MLB Notes: Reading into Spring Training

By Matt Smith

When Spring Training rolls around in March, you have two different types of baseball fans: The kind who put stock into how things go and the kind who doesn’t.
Both of those things are wrong.
What you should do is put stock into individual performances but put no stock into the team’s performance. To break it down further, you should put stock into your star players or starters performances against the star players and starters from other teams.
If a player you are counting on, or a player your team just signed or if a player has shown a tendency to do something bad and that continues, these are all red flags.
I don’t care if it’s early March or not, if a guy is playing horribly, then he is playing horribly. It’s true that he has a whole month to correct it and that is where the whole “It’s Spring Training” argument comes into play.
Some players do get it straightened out, but some don’t. Certainly people who have struggled in the spring have carried that over and had horrible seasons. That is why it is a red flag.
Let’s get this straight: If a player is playing like crap in the early spring, it’s certainly not a good sign. You might not see it as a bad sign, but it is certainly not good and during Spring Training you want to be encouraged. Keep in mind that players are actually trying to do well.
The first name that raises a red flag is Andruw Jones. Jones is coming off a horrible year where he hit .222, a career low and 26 home runs, his lowest since 1999. He also struck out 138 times, the second most in his career.
But because of his track record, the Dodgers gave him a two-year, $36 million contract and early indications are that it is not a good signing.
Jones is hitting a whopping .133 so far this spring and has looked horrible against the opposing teams top line pitchers, including getting dominated by Johan Santana. You might say Santana is the reason for that, but it’s just an example. Jason Repko did get two hits off the very same Santana that day, though.
Another red flag that has popped up are Giants pitchers Barry Zito and Noah Lowry. Giants fans (that I know) are pretending not to be too concerned about their two lefties.
I think they are more concerned and for good reason.
Zito has pitched twice, losing both games and allowing nine earned runs for an ERA above 22. He has walked two guys in 3 2/3 innings, which is about five walks per nine, and he hasn’t struck anyone out. He did pitch much better in his second outing of the spring, so perhaps he has righted the ship after allowing one run over three innings with no walks. His eight runs in 2/3 of an inning is still very alarming, meaning he could be as up and down as last year and that should not be acceptable to Giants fans.
Turns out Lowry is hurt and will have a minor surgery on his left wrist, but he is a guy who’s control got away from him last year, and to see him come out and walk 12 guys in 2 1/3 innings, including nine in one inning, had to be very concerning. Giants fans might have been concerned he had completely lost his mechanics, or that he had Steve Blass syndrome. The best case scenario is that he is in fact hurt because overcoming injury is easier than overcoming yourself.
The red flag is up for Mr. Lowry and how he bounces back will go a long way in telling exactly what his problems are.
On the opposite side of that equation, Angel fans saw Torii Hunter batting .727 after Thursday’s game with the Giants. Of course he won’t hit .700 all season, but you have to be encouraged at his output so far.
Same goes for Jones, Zito and Lowry. You don’t expect Jones to bat .133 with no power and you don’t expect Zito and Lowry to have double digit ERA’s while walking every other guy. You just don’t want a terrible spring to mean a subpar or very poor season.
Speaking of the Dodgers and Giants, both Matt Cain and Derek Lowe gave up five earned runs on Thursday. Lowe got lit up in two innings against Boston while Cain was torched in 2 1/3 innings against the Angels. Yikes.

Taking it slow: A lot of big named pitchers are coming back from surgeries, and injury prone seasons and thus far the approach has been to take it slow with them.
Guys like Francisco Liriano, Mark Prior, Mike Hampton, Jason Schmidt, Randy Johnson, Kris Benson and Rich Harden (to name a few) are being handled with care as they try and make their way back.
Liriano, who has thrown batting practice, is said to have looked good and appears to be on track, will get his first start of the spring today. He will probably go two innings maximum.
Prior is going throw the process of building up to reach a point where he will be game ready. The Padres are taking that slow and it is rumored that it will be May when that happens. As of now, he has only thrown bullpen sessions.
The Braves are not counting on Hampton to be ready to help the rotation, but he threw two scoreless innings against Houston and has reported no soreness. Hampton seems to be ahead of schedule, but the Braves are understandably weary.
Schmidt, who took four days off from throwing after reporting fatigue in his surgically repaired shoulder, is back to playing catch. Schmidt will be handled very carefully and probably won’t pitch a big league game until May at the earliest.
Johnson threw batting practice on Tuesday, and says his back is not a problem. But he’s 45 with back problems, so don’t expect him to make too much of an impact.
Benson is another guy taking it slow as the Phillies took a chance on him. He also probably won’t be ready for opening day despite reporting he has been feeling good.
Last but not least, the most injury prone and perhaps the most talented (maybe other than Liriano) is Harden said he was pain free in his three innings against the Angels on Monday, but he certainly wasn’t effective. He allowed two runs on four hits, but reports were his fastball hit as high as 96.

I don’t know is on third: One of the more intriguing position battles this year is taking place in Dodgers camp and that is the battle for the third place job.
You have the 34-year old veteran in Nomar Garciaparr who is as good a right-handed bat as any when he is going good and you have a 25-year old rookie in Andy LaRoche who has gotten a very short audition at the big league level.
Joe Torre was probably hoping that one of them would make it easy on him and lose the job, but so far that isn’t happening.
LaRoche ended Thursday’s game with Boston batting .350 so far while Garciaparra, who sat out of Friday’s game, was hitting .333.
Torre seems to prefer experience, meaning Garciaparra probably has the edge right now if healthy.
Another whisper is the Dodgers interest in the Tigers Brandon Inge, but that seems like a foolish move at this point when you have two very strong candidates who will hit for a much higher average already wearing the uniform.

More A’s injuries: Speaking of Oakland, A’s fans probably expected the red flag to go up at some point during the regular season, but probably didn’t expect it at the beginning of March.
Eric Chavez and Bobby Crosby are battling to come back from various injuries, and the one thing they both have in common is a bad back.
Well, surprise, surprise it’s early March and back problems are already seeping their way into any hopes the A’s had.
Chavez had an epidural shot in his surgically repaired back and is reported as iffy for Opening Day while Crosby has already returned.
He was scratched from Monday’s lineup, but played Wednesday and Thursday. Don’t expect it to be the last time he is scratched as it is a situation that could get worse and worse.