Tim Britton

Like any industry, baseball has its own specific jargon, a technical vocabulary that expands the deeper you dive into the game. Spring training brings a lot of these terms to the fore and is thus the perfect time to define them. Think of this as your primer to the whole season, one word at a time.

-- Competition: This is when two or more players have a chance to win a particular roster spot. Players can enhance their chances with impressive statistics during spring training, but statistics aren't even close to the end-all, be-all given how small the sample size is and how volatile the quality of competition can be. A home run off a starting pitcher in the second inning of an exhibition game matters much more than a home run off a Triple-A pitcher in the eighth inning of that same game.