In a special two-hour edition of Baseball Tonight Presented by Burger King leading into ESPN’s exclusive coverage of MLB Opening Night between the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros at 8 p.m. ET, ESPN’s deep bench of baseball commentators – including Hall of Famer Barry Larkin, Curt Schilling, Tim Kurkjian, Alex Cora and Karl Ravech – offered insights and predictions for the 2013 MLB season. ESPN experts also offered MLB Playoff and end-of-season award predictions on ESPN.com.

On Monday, April 1, ESPN will present four MLB Opening Day games, beginning with the New York Yankees hosting the Boston Red Sox at 1 p.m., followed by the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants taking on the Los Angeles Dodgers at 4 p.m. ESPN2 will then televise a prime-time doubleheader: the Philadelphia Phillies at the Atlanta Braves at 7 p.m. and the St. Louis Cardinals at the Arizona Diamondbacks at 10 p.m. On Opening Day, Baseball Tonight airs at both 12 p.m. on ESPN and again at 1 a.m. on ESPN2.

Curt Schilling on what Opening Day means to players:

There are hundreds of guys who are just excited to be playing for real. It was a long spring training. I played on some of the worst teams in the game. I was blessed to play on some World Championship teams. Opening Day was the one day where everything was the same. Everybody was excited – kids at Christmas. Everybody had a chance up until you played that first game.

Tim Kurkjian on the Texas Rangers without Michael Young and Josh Hamilton:

It was really weird walking in there and not seeing Michael Young. It’s been ten years. And not just because he was a really good hitter, but he was the spokesman of that team in every way. Let’s face it – you take Josh Hamilton out of the lineup.  He won an MVP, finished in the top five another time and went to two World Series with them. This thought that they are not going to miss him, you’ve got to be kidding me. They don’t have a real good replacement for him.

Barry Larkin on losing a franchise player like Young:

There’s a transition period any time you lose a major player on a team. There’s a transition period psychologically for the team. Regardless of whether you got better players or not, any time you lose a Michael Young, it changes things.

Schilling on the San Francisco Giants:

We continue not to give the Giants those preseason accolades. We haven’t really been talking about them for the last three years going into the season and they’ve won two of the last three World Series. Tip of the cap to Bruce Bochy. He’s a guy who gets as much out of his players as he can. For me, the fun part about this, you’ve got two legitimate aces [on Opening Day for Giants-Dodgers]. There may be less than ten true aces in the big leagues and two of them are pitching in that game tomorrow.

Larkin on Mike Trout’s potential:

I had a chance to work out with Mike Trout and talk to him a couple years ago before he busted on the scene. At that time, I thought this guy was going to be special because of his speed and explosiveness, meeting his family, his humility and the way he approaches this game. And then, when we saw what he did when he came up, sometimes you just see somebody and say he’s got it.

Schilling on Stephen Strasburg as an ace and the Washington Nationals’ makeup:

He hasn’t done it yet but I would tell you this guy is an ace. We could see a 300 strikeout season from a pitcher again if he stays healthy and takes the ball and pitches every fifth day. To be the ace of that rotation is saying something. I’m excited to watch him pitch. And for the Nationals, look at the starting rotation, bullpen, bench – which is a big thing in the National League. Their season ended very badly last year and I think they have the makeup of personalities that it’s actually going to be a good thing coming into this year.

Kurkjian on the Los Angeles Dodgers:

I’ve got the Dodgers winning the Wild Card out of this division. I think with Greinke as the number two starter and the things they added at the end of last year, you know you can’t put together a team when you acquire six new players in the middle of July. That’s what spring training is all about. I spent a lot of time with the Dodgers. Don Mattingly is really good at taking those guys and molding them into a team. It doesn’t help that Hanley Ramirez is going to miss six weeks and frankly, I’m wondering what Hanley Ramirez is going to come back. He has not been the great player that he was three years ago.

Schilling on adjustments Roy Halladay needs to make:

In my opinion, Halladay is the Tim Lincecum of this year. They are just different pitchers. There’s a tipping point in every pitcher’s career. He’s a guy who has been rode hard for a lot of years. He’s a horse. He’s the 240-inning guy. At some point, you hit a wall. You change. The hardest part about that is accepting it on your own. You have to accept the fact that your fastball is different, your stuff is different and start the game pitching that way.

Alex Cora on Aroldis Chapman:

Chapman is a game changer. He can get you three outs or he can give you five. He’s that good. He’s perfect in this role. The rotation is decent enough and they have a solid bullpen. It’s like a relay race. They take the baton to the next guy and the next guy. And you know that big guy is in the ninth inning. Most likely you’re going to win that game.

Schilling on Justin Verlander:

This guy wants to be the best in the game, wants to be a Hall of Famer. Fear of failure motivates the greatest players. When you are a young pitcher watching that, he told himself to go out and do less than 100 percent. That’s an incredibly hard thing as a young player to do – start the game at 85 percent and then be confident enough to get up to 100 percent later in the game.

Cora on the Baltimore Orioles:

Best infield in the division. You add Brian Roberts for a full season, hopefully. He’s going to be your leadoff guy. He’s a great defensive player. And then, Manny Machado for the whole season at third. We saw what Machado did last year. All the plays he made.

Larkin on the Toronto Blue Jays:

I am not ready to give it to Toronto yet. On paper, a lot of nice acquisitions. But there are glue guys who have to exist in every clubhouse. Guys have to learn how to play together. They may have played well in spring training but that doesn’t necessarily translate into winning when it counts.