Baseball

As the St. Louis Cardinals reflect on the unfinished business of 2012, they have to feel proud and disappointed at the same time.  Being one win from the World Series was not something Cardinals fans thought would have been possible in mid-August.

However, the Cardinals showed their teeth like a back-alley Rottweiler and made their push into the playoffs.  Now as 2013 is upon us, the Cardinals are poised to improve on their 88-74 record from last season.

Spring training is still very young, but the Cincinnati Reds have had already had some surprises.

Cincinnati currently owns the worst record in the National League. The record is irrelevant for so many reasons, but they need to see some improvement in certain areas.

The surprises have been both good and bad, but the bad ones have been more obvious. Spring results have no impact on the regular season, so let's not go overboard. 

Spring training stats don't mean much, but that doesn't mean they aren't exciting to look at.

In spring training, established players are often working on things and rounding into shape rather than going full bore. Early in the spring, the starters are usually only playing a handful of innings before giving way to minor league players and guys fighting for backup jobs. Thus, there's a lot of noise in spring training numbers, and that's before considering the small sample sizes involved.

There aren’t many instances where an 0-for-3 batting performance—even in spring training—creates a positive outlook, but Los Angeles Angels first baseman Albert Pujols’ preseason debut may be the outlier.

As we move ever closer to Opening Day, the Rangers find themselves in need of a No. 5 starter. Their pursuit of another arm may very well end with the addition of either Kyle Lohse or Rick Porcello.

After the team missed out on Zack Greinke and James Shields this offseason, they were already thinner than they'd hoped in the starting rotation.

Matt Kemp is set to make his first start of the spring today in Glendale, Arizona.  

And though he's already had five spring at-bats with no hits, Kemp is focused on having a monster year in 2013 for the Dodgers.  

The Texas Rangers made themselves into a baseball monument with back-to-back trips to the World Series in 2010 and 2011. But over the last few months, the monument has been slowly chipped away.

So much so, in fact, that it now feels like only the face remains. And now that may be going too.

Yes, now. The Rangers lost their superstar when Josh Hamilton left town, but his departure didn't leave the franchise without a face. 

The Bruce Rondon era for the Detroit Tigers is on hold.

Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay has been one of the majors' best pitchers in the past decade. Unfortunately, his 2012 season mirrored the Phils' '12 campaign as the team dropped from 102 wins in 2011 to 81 last year. Halladay struggled with an 11-8 record and an ERA of 4.49 (his 11 wins were the fewest since he had eight in 2004; his ERA was the second worst of his career).

Boston Red Sox pitching prospect Drake Britton was just optioned from big league spring training camp to the minors.