A Word Of Caution

A word of caution about the young bats that broke out on Monday against Atlanta… don’t get too excited about AA/A+ players, hitting against other AA/A+ pitchers, in the late innings of a spring training game.

Now, do you want to get excited about something? Fine. How about Steven Matz striking out Yadier Molina in the first inning? Now, THAT’S something to get excited about.

Nothing has changed on this team. We’ve said for years that this is pitcher team and they’re starting to come at us in every direction.

Eventually,TC will start playing the proposed starting lineup and we’ll get a steady five inning dose of David Wright, Curtis Granderson, Chris Young, Lucas Duda (yes, it will be Duda…), Travis d’Arnaud, and Daniel Murphy. Juan Lagares and Eric Young Jr. will flip a coin and whoever shows up with a glove will play short.

Seriously, this won’t be the 1927 Yankees, but it will be much better than what’s being put on the field right now. And, they will form a two-through-seven rotation that will be capable of putting up enough runs to support the excellent rotation that will get their first work this week.

You have to first think of pre-season games in various stages. We’re currently just putting the ‘high numbers’ on the field and resting the vets like Wright and Murphy. New regulars, like Grandy and Young play the first couple of innings on alternate games and most of the players you are watching are just taking up space.

It’s also reward time for those that have earned their first invite to Big Boys camp and, for minor league weenies like me, this is what we wait for all winter. Watching the likes of Brandon Nimmo come to bat is the bomb.

Hopefully, there will be more innings like today, and maybe we are seeing a glimpse of the future when guys like Cory Vaughn and Kevin Plawecki come up to bat, but none of this is going to start making any sense to me until the last two weeks of this month. That’s when we’ll see the real team, playing the other real teams in the area.

Until then, just relax and don’t take the bad… or the good… too seriously.