Sizing up the spring
Just another thought on A-RodWhen I went down to the Dominican Republic's World Baseball Classic team practice before A-Rod opted to shut it down for the tournament and have hip surgery, I got to talk to him a little bit. He came right up to me and said, "I really appreciate your support and I was hoping to run into you and thank you."
I told him right back that he's an easy target, and it's easy to pile on to the situation. I went on to tell him that I had a conversation with Bob Gibson, and we both agreed that in my playing day, if these things were readily available, we would have all been tempted to use them. I wish him a speedy recovery, and he is missed in the WBC event.
Spring Training
As everyone knows Spring Training is a time to get players ready for the marathon that is the baseball season. As I'm sure you know, the pitchers build up arm strength, the position players regain their bat speed and all players work on the fundamentals.
I've been watching some of the Spring Training games. A couple of different fans have asked, why is Joba Chamberlain's stuff only coming in at 85-87 MPH on the radar gun, and my answer is that they shouldn't even have a radar gun during games, but particularly at Spring Training. These pitchers are just trying to build up their arm strength, stamina and form. In the first few games, if a pitcher doesn't look like he's throwing his best stuff, it's because he isn't.
Baseball is a game in which you try to do ordinary things in an extraordinary manner. Teams have pitchers do fielding practice, and they are boring, but you have them do it time and time again, so that when the season comes you are ready to do them. They are done both for technique and so that a pitcher doesn't pull a hamstring trying to run over to first base.
It's the same thing for infielders, they have them field groundball after groundball. Maybe they work on their range, maybe as a player gets older and doesn't have as much range as he used to, he learns to cheat a bit and play a step or two deeper at shortstop or at third base. He'll take a lot of ground balls and react to playing the position a little bit differently than he's played it over the years.
Spring Training is also a place for hitters to change things up as well. Some hitters have trouble hitting the curveball or might want to become pull hitters and hit for more pop. They have little things that they like to work on to be a more complete hitter. Same thing goes for pitchers. If they want to work on a new pitch or improve certain pitches that they already have in their repertoire.
I watched Chris Carpenter the other day in a game, and it was basically just fastballs and only 18 to 20 pitches. They aren't going to break out their best pitches now.
Even when I coached and was an announcer, I didn't care to look at a pitcher until after March 15th. That's really when you can tell if I pitcher is starting to get ready for the season. A pitcher is not going to break off a July 4th curveball in the middle of Spring Training. It's a glorified batting practice right now.
I always broke up Spring Training into two parts as a pitcher. Before March 15th, the main goal is stretch your arm, you break it down, you build up the arm, and they do their between-outing throwing. Also, throwing from the outfield and fielding practice is very important. After March 15th, it's working on repertoire and getting prepared for the season at hand. Pitchers start throwing some more innings and more of their selection of pitches.
For hitters, the first part of game action is only getting two at bats, and as Spring Training rolls on they start to play full games. They prepare for the season and get in some situational hitting.
For guys in the bullpen, it's great to get those two scoreless innings. However, it might be crazy to say, but they might want to come in or get men on base to prepare themselves for those same situations in the season. They need to learn on how to pitch out of a jam. You'll start to see managers bring in bullpen guys with men on base.
Statistics in Spring Training are so deceiving. There are no double deck stadiums, the Florida wind keeps the ball up longer and carries a lot of those balls over the fence. The fields, with the lack of rain in both Florida and Arizona, get very hard. There are a lot of bad hops and fast ground balls for the infielders to contend with. A player might have five home runs and people think he's having a great spring. Then he gets to the big league stadiums, and those same balls just don't go out of the park.
Spring Training is a fun time, it's a time to work on everything, and it could also be a very deceiving time. Pitchers are a lot of times better than how they look in Florida and hitters look a lot better. I just can't believe that the Spring Training season is almost winding down.
Jim
Was it not common in your day that a pitcher would throw pitches early in spring training till his arm hurt on the first day then when it healed they were ready, they then built up arm strength and would be ready by opening day?
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Always enjoy reading your comments Jim.
I sometimes wonder what your reactions and advice would be to those pitchers (during spring training) trying to make the big club as a starter or reliever. There might be to much at stake for some where they couldn't follow that sound advice either mentally or physically with alot on the line for them.
I would think those that are borderline to being sent down to the minors would be hard to know which way to go.
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Good stuff Jim. Glad you got to hook up with Alex. (Who say's he doesn't know how to say the right thing.) Sad the number of people that love to throw stones in his direction.
Keep them cards and letters coming sir.
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Jim- First i want to say i'am so sorry for your lost.I loved when you were on the Yes network and hope you come back.Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
SullyLV.
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Jim, thanks for this insight. I enjoyed reading this article. You have a great writing voice.
Rosh Koch // http://roshkoch.mlblogs.com
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You're a class act Mr. Kaat. Your knowledge is great and I look forward to reading this blog every week.
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