Through the first three weeks of the 2013 Major League Baseball season, the St. Louis Cardinals have discovered some young talent in their pitching rotation. Shelby Miller, who had to fight his way into the rotation during spring training, has looked borderline dominant in his first four starts. The rookie hurler might be establishing an early case for the Rookie Of The Year Award.

The National League has a few rookies putting up notable numbers but few have shown the clear-cut edge of Miller. The right-hander has compiled an impressive 26 strikeouts, walked only seven batters, surrendered just one home run and six earned runs, over 25 innings pitched while winning three of his first four starts. His wins, earned run average, runs allowed, and home runs allowed rank first among all rookie starting pitchers.

His competition from rookie-level pitchers in the National League is sparse, but there are a few challengers that are not exactly falling flat to start the season.

To read about the competition for Rookie Of The Year in the National League, follow this link to the Yahoo Article.

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Jaime Garcia is one of the most dominating pitchers on the team when everything around him is satisfactory. When it’s not, a team such as the Philadelphia Phillies can tag him for eight runs in three innings, as they did Friday in Philadelphia.

Garcia has struggled on the road throughout his career. He has a 15-12 record with a 4.40 earned-run average in road games, but he is 20-11 with a 2.45 ERA in his career at Busch Stadium where he is more familiar with the surroundings and can comfortably prepare for a game the same way every time.

But one more change might have factored into Friday’s poor performance. Regular catcher Yadier Molina had a day off for the first time all season. Tony Cruz got the start instead.

So without his regular home routine and normal catcher, Garcia gave up eight runs on nine hits and two walks. Sure, third baseman Ty Wigginton made a throwing error in the first inning to make four of their eight runs unearned, but four of the Phillies hits went for extra bases, so Garcia got hit around regardless.

Unfortunately, Garcia has too many of those nights, and that keeps him from being one of the better pitchers on not only the Cardinals, but in Major League Baseball.

He has the stuff. He throws his fastball in the low 90s with movement, he has a knee-buckling curveball and owns a changeup that is as good as any top-tier left-handed starter in the game. And when he has those pitches working correctly, he has the potential to throw a no-hitter.

But he also has nights when he can’t command those pitches and simply gets crushed.

That has been the main problem Garcia has fought throughout his five-year career. He looks like a pitcher who can dominate, and at times he does, but mind games tend to get in the way of him being a consistent pitcher who can fill a spot near the top of the rotation.

The problem is Garcia now has five years of big-league experience, and he hasn’t been able to get over those issues.

The Cardinals are aware of these issues. They’ve even manipulated the rotation in recent years to try to minimize the times Garcia has to pitch on the road.

And while it’s great his team is trying to help him out, Garcia has to get past those concentration issues at some point or he is going to become the next Oliver Perez, a left-handed starter who came up with the San Diego Padres in 2002.

Perez, who is now a reliever for the Seattle Mariners, had electric stuff when he debuted and even posted a 2.98 ERA with 12 wins for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2004, but his inconsistency kept him from being Johan Santana or any number of other great left-handed starters.

For the most part, Garcia has had a good start to his 2013 season. He pitched well in spring training after recovering from a shoulder injury and started this season well in his first start on the road. He held the Arizona Diamondbacks to one run in 5.2 innings April 2 in Phoenix and then made two solid starts at home before the Phillies shelled him Friday.

Maybe Molina’s absence had more to do with the poor outing than anything, or perhaps he simply had an off night. All pitchers do. But Garcia is going to have to get beyond those relatively minor differences in each start if he is going to not only help the Cardinals in 2013, but also live up to his long-term potential.

COMMENTARY | The St. Louis Cardinals have one of the most potent offenses in Major League Baseball and have for the last few seasons. Beyond the starting eight players, there are very few hitters that strike fear into pitchers late in a game.

Meet Matt Adams.

At six-foot, three-inches tall and 260 pounds, it is easy to mistake Adams for a visiting player from the St. Louis Rams instead of the first base prospect that he is. His imposing frame gives a glimpse into what he brings to the team: power.

The bench for the Cardinals became barren of power at many times last season. Outfielders Shane Robinson and Adron Chambers became frequent answers for a pinch-hitting assignment late in the game. Once on base, these outfielders could wreak havoc with their speed but in key, run-producing situations, it was hard to be confident in the chance they gave the team.

Adams is just the opposite. A large man that is surprisingly agile, Adams has a smooth, left-handed swing that will spray the ball to all fields. More importantly, Adams swing is custom made to lift the ball over every fence in the ballpark. His gap power yields many doubles which will make a combination of late-inning pinch-hit assignments for him while providing pinch-running assignments for players like Robinson and Ryan Jackson.

Read more about Matt Adams’ potential impact with the Cardinals by clicking here.

The St. Louis Cardinals project to have an Opening Day lineup full of players who will regularly get on base and it also features plenty of power to drive them in. The one thing the team will lack, however, is speed.

The Cardinals stole 91 bases in 2012, which tied them with the Texas Rangers for 24^th of 30 teams in Major League Baseball, but players who stole more than a quarter of the Cardinals bases last season are either hurt or no longer with the team.

Shortstop Rafael Furcal stole 12 bases last season but is out for the season with an elbow injury, and fellow shortstop Tyler Greene, who had nine stolen bases, is now with the Houston Astros.

That leaves the Cardinals with about four regular stolen base threats. Slow-footed but incredibly intelligent catcher Yadier Molina stole 12 bases last year and could very well steal another dozen or so this season. Rightfielder Carlos Beltran had 13 stolen bases last year, but he is 35 years old and has slowed down considerably in recent years after various knee injuries.

The other proven stolen-base threat from last year’s team is centerfielder Jon Jay, who had 19 last season. He will likely lead the team again this season unless outfield prospect Oscar Taveras makes the team, but even he hasn’t stolen more than 10 bases in a season during his four seasons in the minor leagues.

Shortstop Pete Kozma stole just two bases during his brief 26-game stint with the Cardinals at the end of 2012, but he once stole 24 bases in 2008 and had 13 in 2010, all in the minor leagues.

Other than those options, the Cardinals will likely enter the season with a pretty slow team, but that’s not necessarily a terrible fault.

The Cardinals won the World Series in 2011 after stealing just 57 bases, which ranked last in the National League, and only the Detroit Tigers had fewer steals with 49 that season. The Cardinals also made it to within one game of the World Series in 2012 while ranking 24^th.

And they aren’t the only team that has found it can win without stealing bases. In fact, just three teams that made the 2012 playoffs ranked in the top half of baseball in stolen bases. The Oakland A’s were ninth, the San Francisco Giants were 10^th and the Washington Nationals were 15^th.

Otherwise, all of the best teams didn’t steal many bases. The World Series-champion Detroit Tigers actually ranked dead last for the second year in a row, but they had great power and great pitching.

Those two factors are also why the Cardinals shouldn’t be too concerned about the number of bases they steal in 2013.

They have a lineup that should easily rank in the top 10 in all three of the Triple Crown categories, batting average, homeruns and runs batted in, and they have a pitching staff that should be more than solid if not for too many injuries.

Sure, Chris Carpenter is no longer an option at the top of the rotation, but the Cardinals have arguably the most young talent on their pitching staff since the days Tony La Russa decided to come to St. Louis because Matt Morris and Alan Benes were on their way to the big leagues.

The Whitey Herzog disciples will forever yearn for the days when Cardinals players of the 1980s slapped the ball into play and ran like the wind around the bases, but those days have long since passed. And they aren’t coming back anytime soon, at least not as long as the Cardinals furnish a lineup with five batters who can hit 20 or more homeruns.

So while the Cardinals style of play might not be terribly exciting on the basepaths, nearly every other aspect of their play is good enough that they will likely once again be playoff contenders come September.

Trevor Rosenthal might have lost the battle for the final starting rotation spot, but the St. Louis Cardinals gained a great resource for their bullpen in 2013.

Trevor Rosenthal – photo from FoxSportsMidwest

The Cardinals officially said last week that Rosenthal is out of the running for the fifth spot in the rotation and will start the season in the bullpen. And while that might be disappointing for a pitcher who had a goal of winning that battle, the move should work out best for both sides.

Rosenthal can throw more than 100 mph and often looked as unhittable as any pitcher in Major League Baseball last season out of the bullpen, and the Cardinals will give him the chance to do more of the same in 2013.

As a reliever, Rosenthal could rare back and throw the ball as hard as he wanted without having to worry about stamina. That gave his fastball the extra few miles per hour that often make the difference in whether a hitter gets a hit or swings threw a pitch.

And he most likely would’ve lost that quality had he moved to the rotation.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander can still crank it up to 100 mph late in a ballgame, but he is a rare (almost unique) pitcher who can throw as hard as a starter as he could if he were a reliever. Others tend to lose a few miles per hour on their fastball once they’re asked to throw more than one or two innings.

Adam Wainwright began his Cardinals career out of the bullpen as the closer for the 2006 World Series championship team. He threw in the high 90s as a reliever but rarely reaches above 94 or 95 mph as a starter.

Granted, Wainwright is plenty effective as a starter and is on the precipice of receiving a whole lot of money because he can pitch effectively for seven innings or more. That could very well be the path Rosenthal eventually follows, but for now he is best suited for the bullpen.

He started one game at the beginning of spring training, and it didn’t go well. He gave up four runs on five hits in two innings against the Miami Marlins while walking two batters and failing to strike out anybody.

Sure, that was an early spring training game, but the Cardinals would be foolish to take a chance on a young pitcher in their rotation when they have others who they have already groomed to be long-term starters for the organization.

Those two are Joe Kelly and Shelby Miller, and they will battle for the final spot in the rotation.

Kelly did not look good in his last start, giving up two runs and three walks in two innings Thursday against the New York Yankees.

But Miller hasn’t been much better. He gave up two runs and three hits in two innings Friday against the Washington Nationals but walked just one hitter.

Overall, Kelly has more experience as a starter and is more of a sure bet than Miller at this point.

Theoretically, the Cardinals could give Kelly the starting job and send Miller to the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds to start the season. Then Miller could come up into the rotation and Kelly could slide to the bullpen if a reliever gets injured, or if the Cardinals find they need more depth in the bullpen.

That situation will work itself out in time, but at least the Cardinals already know they have a flamethrower who can shut down hitters late in a ballgame, even if he technically lost a job to get to that position.

To consider how Major League Baseball operates a miniature, month-long practice season of up to 10 games a day, spread across nine different luxurious ballparks all in the Metro Phoenix area, you would have to think about the hundreds of parking lot and concession volunteers, stadium operations people, and MLB Team front office execs it must take.

Cobb, in the red jacket, is pictured here with the 1985 Reds, managed by Pete Rose.

Then, add in the fact that you’d like to also play the first round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic in that same city, and use one of the ballparks (Salt River Fields, home of the D-Backs and Rockies), as a secondary site for some of the games. In addition, you want to outfit four additional teams, create some locker room space for them, find them practice fields that aren’t being used, and schedule their transportation and hotel accommodations.

Now, you’ve got a pretty tough logistical scenario.

For all of that, Major League Baseball relies on a baseball-savvy, veteran named Steve Cobb. I’ve known Steve since he hired me as a media relations assistant for the 1994 Arizona Fall League. That was Cobb’s second year in charge of the MLB’s proving ground league, for young prospects looking to make the jump to the big leagues the next spring. Cobb just passed his 20th year in charge of the operation.

A former Traveling Secretary for the Cincinnati Reds during the late 70′s and early 80′s, Cobb took an opportunity with the AFL as an assistant in operations, after spending 7 years working in Xavier University’s Athletic Department.

“I figured I’d come out here to Arizona, maybe spend a year getting myself back into baseball, then try and grab a job in the big leagues again with a club,” said Cobb. “But, I just haven’t left. Been here ever since, and I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”

He has grown the AFL into what it is today, a very well-respected entity throughout the game, and something that every club has come to rely on. Cobb knows all the stadium operations people around town, which just makes it that much easier for him to coordinate this special event called the WBC.

Besides the games that are being played, Cobb also has to figure out where to house and train the two teams from Pool A and B that advance to the finals in San Francisco. Those two squads will make a pit stop in Phoenix next week, to stay in game playing shape for a few days, while Pools C & D catch up and finish the first two rounds.

“We may be looking at Cuba coming in here, and that always creates an extra set of challenges,” said Cobb. “But, we’ll roll with the punches and make it happen.”

Cobb also gets many of the extra “logistical” assignments from MLB, such as coordinating a professional level team of American players, when they might go play overseas. It was in that role, when he worked with the 2000 USA Baseball Olympic Team, as they traveled to Australia to play in the Olympic Games under Manager Tommy Lasorda. Cobb’s exploits running the Team USA operation are featured in Miracle on Grass, as he describes several of the crazy tales he recalls of trying to move a Hall of Fame manager, a baseball team, and a group of 50 Americans, to the other side of the world.

So, whenever you’re in Phoenix and at a spring training game, Arizona Fall League game, or WBC game, now you know who helps keep the baseball rolling in the operation.

David Fanucchi is the author of “Miracle on Grass” – How Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda led Team USA to a shocking upset over Cuba, capturing the only Olympic gold medal in USA Baseball history. He was the official Team USA Press Officer for both the 2000 USA Baseball Olympic Team and the 2006 USA World Baseball Classic Team. More information about Fanucchi and Miracle on Grass can be found on his website at www.davidfanucchi.com.  You can follow him on Twitter at @miracleongrass.

When the marriage between Major League Baseball and USA Baseball (the national governing body for the sport) took place in 1999, a New Jersey native and former college soccer player named Paul Seiler was second in command of the USAB operation, behind long-time MLB executive Dan O’Brien Sr.

Joe Torre and Tommy Lasorda discuss strategy

Seiler and O’Brien worked together to introduce the two organizations to one another, and help the MLB executives that were chosen to guide USA Baseball through the player selection process for the first-ever professional Team USA, that would represent the country at the 1999 Pan Am Games. That event would serve as the qualifying event for the 2000 Olympics.

One year later, after Team USA had successfully qualified for the Olympic Games in Sydney, O’Brien stepped down, and the USAB Board of Directors gave the job of CEO to Seiler, on an interim basis. They wanted to see his leadership ability, as the 2000 Olympic Team was being put together.

With the help of current New York Mets GM Sandy Alderson, former New York Yankees GM Bob Watson, Hall of Fame Manager Tommy Lasorda and a host of many other talented individuals throughout various MLB club front offices, Seiler guided the organization to their finest moment – a gold medal victory at the 2000 Olympic Games.

He has been the Chief Operating Officer ever since – now going on 13 years – and yet he still is looking for that next crowning achievement in the organization’s history.

“What that group of players in 2000 did for USA Baseball as an organization, was give us that world championship that we could hang our hat on,” said Seiler.  “In the history of Olympic baseball, it would have been a shame had the United States not won a Gold Medal at least once.  With our victory in 2000, we can always say that we climbed to the top of the mountain and got it done, that we were the very best baseball team in the world for one moment in time.” (as quoted in the book Miracle on Grass).

Seiler is fully aware of how difficult it can be to get back to the top of the international baseball mountain. In the 12 professional level major international baseball events that have taken place since 2000 – all of which USA Baseball and MLB collaborated on the roster selection process – Team USA has won exactly……….twice.

Although they have had success getting deep into the events and having chances to win, it just hasn’t happened often enough. They were able to win the low-profile, IBAF World Cup in back-to-back attempts in 2007 & 2009, beating Cuba both times. But three losses in gold medal games, and three other third place finishes (including the 2008 Olympics and the 2009 WBC), have added up to it being over 12 years now, since Team USA has won it all on the biggest stage, with the spotlight on the game.

Here are the results of the 14 professional USA Baseball teams that have taken the field.

Seiler saw first-hand the unique brand of motivational speak that the legendary Lasorda used on a group of unheralded minor-league players at the time. But finding the right blend of talent on the field, personalities in the locker room, and a coaching staff that can drum up the same level of success as Lasorda did, with a roster full of proven, veteran big-leaguers, has proven to be much more daunting than he would have originally thought.

For obvious reasons, Seiler is hoping that his manager this time around – Joe Torre here at the 2013 World Baseball Classic – can find that magic in a bottle, and carry the Red, White and Blue to a championship in San Francisco. As MLB.com writer Barry Bloom suggested in his column on Sunday, Lasorda’s Olympic gold has set an example for Torre, and that a WBC triumph for Team USA would get USA Baseball back to the top of the mountain, where Seiler knows they belong.

David Fanucchi is the author of “Miracle on Grass” – How Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda led Team USA to a shocking upset over Cuba, capturing the only Olympic gold medal in USA Baseball history. He was the official Team USA Press Officer for both the 2000 USA Baseball Olympic Team and the 2006 USA World Baseball Classic Team. More information about Fanucchi and Miracle on Grass can be found on his website at www.davidfanucchi.com.  You can follow him on Twitter at @miracleongrass.

Fox Sports has traditionally been a strong supporter of the United States Military.  Their annual presentation of “This One’s For You”, a special broadcast that is sent around the world to military bases both in and out of combat zones, has become a staple of the Major League Baseball season.  They continued that support during the first week of February this year when they sent a group of Fox Sports Girls, current and former Major League Baseball players and Hall Of Famers Rollie Fingers and Wade Boggs to U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr in Germany.

The following photos were provided by Fox Sports.  Use the navigation arrows below the photos to thumb through the 31 images.

Rollie Fingers Meets The Troops

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Rollie Fingers discusses the Wiffle Ball game with the troops on the sidelines.

photo copyright Fox Sports

The event was called “Spring Training To The Troops” and the group converged on the Army base to help brighten the day and lives of military members and their families that are stationed overseas.  During their visit, the contingent of baseball representatives spent time at the Wounded Warrior Center and schools that were on base, in morning work out sessions and meals with the troops and conducting a youth baseball clinic for children of the troops.  The highlight of the trip was the participation in a Wiffle Ball game between the 172nd infantry brigade and the Military Police.  The Fox Sports Girls, who each represented a different territory of Fox Sports coverage, and the current and former major league players each played as well, joining the different teams at various times during the game.

My grandfather was a World War II vet, he was stationed in Korea at the end of World War II.  I used to play with his army equipment when I was little, he still had his army canteens and helmets and everything in the basement.  To go over there, I mean obviously things have changed since World War II but troops are still making the same sacrifices as they were way back then.  But family is important to me and to go over there and see the sacrifices that these men and women are making every day, it really touches you. – Fox Sports Girl Kayla in an interview with i70baseball

Kayla, the Fox Sports Girl representing Fox Sports Midwest, was given some hats and jerseys by the Cardinals to take over to St. Louis military members.  She was able to connect with multiple soldiers from the St. Louis area, providing them with the new alternate jerseys the team will wear on Saturday day games at home.  She was even able to find a soldier that shared her alma mater with her and took a photo with him in his Mizzou hooded sweatshirt.

When asked about training with the troops, Kayla told i70baseball, “We were amazed.  We did this for two days while we were over there and I was like ‘I can’t believe you guys get up and do this every morning’.  We were in the hotel lobby at 5:30 in the morning to get on the bus to go outside in the snow.  By 6 a.m. they are on the ground doing situps, pushups, they just kind of do this circuit training.  We asked them if they were taking it easy on us and they said ‘yea, we are doing kind of a condensed version of our training’.  The second day we were out there running with logs on our shoulders, pushing 800 pound tires, running with gallons of water and after that we went and ran two miles with them in cadence.  That was probably my favorite part.  I’m not a big runner, but to be in those lines with them and doing the chanting, it  didn’t even feel like we ran two miles.  They go through so much and I have the utmost respect with them for that.”

Fox Sports put together an amazing 90 second video about the trip, which you can see here:

Make sure to follow Kayla and the rest of the Fox Sports Midwest Girls on Twitter - @FSMidwest_Girls

Bill Ivie is the editor here at i70baseball.
You can follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

If recent history tells us anything, Manager Joe Torre better have his United States squad fully prepared for a battle when they take the field for their first game of the 2013 World Baseball Classic Friday night at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.

It may seem that on paper, Team USA would be the logical front-runner in Pool D of the round-robin format, as they sit in a bracket with Canada, Italy, and Mexico. The top two teams will advance to the second round, after each team plays one another. In each of the previous two WBC events in 2006 and 2009, the Americans have at least advanced past the first round.

Talent-wise, Team USA has the firepower to go deep in this event. But, international baseball tournaments don’t always shake out the way that you think they should, even when the greatest players in the world are on the field.

As history has shown us, Team USA should never take Mexico or Canada lightly. Tracing back only 14 years to the beginning of the time (1999) when USA Baseball began utilizing professional players in major international competition, and collaborating with Major League Baseball on the player selection process, it has arguably been Mexico and Canada that have given the Americans the most trouble.

There’s no doubt that Mexico has become the biggest thorn in the side of Team USA. It started when the 1999 USA Pan Am Team got caught up in a dogfight with the Mexicans for one of two Olympic berths, at the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg, Canada. In the do-or-die semifinal game that allowed the winner to advance to Sydney for the 2000 Olympics, Mexico pushed Team USA into extra innings in a 2-2 tie. When unheralded hero Mike Neill came up with a two-out, pinch hit run scoring single to put the Americans ahead, reliever Dan Wheeler shut the door on Mexico to secure the win, and send Team USA to the Olympics. The Americans went on to win a gold medal in Sydney, behind Tommy Lasorda, Roy Oswalt and Ben Sheets (as told in my book Miracle on Grass).

But four years later, Mexico exacted their revenge when they shocked Team USA at the 2003 Olympic Qualifying event in Panama City, Panama. In a quarterfinal matchup that allowed the winner to stay alive, and eliminated the losing team, American reliever Brian Bruney gave up a solo home run in the top of the ninth inning, of a 1-1 tie. With Team USA down to their last at-bat, they placed runners at first and third with only one out. But Justin Leone bounced back to the mound, and pinch-hitter Gerald Laird popped out to end the game, killing Team USA’s chances of defending their Olympic gold medal at the 2004 Games in Athens.

Then in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, it was Mexico again that knocked out Team USA. After the Americans had won the opening round contest between the two, Mexico pulled off the upset over Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., and company, in a game started by Roger Clemens. Team USA was stymied with the bats all night, and lost 2-1 in a game they had to win, in order to get to the finals in San Diego. Instead, Japan advanced, and ended up winning the entire thing.

The Canadians have given Team USA all that they could handle as well. At the 1999 Pan Am Games, it was Canada that shocked the Americans in the very first game, 7-6 in extra innings. Then in 2006 in the first round of the WBC, Canada pounded Team USA starter Dontrelle Willis for five runs on six hits in 2.2 innings, and held on to win 8-6. Even though the loss didn’t end up costing Team USA the chance to advance to the second round in Anaheim, it didn’t sit well with the team, and was the first sign that the Americans could be beat. All three teams – Mexico, Canada and the USA – ended up with 2-1 records in that opening round, but Canada lost the tiebreaker.

In the last five years, the games between these three countries have continued to be very tight. In the 2007 Pan Am Games Olympic Qualifier, Team USA had a tough time and barely snuck past Mexico in the semifinals, with a 2-1 victory. Then in the 2011 Pan Am Games, Mexico returned the favor once again and beat the Americans during pool play, 3-2. Canada then dispatched Mexico in the semifinals 5-3, while Team USA was upsetting Cuba in the other semifinal, 12-10. With the Americans looking to capture their first Pan Am Games gold medal in over 40 years, Canada shocked them in the final, dealing them a bitter 2-1 defeat.

So, as you can see, nothing can be taken for granted, when it comes to these three teams playing one another in international baseball events, with professional players. I don’t imagine the Americans having much trouble with Italy, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Torre and company dropped a game in Phoenix to either Mexico or Canada. Neither one of those two teams will be afraid of the USA. If they do lose a game, they’ll be in real danger of losing that tiebreaker to advance to Miami, and it could all be over in a flash for the Red, White and Blue.

David Fanucchi is the author of “Miracle on Grass” – How Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda led Team USA to a shocking upset over Cuba, capturing the only Olympic gold medal in USA Baseball history. He was the official Team USA Press Officer for both the 2000 USA Baseball Olympic Team and the 2006 USA World Baseball Classic Team. More information about Fanucchi and Miracle on Grass can be found on his website at www.davidfanucchi.com.  

Spring Training opened this past weekend with a few games between the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers.

Finding positives and negatives from Spring games is hard because players may be working on a specific skill set that cause the stat lines to blur.  When a hitter is trying to go the opposite way with every swing, he may go 0-for-4 at the plate.  When a pitcher is working on a new pitch and determining if he can throw it effectively, he may walk quite a few hitters in the process.

What, then, can you take away from Spring Training games, especially early in the year?

Well, baseball is back.  The sights and sounds of the game are filling the air and the teams will be back to their home stadiums before too long.

Here at i70baseball, we are excited to be back into the swing of things.  This site holds credentials with Major League Baseball and, in order to bring our readers the benefits of these credentials, we sent a photographer to the Royals and Rangers opener on Friday.  The below slide show has a sampling of the great pictures that photographer Charles Sollars took that day.

Inside you will find pictures of Jeff Francoeur, Salvador Perez, Billy Butler, Alexi Ogando, Eric Hosmer, Miguel Tejada, Nelson Cruz, and Ned Yost.

Enjoy the sights of Spring and stay tuned…

Adam Moore

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Royals catcher Adam Moore takes a swing

Photo courtesy of Charles Sollars and copyright i70baseball

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.