Baseball

It’s doubtful the St. Louis Cardinals would have finished with the best record in the National League and reached the World Series last season without the contributions from their rookie pitchers.

Using 12 different rookies during the regular season, the Cardinals’ collection of promising young arms posted a 36-22 record with a 3.17 ERA, 8.79 K/9 and 2.99 BB/9 in 553.2 innings.

Spring training is just a couple of weeks away, and the Texas Rangers have two guys who are creating a lot of buzz.

Ironically, one player just won a Super Bowl, and the other pitched against the club last year.

Tim Hudson has been a model of consistency throughout his long career. Entering his 17th season, Hudson has never had a losing record as a starting pitcher and has exceeded 200 innings in eight different seasons. In 2014, Huddy will continue to be a bulldog and add depth to the Giants’ rotation. 

Masahiro Tanaka is officially a member of the New York Yankees organization.

When the team welcomed him to America with a press conference at Yankee Stadium, the brightest pitching star from Japan entered Major League Baseball. Within a few days, fans and media members will garner a live view of his pitches and ability.

For now, we have his personality and demeanor to dissect.

For the Atlanta Braves, a core of young, ascending talent is a blessing. But it's also a curse for long-term payroll planning.

It's been a busy offseason for the New York Yankees, with perhaps their biggest splash coming when they added Japanese right-hander Masahiro Tanaka on a seven-year, $155 million deal to help shore up their rotation.

Tanaka joins CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda and Ivan Nova as locks to make the rotation this spring, but the No. 5 starter job is still up for grabs at this point.

Suppose you just inked a giant major league contract. What’s the first big purchase you would make?

As countdowns to the beginning of the season have begun for Los Angeles Dodger fans, pitchers and catchers have reported and the start of spring training is just around the corner. While there are still a few questions, it’s important to know what to look for and expect as camp opens.

Whenever prospects get hyped up enough without reaching their ceiling or realizing their potential yet, people will want to compare them to current or former major league players. While it’s not an exact science, having someone who is in the middle of or has completed their MLB career as a comparison can sometimes give fans a better idea of the type of player that prospect may become.

The payroll numbers don't lie and they tell a very disturbing story for the 2014 Arizona Diamondbacks and their potential fortunes for the upcoming season.