leagues last year. And he is aiming to contribute to a grizzled staff of craftier pitchers like Mark Buehrle and R.A. Dickey, two men who would make this list in most other years.

Mookie Betts

Betts is nine months into his pro career, and has just been named the Red Sox leadoff hitter. Boston sports media is already talking about sending him to the Hall of Fame. Maybe one star can be the difference in a Wild Card hunt in the A.L. East, which is, on paper, the most mediocre division in baseball.

Kris Bryant

The subject of 10,000 stories about how the Cubs held this obviously deserving kid in the minors for a few weeks to get an extra year of service time before he hits free agency. A power-hitting phenom, the hopes of long-suffering North Side fans lie with him.

Looking for a second wind

Matt Kemp

Finally freed of the drama of the Dodgers' outfield carousel, Matt Kemp has left Hollywood behind, along with persistent (and likely bogus) rumors that he was a bad teammate. With the Padres, Kemp has a chance to become the biggest turnaround story in the big leagues. We're only three years past him being a .300 hitter with a .900+ OPS, and he's in his age 30 season. He begins the season against the Dodgers, and no doubt he has some measure of revenge in mind.

Adam Wainwright

In the first game of the 2015 season, Adam Wainwright took advantage of a generous strike zone and added further ruin to a horrible debut for the "new Cubs." Wainwright's elbow problems, combined with the suspicion that there is no way he can continue to dominate much longer, have led baseball watchers to underrate him and the Cardinals this year.

Felix Hernandez

Seattle's ace pitcher is so good it behooves East Coasters to move their bedtime three hours later just to see him. The way fans in Seattle have rallied to "The Kings' Court" has been inspiring in its mass mania and infectiousness. But is age getting to him? In spring training this year he allowed 14 runs on 13 hits and four walks in just over 12 innings. Baseball connoisseurs have been waiting to see what he could do in a legitimate playoff run, which many are predicting for Seattle this year. Be a kid and stay up past bedtime for him.

Justin Verlander

Anyone who stands next to Kate Upton this often would be interesting solely for that. Verlander starts the season on the disabled list. The former fireballer used to throw faster as games went on, with a fastball velocity that started at 93 MPH and climbed toward 99 MPH by the eighth inning. Now it seems Verlander has a choice of blowing his arm out trying to touch 95 MPH, or learning to become a new kind of pitcher by topping out at 92 MPH. How do athletes pull back, recreate themselves? And how do they do so while trying to win it all for an aging owner?

Alex Rodriguez

After more than a year of insistent rumors that the Yankees would find some way to cut A-Rod out of their lives, it looks like he's one of their best players. The media still spreads reports about the monuments he builds to his ego — even when they aren't true. He batted seventh in the lineup on Opening Day. How far does he move up?

Hanging on by a thread

Josh Hamilton

The man admitted to a drug relapse. Arbitrators forbid the league from suspending him, which obviously upset an Angels ownership that was salivating at the prospect of recouping some of the salary owed to the team's underperforming star. As a human, Hamilton interests. Does he need the routine of baseball to continue his recovery, or is time away from the spotlight more helpful?

Tim Lincecum

A two-time Cy Young award winner and hope to short pitchers everywhere, Lincecum has fought his way back into the Giants' starting rotation with a solid spring. He becomes a free agent at the end of the year. Will the promise of one more pay day bring back the 170-pounder who earned names like "The Franchise"?

Barry Zito

He is never going to be a superstar again. He is the primary cautionary tale about offering great pitchers long and expensive contracts. He accepted a position on the A's minor league squad. And yet, long into his decline, he somehow helped the San Francisco Giants win a World Series in 2012. And he somehow worked his way back into the affections of Giants fans. Zito has been finding inner peace with yoga, while still pushing himself with a ragged and raging drive.

Bonus interesting human

David Price

The former Tampa Bay ace seemed to lose his footing when he was traded to Detroit in 2014. But in the season opener against the Twins, Price was everything (short of a complete game) the Tigers want him to be. Few pitchers have evolved as much as Price year to year. And few have been so personally charming as they ruthlessly improve their pitching efficiency. David Price is my dark horse for MVP. I'm going to enjoy every minute of this.