Thoughts on Spring Training(So Far)

You know things are slow in spring training when the postponement of an intrasquad game is a huge disappointment.  Not a lot of hard news out of the Giants spring camp so far, which is a good thing, because this time of year, almost all hard news is bad!

I think Angel Pagan finally took batting practice yesterday, but I'm not sure.  His lower back seems to be fine, but he's had a stiff neck.  If you want something to worry about, the cervical spine supports the neck and head and is part of the spine.  We'll see.  Hopefully this is just a garden variety stiff neck from sleeping crooked on the plane flight and will resolve with rest and therapy.

Matt Cain's first spring start was pushed back by 10-14 days.  Apparently there has been no physical setback, just a recommendation from the training staff.  It is a bit disturbing that it's being announced now instead of from day one of camp or before.  We'll keep the faith, though.  Spring Training is too long anyway!

The pitchers are ahead of the hitters, except Buster Posey who smoked Madison Bumgarner in live batting practice yesterday, a rope down the LF line, a line drive up the alley in left-center and a drive that bounced off the base of the CF wall 430 feet away from home plate.  When Posey found out Bumgarner was pitching live BP, he changed his grouping so he could hit off him instead of catching him.  Posey seemed awfully confident about this, so you have to wonder what was up with that?  Maybe the reporters need to ask Romo what's up?  I will say if Buster Posey is smart, he will never bat against Madison Bumgarner again, in batting practice or a real game.  Remember, Bummy is the dude who once hit a batter in the minors because "he swung too hard."

Steven Okert was singled out by Bruce Bochy as having good looking stuff.  Bochy commented that his arm angle is particularly tough on LH hitters.

Apparently truck shaming is part of what still passes for rookie hazing.  I think it was Erik Cordier who came to camp last year with a Ram 1500 truck.  He took a lot of ribbing from the vets about how small his truck was so came in this year with a Ford 450 with dual wheels or something like that.  As Jeremy Affeldt said, "good luck parking THAT in San Francisco!"

Around the League:

BJ Upton announced he wants to be known by his real name, Melvin, from now on, then promptly got injured.  Sesamoiditis.  Now, what is that?  Man, that Braves lineup is going to be BAD, but not necessarily worse if Upton can't play.

Early reports on Yasmany Tomas' attempts to play 3B in the D'Backs camp are not good.  Now he's going to play both 3B and OF in spring training games.

Seems like we have at least one of these every year.  Michael Saunders, acquired in an offseason trade by the Toronto Blue Jays, stepped in a sprinkler hole and tore the meniscus in his knee.  Had to have 60% of it removed.  Man, that just stinks!  Now he has to play the rest of his career to say nothing of living the rest of his life with over half of the meniscus gone in one knee just because of a below ground sprinkler hole.  There has to be a better way of watering the grass!  Didn't Lance Niekro miss most of a season a long time ago after stepping in one of those?

ChiSox LHP Chris Sale suffered an avulsion fracture in his foot when he dropped something he was taking off a truck.  The word avulsion sounds terrible, but I'm pretty sure this is what we used to call a chip fracture.  He is expected to miss just 3 weeks.  Hey!  Spring training is too long anyway!  Again, ballplayers should not be driving and loading trucks anyway.  Also, the ChiSox might want to investigate and make sure he was not popping wheelies on his motorcycle!

Of course, I am sure you have all heard about Josh Hamilton's situation.  Hamilton reportedly had a relapse of his drug addiction, not really a hot news flash there.  The warning signals have been blaring for at least a couple of years now.  You had to be suspicious that the huge contract and move to southern California was not going to go well for someone with that history.  The situation has revived the disease vs moral failing arguments surrounding drug addiction, and whether "punishment" is a proper response.  I tend to lean toward the disease model myself, but I don't pretend to have the answers.  There is a fine line between not enabling and punishment.  I do know that Hamilton's first priority bas to be sobriety even if that means being out of baseball temporarily or even permanently, but he has to come to that decision himself.  Having it imposed by someone else probably only delays him taking responsibility for the decision and his own sobriety himself.  On the other hand, he is a member of an organization that negotiated those rules on his behalf and the last thing Josh Hamilton needs right now is to have an exception made just for him because his situation is somehow different or special.

There is a segment by David Laurilia in his Sunday Notes on Fangraphs with some interesting comments by Ellis Valentine, a former MLB player and a recovering addict.  Valentine talks about entourages and their role in enabling.  I wish he had talked about that in more general terms than in Hamilton's specific situation.  As is, it came out sounding more than just a bit self-serving on Valentine's part, almost like he wants to be part of the entourage himself!