Yes, it’s that time again. Goodbye void and hello baseball, Spring Training style. And as usual, we don’t mess around here at SnS. In keeping with our long-standing tradition of providing excellent, informative, and thought-provoking commentary here on the SnS front page, we’ve decided to bring back our man in the park for an encore edition of “Chuck, Live From Kissimmee.”
Chuck, Live from Kissimmee (pt. 1, 2/28/11)
For me the void ended on Sunday. I’d been in the Orlando area a couple of days by then and had seen a few workouts, but Sunday offered an intra-squad game and that seemed to me an appropriate marking of the beginning of spring and of the beginning of spring training.
The turnout on a very warm Sunday was incredibly light. The majority of the fans inside the complex seemed to be socially maladjusted autograph seekers. If you’ve ever been to spring training you know the type. Fuck me, maybe you ARE the type. If you have irreconcilable differences with basic social norms, break long periods of uneasy silence with machine gun bursts of random observations at an inappropriate volume, lug around enormous binders filled with baseball cards of every conceivable variety while two-strapping a large backpack surely filled with more of the same, wear free promotional caps and only free promotional caps, if your sandaled stride as you leg it across grass and asphalt in hysterical pursuit of the one minor leaguer you missed last year is remarkably reminiscent of Borat, then yes, you are the type. And I thank you for your lurking presence near the batting cages and the parking lot while I sat happily in the bleachers and watched the game in relative peace.
By the way, where the FUCK do you work?
For the second year in a row Koby Clemens brought his bat. Very few pitchers threw many offspeed or breaking pitches (with the strange exception of Douglas Arguello who threw all sorts of breaking balls) so it’s impossible to extrapolate what I’m seeing now but like last year I’m struck by the obvious fact that Clemens can hit. At the time I thought drafting him was purely a PR move (and it may have been), but he is plainly shaping up to be a major league hitter. His defense
though needs a lot of work. That’s a charitable way of saying he is terrible. He was hit two balls at first. He bobbled one and let the other pass right through the wickets. I’ve watched him in several workouts thus far as well and it doesn’t get any better there, either. He works hard and doesn’t seem to let his errors eat at him, but he’ll need to improve dramatically to offer big league defense.
You’ll likely have read that Anderson Hernandez made a couple of very nice plays at third and Manzella also made an impressive play at third diving to stab a sharply hit ball up the line and springing up to fire out the runner easily. I got my first look at Jordan Lyles who looks very much like a pitcher out there and had no trouble getting through his inning 1-2-3.
After the game I wandered over to a field in the back and watched a group of high-level minor leaguers go through some fielding drills. This was my second chance to watch Delino DeShields, Jr. Last year I read that the team was considering moving him in to second from the outfield. So far, I know not why. His hands are stony and his arm is inaccurate. I mean, he’s 18 years old and since I’m a casual fan and not a professional scout I can’t project what I see today into what might be five years from now. I have no idea what Adam Everett looked like at 18, but I would have to guess that he looked a damn site better than DeShields does.
I’ll leave it at this – in every workout I’ve seen DeShields lines up in tandem with fellow second baseman Enrique Hernandez. Maybe you busriders know all about this Hernandez kid but I don’t. All I know is that he has great hands and shows a very accurate arm. I think he’s 20, not too much older than Delino. Hell, he’s almost old enough to drink. But watching the two side by side it’s obvious who’s the more advanced defensive player, by far.
I love watching the minor leaguers’ workouts. It’s amazing how fundamental many of the things they practice are – how to call for an infield popup for example. I really enjoyed a fast paced drill where the pitchers fielded balls and threw to various bases and into various situations as dictated by the coach in charge. Squeeze! or 1-5! Or 1-4-3! or In between! and the pitcher and the first baseman would both charge the ball and communicate who’d get it over to the second baseman. The fellow in charge of these drills by the way was Dave Borkowski. Again, the pace of these drills is incredibly fast; a new pitcher appears at the front of the line every few seconds to execute the play directed by Borkowski.
I also enjoyed watching the pitchers, catchers and infielders work on various bunting plays and a wheel play designed to pick off a runner on second base. An added bonus is I now know the current signs the catcher gives the infield for these plays.
This morning I attended the meet and greet the team hosts for the season ticket holders. It was about 120 elderly shut-ins, three or four of the hardcore autograph seekers and me. I tell you what, I have never heard so many people complaining about free Starbucks coffee. I guess Starbucks is too robust for the velcro-shoe set.
Wade and Mills came out and gave a bit of a pep talk. Good thing, too, because after a hearty fruit cup a lot of these folks were beginning to nod off. After they opened the floor to a Q&A one lady leapt up and declared that she had noticed an uptick in the paehshin of the club. Don’t you people from Michigan have your own team? I wondered.
Another codger stood up and braced himself against his walker as he demanded to know why the hell the team was planning to move to Disney after all the county had done for the team. No, this codger was not I, nor did I put him up to it. I did befriend him, though. I would guess he’s close to 70 and far more profane than I am. In our friendly chat he called me a prick, a bastard and cheerfully told me Fuck you!
Afterwards I watched the minor league guys do some infield drills and then take BP. Mixed in were some of the big league players who wouldn’t be making the trip to Disney, most interestingly Barmes and Hall. I didn’t see a whole lot of these two fielding but from what I did see they both look very good, very comfortable. They look like a tandem that’s been playing together for a while. And both of them showed considerable pop in BP. I’m fascinated to learn what the team does with the infield this year, who the back-ups are, whether Manzella makes the team. There’s no Geoff Blum, no guy who can play all the positions. I could see a guy like Jimmy Paredes having a shot.
On to Disney for the game. I hate that fucking stadium. I really do. The bright spots were several, despite the final score. The Astros got lots of hits. Look at the box and you’ll see. Wallace, Lee, Steele, Pence ripped one, even Manzella had a couple of hits. Later in the game Paredes and Mier turned a tight double play. I was sitting directly behind Tal Smith and at the play he straightened up and clapped with excitement, the only time he displayed any emotion at all throughout the game. Castro effortlessly threw out some idiot who tried to advance to second on a ball that had bounced off of Castro’s chest.
All in all it was great to see our guys back out there again.
