Baseball

Spring training is around the corner, and in only a couple days, the Pittsburgh Pirates will once again begin the quest to break their streak of what is now 20 consecutive losing seasons.

On February 11, pitchers and catchers will report to Bradenton as the Bucs start preparing for their 2013 campaign.

Leading up to the 2013 season, I'm going to write player profiles about key members of the Detroit Tigers. This is the fourth installment, featuring setup man Joaquin Benoit.

This series will evaluate one team per day, starting on Jan. 23, 2013, and ending on Feb. 22, 2013 (the first game of spring training). It is based on last season's performance, offseason changes since and the author's outlook for the team in 2013. Please keep in mind that rosters can, and will, change before Opening Day. We started in the AL East, worked across to the NL counterpart, and now, tackle the Central divisions in alphabetical order.

When Brian Wilson went down in the first week of the 2012 season, many Giants fans panicked. Some lost hope for the whole year. 

After all, the Giants didn't have any proven ninth inning options, and the last several World Series champions, including the 2010 Giants, had proven closers. 

After a busy offseason for the Oakland A's, they will fight to retain their standing on top of the American League West.

During said offseason, the A's have moved around a lot of infielders through addition and subtraction.

Gone are the days of Cliff Pennington at shortstop or second base, after he was traded to Arizona. Stephen Drew is gone as well after being the A's shortstop down the stretch.  

Baseball season is finally back, and over the next two weeks, players will gather from across the country and begin the long journey with dreams of postseason glory.

While Spring Training may seem like a random hodge podge of exhibition games between players who will likely not see the major leagues, it is actually a carefully scripted preparation for the toils of a 162-game season.

The starting rotation for the Seattle Mariners is far from set as the team gets ready to start spring training for the 2013 season.

Would it be a stretch to suggest that only two spots are assured at this point?

Felix Hernandez. Ace. Top of the rotation. In process of signing huge long-term deal. Check.

More than a few eyebrows were raised when Boston Red Sox outfield prospect Bryce Brentz wasn’t one of the 19 non-roster players invited to this year’s spring training. As it turns out, his exclusion was for good reason, as he recently suffered a gun-related injury.

Hopes are high for young St. Louis Cardinals going into spring training, but how many of them will make the big step to the major league team?

Bubble players throughout MLB have prepped all winter in an effort to be ready to put on a good showing when they arrive at spring training.

A bubble player is a player who is on the verge of either making the team or getting cut. They can be young or old, but most often people think of young players.

It’s always a fun exercise: Suspend the rules of time and put together a starting lineup for a team based on that franchise’s best players.

The New York Yankees are Major League Baseball’s most accomplished franchise, with 27 World Series titles and 21 players or managers in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

So it should be easy to put a lineup together out of that group, right?