You know, Bro, (to quote a famous Guardians' player) at this point in spring training you just want to wrap the players up like Mrs. Parker did to Randy before he went outside in "A Christmas Story".
The reason: At this point in spring training only bad things (read: injuries) can happen. From Tim Herrin getting hit on his pitching elbow WHILE SITTING IN THE DUGOUT AFTER HE WAS DONE PITCHING to almost getting cut in half by a line drive last night, from Gabriel Arias getting hit on the hand last night to minor leaguer Kyle Marman slipping on his delivery and going down in a heap in front of the pitching mound. All that is going through my mind is "Oh, no. Not now".
Just ask the Phillies about Rhys Hopkins, going down on a play I have watched replay a dozen times now and STILL am trying to figure out how it could have ended up in a season-ending injury.
When your 26-man roster is built on a house of cards because of a combination of a 40-man roster stuffed with prospects who you wouldn't want to DFA and your top prospects being tantalizingly close to ready for the major leagues...but not there yet, it is a nervous time. Come July we will probably see enough reinforcements ready to give us more comfort. But right now, we are paper thin.
With this backdrop, these last few exhibition games remind me of the whole NFL exhibition season. The borderline guys play their butts off trying to make the roster while the key players are wrapped in bubble wrap waiting for the regular season.
Lots of good things happened last night, but with these games STILL being spring training where results can end up as mirages, the thing that stuck in my mind was Arias' hand. His right hand. The one he throws with. So, when the news came out that he hadn't suffered any broken bones I was really relieved, although I still question whether he will be ready for opening day. So it sent me scrambling for information. If they do have to put him on the IL could they recall Tyler Freeman without using up one of his options? The answer is yes and would apply to anyone on the 40-man they have sent down to the minors. That option is only burned 20 days after the player is optioned. Any recall to the majors before that negates the loss of that option. So, we are covered if we would recall Freeman or Rocchio to replace Arias...until we send them to the minors again for more than 20 days.
So, enough already about bubble wrap the NFL and continengcy plans. Wiping that out of my mind let's talk about last night's game.
PITCHING
Plesac looked shaky in the first inning but righted himself after that. Given what else we have seen this spring I think this performance tells me that Plesac will be OK and that he is just rounding into his optimal form. Will he be there by the time he makes his first start of the season? 50/50 on that one but I think, to me, he looks more than good enough for the 5th spot and, to me, like he will blow away his 3-12, 4.31 ERA from last year.
Morgan looked good flashing enough of a fastball and a couple of killer changeups with mid-season movement on them.
Karinchak looked good, especially his pace of pitching which, to me, along with his haircut, shows signs of maturity and understanding of his role in helping this team be successful. Really excited about him this year and hoping he stays healthy.
Herrin looked really good, given his elbow's collision with the baseball a couple of days ago. I think he can be an excellent placeholder for Hentges and will give Francona pause whether to go 6/2 or 7/1 (R/L bullpen mix) when Hentges comes back.
Finally, Kyle Marman showed me some poise in coming in in the 9th inning and slamming the door. His breaking ball was killer both in movement and location and, although he gave up a slap hit, he looked very dominant in getting the save.
HITTING
Ramirez and Bell each going 2-3 with a blast was very positive.
Straw going 2-3 with a dinger of his own made me smile.
Zunino with a hit was good as was Gimenez with a hit and Brennan, off the bench for an RBI hit were also good things to see.
The minor league guys (Viloria, Romero, Rafael Ramirez, Jr roping hits also made me smile.
Pinto batting made me wonder why, with the 100s of guys in camp, another guy couldn't have been spared from playing in a minor league game to just have backup on the bench. Also, it made Straw play the whole game and he almost got clipped by a fastball up and in his last AB.
All-in-all another good game to watch as we had hitting, pitching and solid, although without any spectacular, defense. All I saw makes me more comfortable heading towards opening day next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment