Opinion

Leading up to the 2013 season, I'm going to write player profiles about key members of the Detroit Tigers. This is the fourth installment, featuring setup man Joaquin Benoit.

When Brian Wilson went down in the first week of the 2012 season, many Giants fans panicked. Some lost hope for the whole year. 

After all, the Giants didn't have any proven ninth inning options, and the last several World Series champions, including the 2010 Giants, had proven closers. 

Pitchers and catchers report to San Francisco Giants spring training on Tuesday, and they’ll have a much different Tim Lincecum upon arrival. The Giants ace put on some pounds and got a haircut, shaving off his long trademark locks and opting for a more clean-cut look.

We saw a couple young stars emerge in a big way last season when Mike Trout and Bryce Harper showcased exactly why they're the future of baseball.

The Texas Rangers may have waited until the end of the season to debut star prospect Jurickson Profar, but in the limited time he saw the infielder gave Rangers fans plenty of reason for optimism up the middle.

It might be time for the Boston Red Sox and team president Larry Lucchino to go their separate ways.

Lucchino can't resist being a lawyer. Deny, deny, deny.

When spring training begins next week, teams will have dozens of players to get a good look at in the weeks to come before the season arrives.

All the while, they'll have a magic number in mind: 25. They need to take a couple dozen and somehow, some way cut it down to 25.

This is going to involve saying "thanks, but no thanks" to the majority of the non-roster invitees they've invited along for the ride. For non-roster invitees, spring training may as well be one great big Thunderdome: Many will enter, few will leave.

If baseball fans were to pen a screenplay about Scott Boras, baseball's most infamous agent, the result would surely be a horror film.

It would open with ominous music playing over a wide shot of a haunted house. Then Boras would be shown scowling on a throne of skulls, or perhaps regenerating in one of the globe things that Darth Vader had in The Empire Strikes Back. Then he would go and do things that villains do.

Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in just a few short days, and it's time for any rotation battles to be decided for all 30 major league clubs.

The New York Yankees have four of their five spots locked down. CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes will take the top four spots (in an order that's yet to be determined).

Competing for the No. 5 spot will be sophomore David Phelps and third-year pitcher Ivan Nova.

Hal Steinbrenner, the New York Yankees' managing general partner, admits that he's "concerned" about the doping allegations surrounding superstar third baseman Alex Rodriguez, according to a recent report by the Associated Press (via ESPN.com).

Major League Baseball has been given an excuse to pursue some unfinished business with Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun, but a renewed pursuit may not lead to the result the league wants.