Opinion

Pedro Martinez is back with the Boston Red Sox, but not as a pitcher. 

There is no late career comeback for Martinez. 

He is now a special assistant to GM Ben Cherington and will have an impact on the pitching staff, even though Martinez is not going to be the one on the mound.  

The times are indeed changing for the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

After seeing the once-proud franchise rot under the ownership of Frank McCourt, the Dodgers find themselves in the enviable position of having a new pack of owners with deep pockets who are willing to spend at all costs to bring a championship back to Los Angeles. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers have one of Major League Baseball’s best five-tool players in center fielder Matt Kemp.

But what if we could make him even better? How good would Kemp be if we could borrow the best skills from his Dodgers teammates to create the perfect baseball player?

Given Kemp’s prodigious talents, it would not take much to make him the best player in the game.

While the Detroit Tigers' pitching staff was successful in 2012, the bullpen was average at best. Their ERA of 3.79 was only the 10th best in the American League out of 14 teams. The starters helped carry the Tigers' pitching staff, as the back end of the bullpen had the worst ERA of any AL team from the eighth inning on, with 4.07. 

I believe that the pitching staff will have an overall better year in 2013. 

Baseball games aren't played on paper or inside those newer, fancier computer projection systems that are in vogue today. However, with another month and a half to go until opening day, projections are all fans have to go on right now.

The Boston Red Sox haven’t played an exhibition game yet, but they should already be worried about the future of Felix Doubront.

The Toronto Blue Jays have done a tremendous job remodeling their team into a playoff contender during the offseason.

No. Make that a World Series contender.

I may be getting a little ahead of myself, but the odds makers in Las Vegas have them pegged as the clear favorites.

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Jon Lester has enjoyed much success during his career, but it’s always seemed that he’s never reached his full potential. Declining production and his own surprising recent comments have further questioned whether he can ever really be an ace.

Liar liar, pants on fire. 

Melky Cabrera lied. He cheated. He disgraced himself and the game of baseball. 

Yes, he had statistics worthy of the National League MVP award last season. His .346 batting average was the highest of his career, and his 11 home runs and 60 RBI were impressive. He also had a career-high .516 slugging percentage. He was a big reason why the San Francisco Giants were playing well. 

Over the past several years, baseball has proven with multiple reports and documents that it still has further to go in order to rid the sport of performance enhancing drugs. 

First time offenders in baseball currently receive a 50-game suspension, second-time offenders receive a 100-game suspension, and a third-time offender is banished from baseball.