2014 Spring Training Thread

[s e n s i]

pitchers and catchers aren't required to officially report until Feb 16 (position players Feb 20), but as per social media, quite a few players are already in dunedin or will be there as soon as tomorrow (bautista, lawrie, reyes). the point is, baseball is right around the **** corner fellas! hell yes.

notable dates:

feb 16 - pitchers and catchers report
feb 17 - first workout for pitchers and catchers
feb 20 - position players report
feb 21 - first full team workout
feb 27 - first preseason game vs. phillies
mar 28 & 29 - preseason games vs. mets in montreal
mar 31 - opening day @ rays

no word yet on which or how many ST games will be broadcasted on SN

[uniballer]

I am really jacked to get this season started. I have a good feeling that we will see this teams real potential now that all the expectations have been dropped. Will all the spring training games be on TV like last year?

*edit didn't see the last part of your post lol

[SharoneWright]

Is it that time?

[Graham's Cracker]

Brandon Morrow must be Popeye (or training with Melky). Reports are that he put on 30 pounds of muscle over the off-season. Is that even possible?

[Fenris-77]

In a word, no. He may have put on muscle mass and gotten cut, but 30 pounds is crazy talk.

[MikeM]

Hopefully he's on steroids.

Probably the only way he can get a full season in.

[satyr9]

I mentioned options in the prospect thread and figured I should shift that over here.

So near as I can figure without doing actual work, these are the guys who are on the 40-man who do not have guaranteed jobs and do not have options, which is always something to pay attention to during ST:

D.McGowan - doesn't matter 'cause his guaranteed deal means no one would claim
J.Jeffress
L.Perez
T.Redmond
M.Sierra
B.Morel

I'm not entirely sure I'm right about Redmond and Morel 'cause I'm not really sure what the status is if you are at some point in the process not on anyone's 40-man roster, but I think that's right.

Perez looks like the toughest decision without having even seen anyone yet. Cecil and Loup are on the club, so a third lefty isn't necessary, but I doubt he'd make it through claims. It does mean if it came down to Perez vs. Wagner for the last bullpen spot, I'd bet Perez starts up regardless of performance. Same goes for the Sierra vs. Gose 4th OF spot. No reason to risk an asset, so Gose will start the season at AAA and Sierra's up. I guess they both could stick 'cause there's a 25th spot that could go either way, but I doubt it goes to a 5th OF.

[Santoki]

They might go with an 8-man bullpen so they don't have to send Wagner down. That keeps Perez up and Gose goes down. And then you go from there, I guess.

[satyr9]

They might go with an 8-man bullpen so they don't have to send Wagner down. That keeps Perez up and Gose goes down. And then you go from there, I guess.

Yeah, pre-injuries and performances I'd have the camp battles like this:

C-Navarro
1B-Encarnacion
2B-Goins/Izturis
SS-Reyes
3B-Lawrie
LF-Cabrera
CF-Rasmus
RF-Bautista
DH-Lind
C-Kratz/Thole
IF-Goins/Izturis/Kawasaki/everybody
OF-Sierra/Gose/Pillar
SP-Dickey
SP-Morrow
SP-Buehrle
SP-Happ
SP-Redmond/Drabek/Hutchison/Romero
RP-Janssen
RP-Santos
RP-Delabar
RP-Cecil
RP-Loup
RP-Rogers
RP-Perez/Wagner/Jeffress
25th-IF/OF/RP options

That doesn't entirely preclude other things happening, but it would take such a dramatic performance in ST for a guy like Stroman to force his way onto the opening day lineup. I wouldn't say it's impossible, but AA has always been asset conscious with his rosters so I doubt it's likely.

[Santoki]

Aren't we missing McGowan on that list? His contract, like last year, is guaranteed and they didn't want to expose him to waivers then, so why would they now?

If the choice is Perez vs McGowan, do you think they take the chance that McGowan will clear?

[There There]

Aren't we missing McGowan on that list? His contract, like last year, is guaranteed and they didn't want to expose him to waivers then, so why would they now?

If the choice is Perez vs McGowan, do you think they take the chance that McGowan will clear?

McGowan would clear, but I'm skeptical they would send him to Buffalo ( unless they were serious about stretching him out )

I still suspect we'll see a reliever or two moved before the end of ST, perhaps to add some actual major league talent on the bench, which for all the bemoaning of the starting lineup, is the truly depressing area of this team currently.

[satyr9]

I just refuse to worry about what will or won't happen to McGowan specifically. It's close to 10 years on that particular train and I don't ride it anymore. You can expand the battles to have Rogers as a starter and McGowan in his spot or just McGowan as the 7th or 8th guy, but I will always see him as pure icing sugar. If someone gets hurt maybe he's the guy who fills, but to me he's not a candidate for anything until the day comes you have to choose and he's still in the mix.

As for protecting him last year during the season, most team's outlooks get dramatically different during the year as injuries pile up and things get scarce and guys are already performing, he probably looked quite good at that point, but give them an offseason to get bullish on their own kids, and the chances they'd take a guy like Dustin away on opening day with his guaranteed money becomes much smaller to me. Maybe I'm just talking myself into a stupid position, I don't really know.

[satyr9]

lol, doing my first pass on ST stories and I guess Happ is first up for being in the best shape of his life, although everyone involved studiously avoided the trope directly. (All links provided by yesterday's DJF round-up):

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/to ... ge-impact/
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/02/18/bl ... ps-release
http://sports.nationalpost.com/2014/02/ ... to-normal/

I know most of you don't need the help finding these and it's old news, but this made me laugh anyway and I'm in a sharing mood today.

[Santoki]

I think your initial assessment is right. I just can't see this regime exposing him to waivers after everything they've been through with Dustin. That leads me to rethink my position on Wagner. I can see them going with this pen:

Janssen
Santos
Delabar
Cecil
Loup
Perez
McGowan
Rogers/Redmond

Wagner starts the year off in AAA and is the first one up if Santos or Janssen hit the IR. That gives you the ability to spot start McGowan or stretch him out in a long relief role. And you don't run the risk of losing either Perez or McGowan.

That leaves a 4-man bench with Sierra, Thole/Kratz, Izturis/Goins, and Getz.

[s e n s i]

lol, doing my first pass on ST stories and I guess Happ is first up for being in the best shape of his life

and melky would be second in line there

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SNBarryDavis/status/436538377014231040[/tweet]

[Wo1verine]

Worst bench in the game, especially for a team 'trying' to win?

Sierra
Thole/Kratz
Goins/Izturis
Getz

[Santoki]

The "best shape of my life" articles followed closely by the "what if they stay healthy" ones.

http://espn.go.com/blog/spring-training ... tter-right

[BigLeagueChew]

Worst bench in the game, especially for a team 'trying' to win?

Sierra
Thole/Kratz
Goins/Izturis
Getz

But if everything goes according to plan we will be fine!!

[akakalakin]

It's still too early to count them out

[TheDunc]

I wont count the Jays out because I think the team last year just flat out **** the bed from the start. Our rotation Is slightly better this year but more because we have depth. We still have a good lineup, the key to this year will be avoiding injuries and getting off to a better start. If this team wants to contend though Morrow will need to be lights out all year which is a big if.