2023 Spring Training Thread

[seahawksfan234]

@wazzu31

Not sure if you saw this:

Mailbag: Looking at Mariners’ bullpen, position battles and more from spring training

The Twitter mailbag is back for spring training and in the best shape of its life. Ryan Divish answers your questions and offers some thoughts from Peoria.

www.seattletimes.com

There was a question regarding Evan White and I'm sure you'll be thrilled to hear this:

He’s looked outstanding thus far this spring. He’s running at a high level. His fielding at first base has returned to Gold Glove level. And his hitting — the biggest question mark beyond his health — has seemed much improved. He’s worked hard to focus on improving his contact rate and ditching the emphasis on launch angle and hitting for power.

I know you've mentioned your frustration with him focusing on launch angle, so this is a positive development.

 

[NWinAZ]

 

[NWinAZ]

I am not convinced yet how much this line up is an improvement over last years?

I am in the camp of what have you done lately and SHOW ME you can put up the numbers to back up all the analytics and talk.

Watching the Saturday preseason game BOS vs ATL - 1st inning or 2 is a comedy of errors: routine ball to 3rd basemen booted - base runner turns too wide at 3rd base and gets back doored from left field for out #2 and a batter gets rung up with strike 1 because he was not set and ready in the batters box in a certain allotment of time. Where is this mythical stop watch timer located that all these new rules are using as a 'shot clock' ??

I am with you. The part that kills me is that they make Teoscar sound like the next coming of Barry Bonds. If so, we did we get him for a reliever?

 

[NWinAZ]

And he was all butt hurt and wandering why he was left off the playoff roster at the end of last season

Not trying to defend Marco, but he did say in the in-game interview that he agreed he should not have been on it. He said he wasn't better than those that made it so he went to the gym in the offseason and worked his butt off...never heard a player say that before...

 

[WizardHawk]

I am with you. The part that kills me is that they make Teoscar sound like the next coming of Barry Bonds. If so, we did we get him for a reliever?

I mean compared to Kelenic and Winker last year, anyone else looks like Bonds.

 

[NWinAZ]

 

[MarinersBestFan]

Not trying to defend Marco, but he did say in the in-game interview that he agreed he should not have been on it. He said he wasn't better than those that made it so he went to the gym in the offseason and worked his butt off...never heard a player say that before...

Yea I caught his interview on my MLB app on my phone earlier.

Sounds like he got busy with it in the off season and shed a few pounds and is determined to give it his best moving forward.

I hope he performs + side for the Mariners standings sake. I just ain't a believer in some miraculous rebound when he never was much more than a #4 rotation guy at anytime in his career. He held the torch of Mariners 'Ace' for a brief stint simply due to such a pathetic staff we had for those couple years.

Times have changed and we have a plethora of arms ready and able to take the ball every 5th game.

All i ask of Marco is stay healthy and give us 160 innings and try to win another 10 ball games this season. And don't be a burden to our bullpen on his starts.

 

[wazzu31]

The analytics guys believe that stolen bases are a waste of time, so it'll be interesting to see how many more steal attempts we see. Even though I do somewhat fit into the analytic nerd category, I've never really bought into the argument against steals. You get a single and steal second and that gives you essentially an extra base hit with a guy who has the speed to score from second. Personally, that makes a lot of strategic sense to me. I think their argument against it is that if the runner gets caught stealing, it essentially wipes out the base hit. Simple solution to that: Don't send guys who can't run.

I watched the game today and I love the idea of the pitch clock, but seeing it implemented live is going to take some time to getting used to. It made things feel slightly rushed, but I'll get used to that. I think the only thing that bothered me is that seeing the pitch clock on the screen was slightly distracting to me.

I get the argument against steals, my issue is that is the same argument the analytics guys to take the fun out of baseball. There isn’t some statical formula that is going to produce a World Series championship and why I hate the myth of moneyball. The A’s weren’t good because of the dudes who were a part of the book and movie. The A’s were good because of they had 3 CY Young caliber pitchers, a ROTY and some young stars. Same with the Red Sox under Theo, it wasn’t Moneyball that won them a championship.

Baseball is already a really hard sport to fully understand the beauty of, adding a math class on top of it ruins shit. As you said, a bunt single with a steal is worth a double. A walk and a sacrifice bunt is worth a double. I was not a math major and it may be an ignorant question but on paper what realistically was the difference between Kyle Seager bunting for a base hit vs taking a walk with the analytic guys? Statistically, IMO, the percentage of him scoring is the exact same.

I’m not saying old school guys are 100% right either because Jeter was a how many time gold glove winner and for some reason people think Barry Bonds and Johnny Damon were considered great fielders.

The pitch clock thing I 100% understand why people don’t like it. It is just a personal opinion that I like it.

 

[NWinAZ]

 

[NWinAZ]

The pitch clock thing I 100% understand why people don’t like it. It is just a personal opinion that I like it.

I loved it yesterday. These are spring training games which are usually 3.5+ hours being played in 2.25-2.5 hours. Yes please. I love baseball, but I don't need the endless delays it has. I also believe it may help some young guys that struggle because you have n time to think. Batter up and react.

 

[NWinAZ]

Yea I caught his interview on my MLB app on my phone earlier.

Sounds like he got busy with it in the off season and shed a few pounds and is determined to give it his best moving forward.

I hope he performs + side for the Mariners standings sake. I just ain't a believer in some miraculous rebound when he never was much more than a #4 rotation guy at anytime in his career. He held the torch of Mariners 'Ace' for a brief stint simply due to such a pathetic staff we had for those couple years.

Times have changed and we have a plethora of arms ready and able to take the ball every 5th game.

All i ask of Marco is stay healthy and give us 160 innings and try to win another 10 ball games this season. And don't be a burden to our bullpen on his starts.

I just want to see him do well enough in spring to deal him when someone gets desperate in March. That BS about really getting after it makes me laugh. My question always is, "Why didn't you do that all these years?".

 

[Msfann]

I see the Mariners are getting their asses handed to them early on again down 5-0 in the first. just like yesterday.

 

[Msfann]

I see the Mariners are getting their asses handed to them early on again down 5-0 in the first. just like yesterday.

And now Seattle is ahead 6-5 nice!

 

[MarinersBestFan]

And now Seattle is ahead 6-5 nice!

Kelenic with a couple taters

 

[seahawksfan234]

I get the argument against steals, my issue is that is the same argument the analytics guys to take the fun out of baseball. There isn’t some statical formula that is going to produce a World Series championship and why I hate the myth of moneyball. The A’s weren’t good because of the dudes who were a part of the book and movie. The A’s were good because of they had 3 CY Young caliber pitchers, a ROTY and some young stars. Same with the Red Sox under Theo, it wasn’t Moneyball that won them a championship.

Baseball is already a really hard sport to fully understand the beauty of, adding a math class on top of it ruins shit. As you said, a bunt single with a steal is worth a double. A walk and a sacrifice bunt is worth a double. I was not a math major and it may be an ignorant question but on paper what realistically was the difference between Kyle Seager bunting for a base hit vs taking a walk with the analytic guys? Statistically, IMO, the percentage of him scoring is the exact same.

I’m not saying old school guys are 100% right either because Jeter was a how many time gold glove winner and for some reason people think Barry Bonds and Johnny Damon were considered great fielders.

The pitch clock thing I 100% understand why people don’t like it. It is just a personal opinion that I like it.

As you know I do lean more towards the analytics approach, but not entirely and do 100% agree with your criticisms of it, which is why I wouldn't completely categorize myself in that camp.

You're 100% correct that the analytics approach has made the game a lot less fun. Less steals and less balls put in play. I can't find the exact graphic, but prior to around 2010 there were essentially zero teams that had a team batting average under .240. In 2022 (I think that was the last year they had there) it was something like 14.

I'm too lazy to break this into multiple quotes, but regarding your question of what is the difference between Kyle Seager bunting for a base hit vs. taking a walk is two fold to my understanding. First, bunting for a base hit is pretty improbable even if you're a great bunter with great speed. Second, if a guy takes a walk that means he likely worked the count which forces the pitcher to throw more pitches which means he'll be out of the game or fatigued quicker.

I will say where the analytics shines is with defense. Jeter won gold gloves just because he played for the Yankees and would have some flashy plays here and there, but to my recollection was just an average defensive player who actually graded out worse than that by the analytics crowd.

Personally I also like the pitch clock because it forces the hitter and pitcher to actually play the game + shortens the games, but it'll take some getting used to because in the one game I've watched it felt a little rushed. Also I'd like it a lot more if I didn't see a giant clock on the field counting down on my screen. Perhaps it'll look different in major league stadiums, but I'd prefer the clock not be on the screen and perhaps be where they show the scores similar to football and basketball. I found it a bit distracting.

 

[NWinAZ]

Okay now we know where their money went...and it is cool.

Drayer: Mariners get serious in batting cage with revolutionary machine

"You stand in there and can't believe how realistic it is," Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said of the Trajekt Arc.

sports.mynorthwest.com

 

[wazzu31]

@wazzu31

Not sure if you saw this:

Mailbag: Looking at Mariners’ bullpen, position battles and more from spring training

The Twitter mailbag is back for spring training and in the best shape of its life. Ryan Divish answers your questions and offers some thoughts from Peoria.

www.seattletimes.com

There was a question regarding Evan White and I'm sure you'll be thrilled to hear this:

He’s looked outstanding thus far this spring. He’s running at a high level. His fielding at first base has returned to Gold Glove level. And his hitting — the biggest question mark beyond his health — has seemed much improved. He’s worked hard to focus on improving his contact rate and ditching the emphasis on launch angle and hitting for power.

I know you've mentioned your frustration with him focusing on launch angle, so this is a positive development.

With White I was just going off of what other reports said. You could tell from his swing he was trying for the “launch angle” but his stats offensively never hinted that he was that bad. My thing was was he needed to go all in on the launch angle or tell them to pound sand. A professional hitter can’t be stuck into between philosophies. If you need a HR ok, then walk up trying to launch one but if the Mariners him to be a 30 HR a year guy then fans need to accept a .150 hitter or whatever he was.

 

[NWinAZ]

 

[NWinAZ]

With White I was just going off of what other reports said. You could tell from his swing he was trying for the “launch angle” but his stats offensively never hinted that he was that bad. My thing was was he needed to go all in on the launch angle or tell them to pound sand. A professional hitter can’t be stuck into between philosophies. If you need a HR ok, then walk up trying to launch one but if the Mariners him to be a 30 HR a year guy then fans need to accept a .150 hitter or whatever he was.

 

[NWinAZ]