MLB

Former Minnesota Twins first baseman Kent Hrbek has a restaurant named after him at Target Field, and with the season approaching, Hrbek's Pub is using different items to attract visitors to the bar located behind home plate in the downtown stadium

Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander gave an unsuspecting fan at Starbucks the surprise of a lifetime.

The New York Yankees announced Masahiro Tanaka will take the mound on Opening Day when they face off with the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on April 6.

They confirmed the choice on social media:

MLB showcased what Toronto hitters will be dealing with:

With Opening Day rapidly approaching, the New York Yankees find themselves looking to win their 28th World Series—by far the most of any MLB franchise.

How realistic a goal is that? Well, that's what I'm here to help you figure out.

We'd all be better off if Major League Baseball didn't bother to keep track of what happens in spring training. That way, we wouldn't be tempted to read into records and statistics.

But the league does keep track of these things, and we are tempted to read into them. And when it gets to be this late in the spring, the rationale really just comes down to "might as well."

The 2015 MLB season is set to begin on Sunday, April 5 when the St. Louis Cardinals meet the Chicago Cubs on Sunday Night Baseball. The rest of the league gets things started the next day.

In the meantime, teams are wrapping up their spring schedules and putting the finishing touches on their Opening Day rosters. For the most part, however, we know how all 30 clubs will stack up heading into the year.

As spring training nears a close for MLB teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers can start to focus their attention on Opening Day.

Besides a completely new front office, half of the infield and about 40 percent of the starting rotation will feature new faces, ones the Dodgers have entrusted to carry the team back to the top of the National League West and beyond.

The Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues are winding down. The 2015 Major League Baseball season approaches. We said baseball! Can you taste it?

Yet with less than two weeks remaining in the exhibition slate, some of the spring's most hotly contested position battles linger, unresolved. And there's no guarantee they'll be resolved once the games count; a few could stay fluid well into the regular season.

Still, someone's going to get the Opening Day nod at all nine positions for all 30 teams. It's simple math, people.

So long as no one asks any current or former Cincinnati Reds about anything related to hitting philosophy, the time is ripe to realign our focus back to the game. It's almost time for real baseball, and there are a few observations we can make on what will soon be the 2015 roster.

Without dissecting everyone's performance in faux baseball, let's discuss some of the universal takeaways from camp. The following is a short list of five things we learned about the Reds in Goodyear: