With less than two weeks until the balls start flying during Spring Training, it’s hard to not be excited as a baseball fan. After a long off-season full of players changing teams and cities, it’s just about time to get started.

In today’s era of free agency and salary caps, many teams are overturned nearly every off-season. The large market teams made big splashes again this off-season with teams like the New York Mets, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and even the Detroit Tigers were among this off-season’s big winners.

The Detroit Tigers are an example of a team that gave up a lot of young talent in an effort to put the pieces in place to chase a title. They traded away their top two prospects, both former top draft picks to acquire superstar third baseman Miguel Cabrera and pitcher Dontrelle Willis. This sort of trade is more common in today’s game because of growing contracts and salary cap restrictions that make it hard for smaller market teams to keep their star players.

Another team that was busy was the New York Mets. They acquired the premier pitcher in major league baseball, Johan Santana, from the Minnesota Twins for several of their top minor league prospects. The Twins knowing they would not be able to afford the 137 million dollar contract that Santana eventually signed with the Mets, traded away their top player for prospects who could eventually turn out to be as good as Santana is.

Other teams that were busy were N.L. Central foes the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs. It was a tale of two different styles, the Brewers added more experienced players to a young nucleus while the Cubs added both depth and experience to an aging lineup.

The Cubs were able to sign the top Japanese player available this season in outfielder Kosuke Fukodome. The Brewers biggest splashes were signing veterans Jason Kendall, Mike Cameron and Eric Gagne, players with post-season experience.

The other Chicago team, the White Sox put their cards in order by acquiring young talented outfielders Carlos Quentin and Nick Swisher but were hurt by trading ace Jon Garland to acquire veteran shortstop Orlando Cabrera.

Similarly the Twins added young outfielders Craig Monroe and Delmon Young to try and offset the loss of Santana and pitcher Matt Garza. With the dearth of young talent brought in during the Santana trade, the Twins may be down this season, but they may be on top again in a few years.

So as we look forward to another long season of Major League Baseball, it is not hard to be excited as the league gets ready to start up again. With division races soon to be heating up, it’s a great time to be a baseball fan.