Position Battles Worth Watching: After the 2nd Round of Cuts

With a week's worth of Grapefruit League games left; lets take a look at the status of the positional battles in camp.

Backup Catcher

Recker has pretty much all but wrapped up this battle. He's done everything right and is at no risk of losing his spot on the 25 man roster. In 12 games his OPS is .851 against Teagarden's .601 OPS. Recker continues to work well with the starters (especially Daisuke) and is providing some power off the bench with 2 extra bases hits and 3 RBI's against a mix of AAA and MLB talent. Teagarden hasn't been doing half bad himself but is .280 batting average is comprised of all singles plus he's the new guy. He'll head down to Las Vegas to back-up Juan Centeno.

Back-up Middle Infielder

This one has been a surprise this spring. Seratelli came in as a dark horse favorite to win the Middle IF bench spot due to his versatility, good AAA stats, and simply because the club was tired of continuing to run back to Q. However, so far this spring, neither has been able to hit. Even worse, Seratelli hasn't been efficient in the field committing 3 errors at SS and 2B. From that standpoint, Q has the inside edge for the job but his .167 Avg this spring is not something the club want's to carry north will them. Scouts are saying that Seratelli "is having a hard time catching up to MLB fastballs." Perhaps its an early spring thing but if Seratelli wants any chance of making the club he's gonna have to turn it up here in the next few games.

Back-up Corner Infielder/Platoon 1B starter

Satin's lead in this one is not as large as I show above. The reason he has a better shot of making the team is because he's a better bet to stay healthy. From a statistical standpoint Lutz actually has Satin beat so far this spring. They both are hitting .306, they've both faced similar talent, and they both have the ability to spot either corner spot and mash against left handed starters. Lutz, leads the team with 3 HR's and 6 RBI's this spring an is OPS'ing an astounding 1.014! 

First Base Starter

No progress yet on this battle. Both are participating in minor league games but neither has ran the bases after hitting. Irregardless, Duda's bat looks far better in those minor league games than Davis does. Both are expected back in the MLB line-up within the next 2-3 days. Expect them both to play almost every single game the rest of the way.

Left Field Starter

Chris Young is starting to get a slight edge on EYJ. Having faced far superior competition so far this spring, CY is hitting a surprising .297 with 1 HR and 4 doubles equaling a .486 SLG. He's also only struck out in 17.9% of his plate appearances. Eric Young Jr. on the other hand has mostly faced a blend of AA and AAA guys and is only hitting .241 against them. He has only attempted to steal twice and was caught one of those times. Terry Collins need for a lead-off hitter and EYJ's lack of remaining options are keeping him in the race but it looks like CY is winning this one.

Center Field Starter

With Young battling Young for the LF, Lagares has had plenty of opportunity to show his worth in CF and boy has he shown it. While he has faced a higher blend of AAA vs MLB guys, Lagares is hitting .306 so far this spring with 2 SB, 2 RBIs, 2 doubles, 2 OF assists, and about 7 defensive gems already this spring. With a bevy of fly-ball SP's in the rotation (Fly-ball rates: Wheeler 38%, Colon 46%, Gee 42%, Matsuzaka 45%, Niese 35%), Collins is going to have to put the best fielding team out there and Lagares should be the first name on that list in what could be the best defensive OF in baseball with Granderson and Chris Young flanking him.

#5 Starter

Both Mejia and Matsuzaka have given up far too many hits in their early spring starts but its Matsuzaka who has grabbed an early leg up. On top of facing exclusively MLB players, Daisuke has managed to post a K:BB ratio of 12 to 1 in his 4 starts. While Mejia has a similar K rate, his ratio is a much more troubling 1:1 K:BB. Mejia's 1 remaining option is also detrimental to him making the team as he can be shipped to AAA and wait for a SP to go down via injury.