Fan News

LOS ANGELES — Sorry. These are probably a couple of days late.

Why? Because the Padres just made another trade! When will they stop? Finally, Monday morning at 11, in the Dodger Stadium visitors' dugout, I asked San Diego manager Bud Black about the Opening Day lineup he had just written, and whether he felt good that that would be the lineup that would actually take the field in just over two hours.

The beginning of April means millions of fans tune in for MLB Opening Day 2015, but what did we learn from the first day of meaningful baseball?

When the Boston Red Sox traded Yoenis Cespedes for Rick Porcello last December, they signaled that they were willing to roll the dice on the hurler's big 2014 breakout.

Now they're really rolling the dice on that breakout, suddenly putting an $82.5 million wager on it.

Opening Day is special for everyone who jogs out between the lines. For some, though, it's extra special with special sauce on the side. 

We're talking about the teams and players who rise to the occasion and truly leave their mark, who channel all those months of downtime, offseason machinations and spring preparation into one long-awaited burst of success. Or, alternately, failure—that matters too.

Yes, it's only one game out of 162; there's ample time for heroes to rise and fall. But it's a big deal, at least symbolically.

Opening Night could easily be labeled a failure for the Chicago Cubs organization, a team with a new manager and sky-high expectations. The Cubs' $155 million investment, Jon Lester, struggled throughout his first National League start, and the team was 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

No, those are not good numbers.

You get the feeling this is what is going to have to happen fairly often.

A pure offensive onslaught.

You had to be a dummy not to realize the Boston Red Sox had built one hell of an attack over the offseason, tossing in Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval with an already-formidable group of David Ortiz, Mike Napoli and Dustin Pedroia. Them scoring was never in doubt.

Sports are filled with over-the-top cliches and metaphors, but there is truly something beautiful about the ones that apply on MLB’s Opening Day.

Matt Cain just can't catch a break.

After being lost for the season midway through the 2014 campaign, the San Francisco Giants ace is once again dealing with an injury. 

Continue for updates.

The Boston Red Sox wasted little time locking up Rick Porcello, who would have been a free agent after this season.

The new MLB season is underway. While there are some clear favorites in many of the six divisions, you can fully expect to see a few battles raging on right through the final game of the 162-game schedule.

To put things in better perspective, Doc’s Sports took a closer look at Odds Shark’s MLB futures odds for each of these six division races to see where the best value may lie.

AL East