Fan News

With the second pick in the 2008 MLB amateur draft, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected third baseman Pedro Alvarez.  As the Pirates have done so often in the last decade, they picked a gem, and Alvarez has a huge pull on the success of Pittsburgh in 2014.  

If you missed it, Major League Baseball took its first step into a brave new world on Monday. 

Nearly two months after the league announced that expanded replay would be implemented in 2014, the league made replay available for a test drive in three spring training exhibitions on Monday: Blue Jays vs. Twins, Angels vs. Diamondbacks and Cubs vs. Brewers.

At this point of the MLB season, it's all about spring training as players get tuned up for 2014 in Arizona and Florida.

While trades during spring training are pretty rare, the MLB trade rumor mill is still alive with a few rumblings that involve a couple of starters and other players that could have big impacts this season.

Here's a look at the latest buzz from around the league on the trade front.

Going into the offseason, the Seattle Mariners obviously weren't satisfied with their production up the middle. To address their concern, the Mariners boldly handed Robinson Cano a $240 million contract to man second base for the next decade. And with the more defensively apt Brad Miller entrenched at shortstop, it leaves 22-year-old Nick Franklin without a starting job.

The Kansas City Royals finished the 2013 spring training with a record of 25-7, and fans were excited to see the potential of the young guns on this team.  

The long-awaited debut of Masahiro Tanaka finally took place Saturday afternoon, when the New York Yankees' prized pitcher took the mound for two innings of spring training work against the Philadelphia Phillies.

In March, it's common to introduce an opinion of a player or performance by reminding readers that it's very early, spring training statistics don't count and the real games are about a month away from reality.

With New York Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, that edict isn't just necessary—it's vital.

Spring training statistics can be horribly misleading. With so many young, inexperienced prospects in big league camp, it’s imperative that all numbers be analyzed within context. At the same time, it’s hard not to get excited when a prospect makes an immediate impact.

The future of MLB analytics is finally here.

During the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, MLB Advanced Metrics (MLBAM) CEO Bob Bowman unveiled a brand-new player tracking system that will keep track of every play on the field and include things like the path of the ball, the ball's speed off the bat, the route efficiency of outfielders and a lot more.

With the top 150 fantasy baseball players all reordered and reranked on the latest big board, it's time to continue rolling out the individual position rankings.