Baseball fans: What do you look at during spring training?

[Oeditpus Rex]

Win-loss records don't mean much during preseason, nor do streaks and slumps.

I look for consistency, particularly among the new guys.

[KitchenWitch]

1. Consistency and the ability to stay injury free

[Forkboy]

2. The grass

Ours is either snow-covered or brown :)

[GOPisEvil]

3. I look to see how the new guys are mixing with the returners.

I like to see how the guys coming off injury are looking. Jason Isringhausen, for example.

Right now I'm watching the Yankees and Tigers on ESPN. Damn Yankees scored again.

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. Yeah, good point

about guys coming off injuries. Pitchers, you wanna see if they've still got the heat or the hammer. If a guy was out with a knee or something, you wanna see how he runs, gets out of the box, moves laterally, etc.

I got the Dodgers and Red Sox on XM. :bounce:

[tigereye]

5. injuries to new and expensive pitchers or draftees

and poor choices of pitchers.

Pirates fan.... :cry:

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. I know a guy with Pittsburgh

X Nady. Played high school ball in my hometown. I did a coupla stories on him.

Oh, dog, how that kid could hit a baseball in high school.

[Reverend_Smitty]

10. I was sad to see the Mets trade him...

From the half season that I saw him play, he looked like an all around solid player and I certainly prefer him to Shawn Green and even Lastings Milledge (at this point...who knows the kid might surprise me) but we were in sore need of pitching and Roberto Hernandez is solid and I saw glimpses of greatness from Oliver Perez in the playoffs last year. I guess it was a fair trade especially if Perez can find some consistency

[Oeditpus Rex]

15. Nady's no defensive stud

Especially since the MaxiPads used him as a fill-in-the-gap player, so he didn't get a chance to get used to a position. But he's a solid .280-25 hitter if he plays regularly. Nice guy, too.
I saw him hit one about 420 to straightaway center in his senior year in HS. If memory serves, he hit .583 that year. :wow:

I was pissed when the Dodgers let Green get away. He's similar to Nady as a hitter, and I think he's better defensively. Plus, I admire him for not playing on Jewish holidays.

[enigmatic]

6. Since I'm from Cleveland and a fanatical Tribe fan

I'm looking at their Bullpen, which has made or (much more often since the glory days of 1994-2000)broken them. Having Keith Foulke retire was a blow, but I wasn't counting on him to last the season w/o arm troubles, anyway. I'm hoping Joe Bowroski and the 97 year old Roberto Hernandez can stay in one piece this year and Wally Sipp from Buffalo is ready to go to the back end by September..

[azmouse]

8. The player's butts.

:7

[Oeditpus Rex]

9. They're fake, y'know

:yoiks:

[Initech]

11. I don't really pay much attention to spring training

The one thing that is interesting is to see how the new team gets along.

Although I'm pissed that my team now has an admitted steroid abuser on it. :argh:

[Reverend_Smitty]

12. I like seeing all the young players that might not make the starting day roster...

with my team we have several young pitchers especially Philip Humber that are supposed to be great but maybe not 100% ready for the big leagues...it's fun to see a glimpse of the future

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. Oooo, yeah!

I love watchin' the guys already set for Triple-A or even Double-A, but the manager and coaches want to give 'em a look. I love that after Sept. 1, too, when they expand the rosters.

In particular, I remember a late-season two-hitter against the Giants around 1980 by some fat rookie named Fernando or something. :7

[Reverend_Smitty]

18. I think I like the minor league guys so much because...

we have a AA club in my city and there was a time in my life from about 1994-1997 where I would get to a game at least once a week. I had the privilege to see Nomar Garciapara, Trot Nixon, David Eckstein, etc...before they were big stars so I think I'll always have a certain affinity for the guys toiling in the minors

[Oeditpus Rex]

23. Yup

If I started listing all the guys I saw in the minors who made it to the show, I'd never remember 'em all. But the two most prominent are Jeff Nelson and Omar Vizquel. Hell, I was the photographer for Nelson's wedding; it was on the field before a game at Muni Stadium in Salinas, Calif. And I knew the woman Vizquel was dating then.

Also, guys on their way back — Tommy John and Steve Howe, to think of two.

(I had a photo of Howe in Baseball America in 1986 or '87.)

[Reverend_Smitty]

25. My favorite player was...

Tony Clark, he's had a decent major league career but he is one of the nicest ball players I've ever met. Back in 94, he was a big prospect for the Detroit Tigers and one of the few bright spots on the team so he could have acted like a total prima donna but he was just the opposite. Since we were regulars and I was a cute 10 year old kid, Tony and some of the other guys would always give me free stuff...bats, balls, batting gloves and he would always sign autographs before and after each game. One time my aunt and I had tickets to a day game that got rained out so we decided to go to a local pub for lunch instead when we got there Tony Clark was sitting at the bar having a beer so we walked over to him to say hello and he invited us to sit down and had a good 20 minute conversation with us. A few years later he was playing in Detroit and my family decided to take a road trip out there to see a game before they closed down Tiger Stadium. We stood down by the field and caught his attention during infield practice and to our surprise he remembered us. He was quite gracious, took pictures with us and signed autographs and we definitely looked like big shots to the other people around who didn't know a major league player :) He may not have been a superstar but he will always have a soft spot in my heart.

[Oeditpus Rex]

26. I remember a few guys like that

The biggest sweetheart was probably Will Clark (hmmm... coincidence?) because even being the most touted player in the '85 amateur draft, he was still just a kid playing ball. He had the biggest game-face of just about any ballplayer I've ever known, but when he got off the field he was just a guy — who could hit the shit out of a baseball. :D

In '87, when the Giants clinched the NL West, he was on a post-game teevee interview on the SF station that carries the Giants. He was literally bouncing and he goes, "I've been waiting for this since fuckin' high school!"
The look on the reporter's face was priceless. It was like he'd just swallowed a brick. :rofl:

The main thing I remember about Clark, though, was after a playoff game during his three-month minor league career. Fresno (Giants A club then) played in Salinas, and after the game a friend and I went to the bar at the hotel where visiting clubs stayed. This friend knew damned near everybody in the California League, and when we spotted Clark in the bar, he came over. They talked for a couple minutes, then my friend goes, "Will, this is..." Clark cut him off and said, "Oh, yeah, the cameraman!" and sticks out his hand. "Will Clark." I'm like, "This guy has been on the cover of half the sports magazines in the country in the last few months, and he's introducing himself to me."

Yeah. I love the minors. :7

[Beer Snob-50]

14. I don't take much out of spring training

a couple of years ago I spent my few days at spring training cursing the red sox for keeping hanley ramierez (sp). of course they trade him and he was rookie of the year last year.

btw, great thing about going to spring training is meeting people that follow other teams in a relaxed atmosphere. twins fans were a great group of people.

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. Yeah, you can't, really

It's just tune-up time for most guys. The kids and the guys coming off injuries are trying to impress the coaches. The rest are just trying not to get hurt.

I've never been to spring training, but I've been to hundreds of minor league games, and I figure they're probably a lot alike.

Dog, I love minor league baseball. :7



Edit: I forgot — you also get pitchers who are working on something, but a lotta the time you don't know about it, since they usually don't talk about it in case it doesn't work. (I think maybe they also think if they don't mention it, the other clubs won't know about it — as if the first time a guy throws a new pitch, the whole ball club doesn't know it as soon as the hitter gets back to the dugout.)

[Beer Snob-50]

19. Sometimes I like minor league more than major league games

They can be a lot more fun.

[Oeditpus Rex]

21. Oh, yeah

Every seat is close, the players don't dog it, the fans are generally friendlier and they have all this goofy stuff between innings.

I like, too, that you can get to know some guys a little. There's at least one major leaguer (or, one former major leaguer — he retired a couple months ago) that I could, somewhat liberally, call my friend, and quite a few about whom I can say, "I saw 'em when they were kids."

Plus, the play itself is often more... "interesting" than in the majors. :7

[Burma Jones]

17. College Basketball

and the baby sitters' schedules for those night games......

[Drum]

20. Fielding. nt

[Taverner]

22. Pitchers

Hitters can fare well consistently if they're good, but Pitchers that don't start well tend not to do well in the season.

[leftofthedial]

24. hot babes in the stands

and the distance to the nearest beer vendor

[leftofthedial]

27. I look at players who are coming back from injuries last year

Any new injuries, of course

I check out new players (free agents, trades, minor leaguers)

I look for pitchers' stuff

I take notes on which players' names give the PA announcer the most trouble

[Oeditpus Rex]

28. In Denver?

Hell, he'll just sing 'em. :rofl: