World Baseball Classic 2013

The start of the 2013 World Baseball Classic is March 2nd. The World Baseball Classic is a tournament that was started in 2005 once the International Olympic Committee removed baseball as an Olympic sport. The first World Baseball Classic Tournament was played in 2006. The winner of the first World Baseball Classic tournament that year was Japan. The second World Baseball Classic was played in 2009. Japan ended up winning the 2009 World Baseball Classic tournament. The 2013 World Baseball Classic marks the third time the tournament has been played. In the past, the countries that played in the World Baseball Classic were countries that have a rich baseball tradition. I believe over the past few years, the game of baseball has grown. There are countries that are competing in this year's World Baseball Classic that did not compete in past tournaments and also did not have a rich baseball tradition. There are 12 teams that participated in the 2009 World Baseball Classic that were invited back to the 2013 World Baseball Classic. The first round of the tournament has teams broken up into pools. The teams in Pool A are Japan, China, Cuba and Brazil. Pool B consist of South Korea, The Netherlands, Australia and the Chinese Taipei Baseball Team. The teams in Pool C are Venezuela, Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic and Spain. The teams in Pool D are The United States, Mexico, Italy and Canada. Each team in the pools will play teams in their own pool once. The top two teams in each pool will advance to the second round. The second round consists of 2 pools. Pool 1 will be the top two teams in Pool A & B and Pool 2 will have the top two teams in Pool C & D. The second round is a double elimination tournament. The winners of the first games will play each other in the second game. The losers will play each other in an elimination game. The winner of the elimination game will play the winner of the non-eliminating game in another elimination game. The two teams that remain in the tournament will play each other in a game that will determine seeding for the Semifinals. The winner of the Semifinals games will play each other in the Finals to determine a champion for the World Baseball Classic. The first round games for this year's tournament will be played in Japan, Taiwan, Puerto Rico and Phoenix. The second round games will be played in Japan and Miami. The finals will be played in San Francisco.

Spring Training

Hi everybody!! This week I am going to talk about spring training. This week marks the first week that players report to camp to get ready for spring training. On Monday, the majority of teams reported to spring training camp in either Florida or Arizona. There are two leagues in spring training. There's the Cactus League in Arizona and the Grapefruit League in Florida. The Cactus League consist of the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Grapefruit League consist of the Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles, Miami Marlins, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals, St Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins. Pitchers and catchers are the first to report to camp. Everyone else reports to camp later on in the week. The first few weeks of camp, position players work on their hitting and fielding drills. Postion players also work on bunting and situational drills. The pitchers usually pitch and work on fielding drills. On occasion, pitcher will hit and bunt but mainly they work on their pitches. Teams also have intersquad scrimmages against each other. In March, teams start to play each other during spring training. Teams that are in the Cactus League do not fly to Florida to play teams in the Grapefruit league and vice versa. A team that is in the Cactus League plays other teams in the Cactus League. The same goes for a team that is in the Grapefruit League. They play other teams that are in the Grapefruit League. Also these teams play there minor league teams and college teams during spring training. The point of spring training is to get MLB teams ready for the regular season and to pick the 25 best players for there roster.

MLB Predictions

Hi everyone!!! This is Charles and I'm here to talk about my predictions on what will happen in the 2013 season. I will talk about my predictions on who will be in the World Series and who will win it all, who will win AL and NL MVP, which managers in the AL and NL will win Manager of the Year and who will win the AL and NL CY Young. I will also talk about my surprise teams in 2013.

According to Vegas, right now the Blue Jays have the best odds at winning the World Series with their odds being at 7 to 1. The Dodgers and the Nationals both have an 8 to 1 chance at winning the World Series. The Angels and the Tigers both have a 9 to 1 shot at winning the World Series. The Yankees, Braves and Giants odds are at 12 to 1, the Reds and Rangers odds are at 14 to 1, the Phillies have a 18 to 1 chance, the Cardinals have a 22 to 1 chance, the Rays have a 25 to 1 shot, the Red Sox have a 28 to 1 chance, the Athletics have a 30 to 1 chance, the Brewers have a 35 to 1 chance, the Orioles and White Sox both have a 40 to 1 chance, the Diamondbacks, Royals and Pirates have a 50 to 1 chance, the Indians, Mariners and Padres have a 75 to 1 chance, the Cubs, Rockies, Marlins, Twins and Mets have a 100 to 1 shot and the Astros round it out by have a 200 to 1 chance at winning the 2013 World Series. My prediction on who will make it to the 2013 World Series is the Tigers and the Dodgers and I think the Tigers are going to win it all. I’m not being biased even though I’m a Tigers fan but they have the same team coming back this year as they did last year when they went to the World Series. There only significant additions are Victor Martinez and Torii Hunter. I think there only going to get better. The Dodges also have a pretty good team with Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Josh Beckett, Zach Greinke and Clayton Kershaw.

My prediction for AL MVP is Prince Fielder and my prediction for NL MVP is Yadier Molina. I think Fielder will get it because a lot of pitchers will end up walking Miguel Cabrera and I think Prince will make pitchers pay for walking Cabrera. If Fielder does get AL MVP it’ll be the third straight year a Tiger has won the award. I think Molina will win the NL MVP because I think the Cardinals will shock some people and make the playoffs and they will be led by him. I think the AL Manager of the Year will go to John Gibbons of the Blue Jays and Mike Matheny. I believe that the AL Cy Young will go to Justin Verlander and the NL Cy Young will go to Clayton Kershaw.

Welcome to The MLB Blogspot: A blog that talks about Major League Baseball. My name is Charles Gardner and I'm  a student in college who enjoys to follow Major League Baseball and loves the sport.

Baseball has been a sport I've loved since I've first started playing and watching the sport when I was 5 years old. I learned the game from my dad who played baseball growing up. I would watch lots of Detroit Tigers' games growing up on Fox Sports Detroit, the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox on WGN, The Atlanta Braves on TBS, until they stop showing them on national television and nationally televised games on FOX, ESPN and recently TBS. I would watch guys like Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Chipper Jones and a plethora of other names play the game of baseball on a daily basis.

My personal goal for this blog is to state my opinion on the things that are happening in Major League Baseball. Some of the issues that I plan on talking about is the steriods problems in Major League Baseball, trades and free agent signings predictions on who will be in the World Series and who will win it all and a few other things. I also want to interact with my audience and listen to what they have say. I don't expect everyone to agree with what I have to say nor do I think that have I'm right and have all the answer's so I'm open to hearing everyone's opinion. I will posts things on my blog every few days. I will also welcome people who are blogging about baseball or other sports to follow my blog and I will follow your blogs.

Now that everyone knows who I am and what I am going to talk about, I hope people check out my blog and comment on it! Enjoy!