While you were away...It's tempting. Too tempting. A couple of weeks into Spring Training and my eagerness to see patterns in the activity for the purpose of extrapolating into the season is distracting. How can I pay attention to things going on when C.J. Cron has a line of .360/.414/.640/1.054 through 25 at-bats??? If we are to look at Rutledge's .250 BA and 8 K's in 28 at-bats and think to ourselves "Duh, he is what we thought he is", then why look at somebody else and think "to early to know anything"? I like Trout's meager 2 K's versus 10 hits and 5 BB's. And I like his 8 runs. Oh, and his 1.597 OPS. Wait? What?? 1.597 OPS??? Yeah. That's the ticket. Not even Mike the Magnificent is gonna keep that up.
It's all about streaks, hot and cold. And it's far too soon to do anything but grin and the hot streaks, ignore the cold ones, and know that there are still a lot of Will Ferrell's running around the Arizona/Florida diamonds these days warping everybody's numbers.
So before we start getting too deep into what it, and what is not, going right this Spring, keep in mind that it is not even Spring yet.
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Elsewhere in the Heavens of Anaheim: Things to look forward to in 2015. Baseball Prospectus looks into the upcoming year and tags the return of Garrett Richards as the 3rd most intriguing thing for fans to seek out this year, "And seriously, his stuff. Good lord. Perusing BP's PitchF/X leaderboards, I see that Richards' fastball, in 2014, was seventh among qualifying starters in average velocity. His slider/power curve (I think it's more like the latter) was second in vertical break, and he regularly throws it in the upper 80s. Richards' curveball was first in vertical movement by more than an inch-and-a-half. The separation between second and tenth place with that pitch was just over an inch. The main thing holding Richards back is his command, which is just alright, but he genuinely has one of the most outrageous arsenals in baseball." We agree..............
Sean Newcomb's cup of coffee just emptied, though it appears it was strong enough to leave a mark. Newcomb is no longer in Tempe. Not a surprise by any means, and he will be back. But I find it odd that a kid who has demonstrated such success and such potential still, according to Mike Scioscia, doesn't know where his release point happens to be. "He needs some refinement...He has to find his release point. Part of it is how do you get back in sync when you lose it? There’s a lot of things in a pitcher’s progression that he needs to figure out." .............
Taylor Featherstone flashing some leather???
You know how it is cool when a player hits a home run with his very first pro at-bat? Does that make it even more cool when a pitcher surrenders a home run on his very first pitch? Here's looking at you, Cesar Ramos.............
Andrew Romine is still playing baseball. because he is "dirt" cheap............
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Around Baseball: Chicago fans are over the moon in anticipation of being relevant once again, even indulging in the inebriated belief of besting the Cards for the NL Central title in 2015. It's possible, sure. But if it happens, it's gonna happen without a lot of their fans in attendance, since this is also the same year that the same team chose to refurbish their stadium, and are still way, way behind. At this pace, they might go half the season before the last dust is swept away..........
And that should be just about the same time that the Cubs finally bring up Mike-Trout 2.0, Kris Bryant. The rookie phenom is absolutely killing it this Spring, which is only going to make the fact that the Cubs will send him back down to start the season just that more delicious. The Cubs are going to do what the Angels did with Trout, and delay the start of his countdown to arbitration and free agency by an entire year. It's what teams do. Ironically, the more talent the rookie has, the more important it is for his team to delay using him, because it allows them to enjoy his contributions for longer than they otherwise would be being eager. The fun part of this, though, is that in Chicago this is The Year of Going All In. Imagine the hue and cry should Bryant arrive as a call-up mid-season, go on a huge tear, and the Cubs finish out of the playoffs by a single game..............
What is it with the Dodgers? Is it that they attract pitches seriously inside? Or do they just have some need to believe that every inside pitch is an intentional attempt to hurt some dude in blue? It's only spring, but here we go already..........
You know what I don't need? I don't need Oakland to pull yet another limp noodle off the scrap heap and have him turn into an All-Star. Or, at the very least, a Halo thorn. And here we have this year's candidate: Barry Zito.............
Uh...9-2-1 double play?...............
Reggie Jackson is auctioning off the original "Yankee Stadium" sign (which were just the letters). He expects to get about $500K for them. If I were a billionaire, I would absolutely do this, just so that I could have my minions play anagram games with them and flash message from my hilltop palace.Just to piss off Yankee fans. "Enema Duty" comes to mind...................
If you have been reading my Fridays, you know that Springs are plagued with injuries, and this year has been especially tough. But each year also brings the oddball injuries as well. Stuff such as Kevin Pillar straining his oblique and going down for a week...because he sneezed...........
Here is a tech development that we don't actually need: drones zipping around live sporting events. Having a few drones buzzing above the baseball field, noisily waiting for something to happen so they launch into attack mode and strafe players in action, merely makes me think that I need to go out and stock up on my green laser pointers while I still can.................
Finally, it's got to be said. If ever anybody allow me to pull a Will Ferrell and spend a Spring Training day playing every position on multiple teams, as Will Ferrell managed to do, you can bet your butts that I would be out there wearing my uniform properly, with Stirrups!!
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