The Yearly Spring Training Overreations

Have Faith, Won’t You?

So as soon as the month turns it seems we’re obligated to worry, fret beyond belief. Worry, worry, worry, fret, fret, fret. Alexander Guerrero isn’t ready,  Clayton Kershaw is undergoing your usual sign a big “set for life deal”, give up on baseball eliteness that every single elite player must go through, but hey, there’s no way Dee Gordon isn’t the opening day 2b, Josh Beckett is probably going to be exactly what he used to be, Seth Rosin should make the roster at any cost, and yeah.

You see the point? But don’t worry, overreactions at this point in the year are expected. Hey, we’ve been deprived of any type of baseball for the almost 6 months. And seeing anything is going to be over scrutinized. You could understand why Clayton Kershaw having an ERA of 18.00 at any point in his professional career is especially scary.

But let’s please look at something.

March 7th.

March Madness hasn’t even started and we think that Clayton Kershaw has an issue with something. Best pitcher in baseball, hardest worker on the team is pretty much being fretted about without any second thoughts. Since when did pitchers have to show up to camp ready for the season? This is the phase of the baseball season where pitchers try new things, maybe he tried something new in the 3rd inning of today’s game, no one knows, really. And I really hope you weren’t thinking Kershaw was throwing out his best stuff out there in a March 4th Spring Training game. He wasn’t. There is no incentive for a superstar to do such in his 2nd Spring Training start. Oh, and.

March 7th

The Oscars just finished, and Guerrero is destined to be a bust. The Dodgers should have fixed the second base issue early in the offseason. How could they expect to trust a 27 year old Cuban defector to come in and win a job? Blasphemy! People are basing this notion on Guerrero 10 games in? Insane. Like it’s been mentioned here, 28 million dollars for a minor league player? I’m not doubting the fact the organization could have doubts about a player like Guerrero who may need time to adjust, but please, shortened spring or not, at least give him the opportunity to win the job, and don’t base these outlandish opinions 10 games into his first Spring. Maybe he comes in and wow’s us the more Spring goes on (he’s been putting together very solid AB’s recently), there’s every chance he comes back and gets more comfortable as March passes and he wins the starting job. And if he doesn’t, sure they could go with Dee Gordon for a bit, but don’t write him off just yet.

March 7th

Dee Gordon plays a couple good games and now he’s the “frontrunner” at second base? Because of course, why have a full months worth of games when we can make these conceived motions after 10 games? I mean, we don’t need to see the other games because what the players have shown us in these couple of games here are what we’re gonna get.

Silliness.

Especially for someone like Dee Gordon. I mean all we did last year was overreact to Dee Gordon. I like thinking of Dee Gordon as that prospect who everyone gets really excited for a few minutes, and then he actually plays. I hope and hope and hope for Dee Gordon, but one good spring isn’t going to do it for me. We’ve overreacted to a good spring from Gordon before. Remember the partial season when he ht .304? Yeah he had a great spring training immediately after, and we were ready to anoint him ready.

Welp, March 7th

At least Josh Beckett is going to be great. Umm. The problem with Beckett is he’s coming off huge surgery. Some most pitchers don’t come off of and return at all. I could write a whole post on this, but Daniel Brim did so.

Yeah, it’s not pretty.

Could he come in and simply WOW and be the Beckett we all knew in 2011? Maybe, but don’t bet on that happening.

Still, March 7th.

And honestly, Seth Daniel Rosin has had an amazing 5 innings. This is true, he’s faced some great, great, great hitters and dominated them, but really, 2 games can’t be enough to say anything about him. It’s almost unfair to think he’s a major leaguer based off of this. Is he opening eyes? Yes, is it a easy excuse to be angry at Brandon League? Of course. Can we say he really should make the opening day roster over Brandon League? Not yet.

Clayton Kershaw will be more than fine (see his 2013 Spring Training stats). Alex Guerrero will be a competent major leaguer (I can’t begin to question the international scouts), and some of these are hopefully going to happen. I hope Dee Gordon becomes as dynamic as Shin-Soo Choo. I hope Rosin supplants League on the opening day roster. I hope Josh Beckett is 2011 Beckett. But nothing is for sure, we can’t assume they will happen because of a good Spring Training. Optimism and pessimism are running high right now, but don’t let the mirage of Spring Training fool you too much.