Spring Training

Casual baseball fans will tell you that the best week of the entire year is the opening week of the regular season.  Die-hard baseball fans will tell you that the best week of the season is the week when pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.

No matter who your favorite team is, Spring Training is the one time of the year when everyone thinks that this is their team's year.  Fans in places like Kansas City, San Diego, Pittsburgh and Seattle all consider themselves contenders, with optimism at its highest point.

Free agent acquisitions and top prospects are on the radars of fans of all 30 teams, as each team looks for that one final piece that will take them to the next level. 

Did the Angels buy themselves a World Series by signing Josh Hamilton? Did the Royals push themselves to the top of the American League Central by adding James Shields? Will the Red Sox get back to the top of the American League with the additions of Ryan Dempster, Mike Napoli and Shane Victorino?

All good questions that will be answered soon enough.

But let's don't miss what is happening in Arizona and Florida.  Minor leaguers are hitting the field looking to be the 25th guy on the big league roster.  Pitchers in their fourties are trying to hang on for one more season, and the guy on the brink of stardom is trying to take that final step.

Teams like Oakland, who came out of nowhere to win the American League West, and Baltimore, who won the American League Wild Card game, are trying to sustain their success from 2012.

The Washington Nationals are out to prove that not only are they the team to beat in the National League East, but that they should be considered the best in the National League.

And what about the San Francisco Giants, who won their second World Series in three years and still quietly go about their business without making a scene.

Even though the games don't count, all of us who eat, sleep and breathe baseball will be watching box scores this upcoming week as we follow our favorite team.  We'll form our opinion of the team and the players who are supposed to lead us to the promised land.

Me personally, I'll be watching the Rangers closely to see how the team replaces the losses of Josh Hamilton and Mike Napoli in that lineup.   I'll be watching the players on the field to see who is going to replace Michael Young as the leader of the team.

Can Leonys Martin or Craig Gentry run away with the starting center field job, and how will Jurickson Profar and Mike Olt fit into the plans of the major league team.

All questions I can't wait to see answered as we move forward into Spring Training.

Hopefully you will check back with this blog as I share my observations and opinions on the entire season.  If you have an opinion or a comment, please share.  If you have a question, please ask.

Enjoy the season everyone, I know I will!