2010 MLB Spring Training

The wait is over! The gates of Joker Marchant Stadium unlocked, and spring training is now officially underway.

The annual exhibition against Florida Southern is always a fun game. The rain held off, and despite hurricane-like winds, a good time was had by all.

Rather than spoon-feed the box scores to you, I thought I would share some useless random observations of mine from today's game.

Random Info

* Third baseman Colin Kaline (grandson of Al Kaline) went 2-for-3 with a walk for the Mocs.

I love players who have confidence. Give me the guy who thinks he is the best over the guy who is just happy to have a job in the major leagues.

Take Ricky Henderson, for example. A lot of people didn’t like him because they felt he was arrogant. I just thought he was extremely confident in his abilities.

I mean, who doesn’t want a guy who refers to himself in the third person on their team?

First published on Beantown Sports Observer

This past offseason was not only big for the Boston Red Sox, but for the teams in their division as well. New York, Tampa Bay, Toronto, and even Baltimore made some significant moves on their roster and though some more bad than good, the division will be tough this season.

Just a few weeks after throwing off a mound for the first time, Brandon Webb threw 45 pitches yesterday in a bullpen session, according to MLB.com:

It was only a bullpen session, but the 45 pitches Brandon Webb threw on Thursday morning had the D-backs feeling good.

Living in San Diego for the better part of eight years, I got a chance to watch Khalil Greene come out of Clemson University and become arguably the best shortstop the Padres had seen since Ozzie Smith.

In 2004, his first year as a starter for the Padres, Greene hit .273 with 15 home runs, and 65 runs batted in. But it wasn't his offense that fans came to enjoy, it was his incredible highlight-reel defensive plays.

In June of '09 I wrote a story recapping Tommy Hanson's major league debut in Atlanta. In that article I talked about the Hansonmania that had taken Atlanta by storm in a losing effort.

In 2010, still days away from the first exhibition game of spring training, Heyward-Hype has made Hansonmania look like my seventh birthday party—the one when the clown didn't even show up.

Originally published at TwinsTarget.com.

The New York Yankees opened their spring training camp in Tampa yesterday.

Brian Cashman was quoted defending his reshuffling of the outfield, including the signing of Randy Winn instead of former Yankee Johnny Damon.

Cash said that when he had traded Austin Jackson to get Curtis Granderson, after trading Melky Cabrera to get Javy Vazquez and after being unable to re-sign Damon, he had to bring in a large number of outfielders to restock the shelves.

On Monday, I gave potential spring training goers a fan’s guide to the Cactus League.

It’s only fitting to give everyone a fan’s guide to the Grapefruit League in Florida as well.

This guide will have the team, address of the ballpark, and a link where you can purchase tickets. Here you go.

Florida Marlins: Roger Dean Stadium

4751 Main Street

Jupiter, FL 33458

Purchase Tickets Here

Baseball can be a great game, a dream come true, if you will.

However, baseball can also be a fickle game.

That sentiment rings especially true for Edgardo Alfonzo.