Since I’ve been somewhat cynical mentioning the meaninglessness of individual games in spring training, and the overall deceptiveness that stats can give you from this month, I wanted to show that I do think a few things can be learned from the month. It’s more than just a tuneup, it can give managers a very good idea of what to expect. I just believe that a month of games when people don’t care shouldn’t override several years of evidence. Anyway, here are a few things I’ve noticed in the first half of the spring:
- Strasburg has looked very good – his second start wasn’t as well-covered or noticed, but it was just as good as the first. He’s pretty impressive so far
- Elijah Dukes hasn’t looked very good – hitting .174/.263/.294 so far probably won’t make him lose his job, but it will significantly shorten his leash in April. He’s gotta start hitting, although at least he still can walk
- Ian Desmond has alot of good news surrounding him – he’s hitting the hell out of the ball (.455/.580/.815, if you must know – whatever I’m sure that’s real sustainable) but Rizzo has also said he’s definitely NOT coming on the club as a utility man. This was assumed, but there were rumors to the contrary – like when Riggleman went on XM-Sirius last week and said he might be a utility man. He’s gonna start in Washington or Syracuse at SS – my guess is in Syracuse until they figure out whether they could get anything for Guzman
- Scott Olsen has not had a good looking spring – he hasn’t pitched in a real game for a while, though, so I’ll wait to make any judgments there
- Mock and Martin haven’t looked bad – in their 5 innings each
- Willie Harris is looking good and will probably steal some playing time from Dukes early
- Aaron Thompson is building up a case for himself – probably not for the major league rotation yet, but for consideration for the presumed revolving door that will eventually make up the 3, 4, and 5 spots in it later on this year
- I’m thinking Eric Bruntlett may get the backup infielder role at this point, unless the Pete Orr man-crush remains
- Mike Morse is beating Justin Maxwell in the race to 5th outfielder spot
- There is probably a hole in the rotation large enough that even Livan is going to be able squeeze his frame in there