2014 MLB Spring Training

It's safe to say for the San Francisco Giants, everything looks different now than it did at the beginning of spring training.

Mark Minicozzi became a household name among Giants fans before getting optioned to the minors. Brandon Hicks has completely changed the infield battle. Ryan Vogelsong has worried many with his performance, but the other pitchers have quieted many critics.

Trade rumors begin to swirl as spring training nears completion in Major League Baseball.  As Opening Day draws near, teams begin to identify their needs as well as their surpluses.  The St. Louis Cardinals, who have found themselves actively involved in the market for shortstops around the league over the last few seasons, suddenly find themselves with a player to offer to the market.

The end of spring training is a thrilling time for everyone in Major League Baseball. Players hate the grind of playing a full month's worth of exhibition games before the real thing starts. Fans build up anticipation in preparation for Opening Day. 

There are two sides to the spring training coin. The players who have performed well want to get going so they can carry their momentum into real games, helping their team to a playoff berth and potentially a championship. 

Spring training is coming to a close and position battles are to be won or lost.

With the 2014 MLB season nearly upon us, the Boston Red Sox find themselves in an enviable position of defending their third World Series title in the last 10 years.

There's less than two weeks to go before spring training is a distant memory, replaced by Opening Day and the start of the 2014 MLB season.

While fans, players, writers, prognosticators, hot dog vendors and everyone else associated with the game loves to say that spring training statistics and numbers are largely meaningless, they do provide a way to analyze how individual players are performing—just like they do during the regular season.

For Oakland A's fans, the term "March Madness" reflects their team's crazy spring training. One major player is out for the season and another isn't hitting. But there is good news: A few guys you might not have expected to hit so well have been pleasant surprises.

Spring training is meant to answer a team's questions.

As shown by their massive spending spree this offseason, the New York Yankees retool through free agency and not through their minor league system.

However, it is hard to know if they do that by choice or if they are forced to by a lack of organizational depth.

The Cincinnati Reds haven't exactly had the best of luck in spring training this year.

The team won 90 games last season, but it was tasked with the challenge of replacing Shin-Soo Choo, while questions about rotational depth and whether or not Billy Hamilton would be ready to step in as an everyday player were abundant leading up to spring training.

In short, there was a lot of work to do this spring, and to this point, next to nothing has been settled.

The Kansas City Royals prepare for their season in Surprise, Ariz., every year.  The excitement level surrounding the club during spring training in recent years has greatly increased.

The New York Mets sent down a number of their top prospects earlier this week, but many made an impression that should excite fans moving forward.