Monday Spring Training Recap

So as to not beat a dead horse I would direct you to the post below this one to see my thoughts on the Joe Nathan injury situation. Now let us get to the rest of the happenings from Spring Training today:

PHENOM ALERT
22 Year old Stephen Strasburg made his long awaited debut for the Washington Nationals this afternoon in a game against the Detroit Tigers. He pitched two scoreless innings gave up two hits and struck out two, one of which was slugger Miguel Cabrera. He topped out at 98mph and looked as good as advertised. His stuff and demeanor was beyond his years or as it is now called “Jason Heywarding”. From everything you hear from the people in the know there is a slim to none chance Strasburg starts the season in the majors, but that he will make there at some point this year. The Washington Nationals could be in for a very good second half with Strasburg and Chien-Ming-Wang.

INJURY UPDATE
Cubs starting pitcher Ted Lilly began throwing Sunday as part of his rehab from offseason shoulder surgery. He will throw again on Wednesday. He hopes to see game competition soon and manager Lou Pinella said he thinks Lilly could get into a game towards the end of Spring Training. His regular season debut is expected to come anywhere from mid April to early May. I think Lilly’s health and success and that of the Cubs are very much one in the same. He has become very reliable for them over the past few seasons and with a questionable bottom of the rotation as well as the always enigmatic Carlos Zambrano, Lilly is vitally important.

Texas Rangers catcher Jarrod Saltalamaccia was scratched from his scheduled start in todays game against the Athletics due to pain in his ribs. The team believes he is “experiencing the breaking up of scar tissue after offseason surgery in that area to improve circulation to his right arm”. It does not sound too serious but remember any setback could cause him to lose a step in his competition for the starting job with Taylor Teagarden.

Concern is growing at Baltimore Orioles camp over the health of second baseman Brian Roberts. R http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100309&content_id=8726438&vkey=news_bal&fext=.jsp&c_id=bal Read this article for the whole story, it’s by MLB.com Orioles beat writer and great Twitter follow Brittany Ghiroli. Apparently he has been sitting out with back spasms but suffered a setback this week when medication he was given for his back upset his stomach. Ouch. He may not be ready for opening day. How big of a loss is it? It depends on what your hopes are as an Orioles fan for the coming season. They are still the 4th best team in the division but are making great strides at becoming a good team and Roberts can only help them in that quest.

NEW YORK NEW YORK IT’S A HELL OF A (BASEBALL) TOWN
Being from New York and a Yankees fan I have tried not to overdo my analysis of the two teams from the city. But it has becoming increasingly evident to me over the last few days since the games started that the coverage of these teams is just so much grander than that of the rest of the league. And to be honest it is better and more in depth. Not saying there aren’t good beat writers for the smaller market teams but with their being so many people covering the Yankees and Mets you get more original stories due to the competitive nature of the business. Let us get into the top stories from both teams from today.

While rookie phenom Steve Strasburg was impressing everyone with the first appearance of his career the veteran aces of the two New York teams were both getting rocked in the first inning of their respective starts. Sabathia gave up 5 earned runs over 2.1 innings in his start against the vaunted Pittsburg Pirates lineup. Santana gave up 4 earned runs over 1.2 innings in his first start of the spring against a Houston Astros lineup that was without Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee or Hunter Pence. I don’t really put much stock in the starts of veteran guys the caliber of these two so there really isn’t much reason to mention this. But when you think about it these two aces do have some questions/issues heading into the season. Can Santana stay healthy after elbow surgery at the end of last season and can Sabathia stay healthy and productive after his heavy workload last season?

The New York Post reported today that Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez are back to being buddies again. They even drove to and from their split squad game with the Pirates yesterday, played long toss etc. It seems like this is not just a throw away story because like I said before the New York media notices everything and you never heard anything like this over the past few years. It is kind of funny that Jeter’s accepting A-Rod back as friend coincides with A-Rod performing well in the playoffs and winning his first World Series. So apparently Jeter is just like every other Yankees fan. Just saying. Boy would I have loved to be a fly on the window for that car ride.

Last week Nick Johnson sat out a Spring Training game with a bad back. And boy did that good old New York media have a lot to say about it. There were tons of “I told you so” and how many games can he actually play comments. Today Johnson hit two homeruns against the Pirates showing that he is healthy at the moment and you know a good hitter. Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long talked about a flaw in Johnsons swing that they are attempting to fix in which he slides his back foot in the box. Instead Johnson is working on being more direct to try to generate more power. So far so good. But I wonder if this new approach to hitting will lessen his on base percentage (career an amazing .426) while creating more power and making him something he has never been – a pull hitter. Imagine if he stayed healthy, kept the obp and hit more homeruns. Ahhh.

Mets first baseman prospect Ike Davis hit his second homerun of Spring Training today. He is now 11 for 21. Ho-hum. Start him. IKE DAVIS!
The Mets revealed today that test showed that shortstop Jose Reyes does indeed have an overactive thyroid and that he would undergo another test to determine what action they will take to treat it. A few hours later he denied it to ESPNDEPORTES saying the doctors who did the test told him nothing was wrong with his thyroid and that the additional test was for inflammation in his throat. This is getting ridiculous with the Mets and their terrible handling and miscommunication of injuries.

The Yankees traded reliever Edwar Ramirez to the Texas Rangers today after designating him for assignment last week. He was bad and barely used by the Yanks last year but in 2008 he was a big part of their bullpen success. He is prone more than a few blowups a year but he keeps getting chances because of his ridiculous strike out rates. 118 Strikeouts in 98 career major league innings. As I recall he has a pretty nasty changeup. Just another good move and good bullpen arm for Texas.

AND THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA SALIVATES
Roy Hallady is a veteran pitcher who sure does seem to care about Spring Training numbers. After dominating the Yankees in his first game of the Spring, today he pitched 3 shutout innings and struck out 5 Atlanta Braves.

POSITION BATTLES OF THE ROTATIONAL VARIETY
Tim Wakefield made his second appearance of the spring in his battle with Clay Buchholz for the Red Sox 5th starter spot. It was another good one and another scoreless performance over 3 innings. After surrendering 3 runs in his first game of the spring Buchholz will clearly fall behind Wakefield with a bad performance in his next game. I still don’t think that Wakefield has a legitimate shot to win the job over Buchholz and that’s probably good. Unless Buchholz ends up as a monumental bust he should probably be a better starter this season than Wakefield could be anyway.

I have greatly overlooked the Dodgers 5th starter battle and the Marlins 3-5 starter battle in these posts. To be honest they haven’t really excited me all that much and hey I’m only one person I cant cover everything all the time. I’ll try to take a deeper look at that this week.

POSITIONAL BATTLES OF THE NON ROTATIONAL VARIETY
Keep an eye on Danny Valencia (who homered today) in the battle to win the job of starting 3rd baseman with the Minnesota Twins in Spring Training. A look at his minor league numbers show a much higher potential as a hitter than those of Brendan Harris and Nick Punto who he is competing with. If he could do it at the major league level and plays good enough defense maybe he will win the job.

And on the Twins 3rd base situation, I was thinking about Michael Cuddyer today. I saw the lineup they used today against the Cardinals and Cuddyer sat while Jim Thome was the DH and both Delmon Young and Jason Kubel played the outfield. It made me think back to when Cuddyer played 3rd base in earlier years and I wondered if he could do it again. His offense would be much better at that position than any of the 3 guys battling for the job. But I doubt it would happen considering how he played there defensively. Imagine throwing that lineup out there every day? They might never consider bunting when unnecessary.

AND THE REST
Washington Nationals centerfielder Nyjer Morgan apologized to manager Jim Riggleman after sliding head first in a game the other day. He had promised he would not do that anymore. Earlier today he slid feet first. Problem solved I guess?

Hideki Matsui finally saw his first action as a Los Angeles Angel today after many delays. He struck out and singled in two at bats. And seeing him in an Angels uniform is ten times more uncomfortable for me than seeing Johnny Damon in a Tigers uniform.

Earlier today I was listening to the best Spring Training coverage you can find on Sirius XM’s MLB Home Plate. Casey Stern happened to mention how deep the Colorado Rockies were with Jason Giambi, Melvin Mora, and Miguel Olivo. Those are 3 guys that could easily fill in and make up a good part of the production of the starters at catcher, first and 3rd base. They also have 5 outfielders who can start and play pretty well.
On the same show they were also covering the Dodgers and boy are they a surly group of guys. Very snippy answers by guys like Clayton Kershaw and Jonathan Broxton. With the reputations of Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp and Manny it makes them a hard team for me to root for.