Spring Training
The Spring Training is the pre-season in professional baseball leagues.
- 2.1 Teams and venues
Major League Baseball
The Spring Training is carried out for Major League Baseball and Minor Leagues. After the end of the season in September, the World Series in October, and a three - to four-month winter break, the clubs attract their players together in training camps. The Spring Training usually begins in the first week of February and lasts until the end of March or early April, depending on the opening day of the MLB. The camps are located in the warm states of Florida and Arizona. The teams compete in preparation and test matches against each other, the results will be documented in league form. The major league teams play in the Cactus League in Arizona and in the Grapefruit League in Florida. The existing division in the regular season of the teams in the American League and National League, is changed in Spring Training. The Spring Training serves the mold assembly and importing the teams. In addition to the accrued by players and player transfers the farm teams are tested. In addition to the standing already under contract players get free players in baseball as a non roster invitee Free Agents referred to the occasion, by good performance in Spring Training to be recommended for the limited to 25 players squad of MLB teams. During Spring training, the squad will be reduced, young players are assigned according to their performance the farm teams and Non roster invitees, not the organization belonging to players who are released. So shapes itself to the opening Matchday a core of players who usually covers the best in their respective franchise. In addition to the Major League camp, a minor league camp will be conducted by each franchise, in which the players take turns leaving the MLB camp. From there, they are assigned to AAA, AA, Single -A or other junior leagues.
Teams and venues
Grapefruit League ( Florida)
- Atlanta Braves: Champion Stadium, Lake Buena Vista at Disney World
- Boston Red Sox: City of Palms Park, Fort Myers
- Baltimore Orioles: Ed Smith Stadium, Sarasota
- Detroit Tigers: Joker Marchant Stadium, Lakeland
- Florida Marlins: Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter
- Houston Astros: Osceola County Stadium, Kissimmee
- Minnesota Twins Hammond Stadium, Fort Myers
- New York Mets Digital Domain Park, Port St. Lucie
- New York Yankees George M. Steinbrenner Field, Tampa
- Philadelphia Phillies Bright House Field, Clearwater
- Pittsburgh Pirates McKechnie Field, Bradenton
- St. Louis Cardinals Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter
- Tampa Bay Rays Charlotte Sports Park, Port Charlotte
- Toronto Blue Jays Dunedin Stadium, Dunedin
- Washington Nationals Space Coast Stadium, Viera
Cactus League (Arizona )
- Arizona Diamondbacks: Tucson Electric Park, Tucson
- Chicago Cubs: HoHoKam Park, Mesa
- Chicago White Sox Camelback Ranch, Glendale
- Cincinnati Reds Goodyear Ballpark, Goodyear
- Cleveland Indians Goodyear Ballpark, Goodyear
- Colorado Rockies: Hi Corbett Field, Tucson
- Kansas City Royals Surprise Stadium, Surprise
- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: Tempe Diablo Stadium, Tempe
- Los Angeles Dodgers Camelback Ranch, Glendale
- Milwaukee Brewers Maryvale Baseball Park, Phoenix
- Oakland Athletics Phoenix Municipal Stadium, Phoenix
- San Diego Padres Peoria Sports Complex, Peoria
- San Francisco Giants Scottsdale Stadium, Scottsdale
- Seattle Mariners Peoria Sports Complex, Peoria
- Texas Rangers Surprise Stadium, Surprise
Japanese Professional Baseball
After the end of the season in October and the Nippon Series clubs pull in Japanese professional baseball player in their training camps, the "Autumn Camps " (秋季 キャンプ, Shuki kyampu ) together. After the winter break usually the camps for Spring Training (春季 キャンプ, Shunki kyampu ) follow in February.
The separate camps of the first and second teams - the composition of which is not of the regular season must comply - the twelve franchises are now in the warm, southern Japanese prefecture of Okinawa, Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Kōchi. Some teams use in a bipartite two Spring Training camps for the first team. The teams compete in Asia since 2011 Spring Baseball in international friendlies against teams from the Korean professional baseball to.
In previous decades, Spring Training camps were also conducted in northern prefectures, the U.S. States and Territories Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Guam and Saipan and Australia. Partly trained the teams there together with major-league teams; as guest appearances by the Japan Tour of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956 at the invitation of the Yomiuri Giants Dodgers at first and later also other Japanese teams several times in Vero Beach.
Teams and venues
The venues of the first teams in 2011 were:
- Fukuoka Softbank Hawks: Miyazaki ( Miyazaki )
- Saitama Seibu Lions: Nichinan ( Miyazaki )
- Chiba Lotte Marines: Ishigaki ( Okinawa )
- Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters: Nago ( Okinawa )
- Orix Buffaloes: Miyakojima ( Okinawa ) and Kochi (Kochi )
- Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles: Kumejima ( Okinawa )
- Chunichi Dragons: Chatan ( Okinawa )
- Hanshin Tigers: Ginoza ( Okinawa ) and Aki ( Kōchi )
- Yomiuri Giants: Miyazaki ( Miyazaki ) and Naha ( Okinawa )
- Yakult Swallows Tōkyō: Urasoe ( Okinawa )
- Hiroshima Toyo Carp: Okinawa ( Okinawa )
- Yokohama BayStars: Ginowan ( Okinawa )