MLB.com: Cole De Vries Thinks He Can Make This Rotation...

[ThePuck]

Because spring training numbers as a whole are meaningless. A body of work pitching to the second string is meaningless. Too bad more fans do not understand that.

 

I think most fans DO understand that...but the FO and manager keep talking about ST battles...if the decisions are made prior to ST, then there are no ST battles. I'm guessing that was the point.

[ashbury]

I think most fans DO understand that...but the FO and manager keep talking about ST battles...if the decisions are made prior to ST, then there are no ST battles. I'm guessing that was the point.

 

You can have a battle without it being against full-strength competition. Coaches and other talent evaluators look for signs of good and repeatable mechanics, they evaluate pitches based on what a better batter might or might not have done against it, they give leeway if a pitch the pitcher is still working on and will be put aside is what got hammered, etc. Add to that the Small Sample Size that the spring always represents, and it's fair to say that the spring battle exists and the results are not pre-ordained yet is decided by professional judgement and not just stats.

[ThePuck]

You can have a battle without it being against full-strength competition. Coaches and other talent evaluators look for signs of good and repeatable mechanics, they evaluate pitches based on what a better batter might or might not have done against it, they give leeway if a pitch the pitcher is still working on and will be put aside is what got hammered, etc. Add to that the Small Sample Size that the spring always represents, and it's fair to say that the spring battle exists and the results are not pre-ordained yet is decided by professional judgement and not just stats.

 

I think you are missing the point.

 

1: The one poster said the decisions were made in October.

2: Old Nurse responded saying: 'Because spring training numbers as a whole are meaningless. A body of work pitching to the second string is meaningless. Too bad more fans do not understand that'

3: I responded saying: 'I think most fans DO understand that...but the FO and manager keep talking about ST battles...if the decisions are made prior to ST, then there are no ST battles. I'm guessing that was the point. '

 

So this was about roster decisions being made before ST. The original guy saying it was before ST, old nurse not disagreeing and saying ST stats are meaningless and he wishes more people knew that, and me saying I think most do understand that but we keep being told there are ST battles.

 

Maybe your post should have been written to the poster saying decisions were made much earlier than spring training and that ST didn't affect decisions.

[old nurse]

I think most fans DO understand that...but the FO and manager keep talking about ST battles...if the decisions are made prior to ST, then there are no ST battles. I'm guessing that was the point.

The battle is performance in the situation. A long time back I said watch when players are being plaid. Hicks has been getting first team reps. If they assess that he can do well they will keep him. The assessment is not the statistic per se but how they feel he is handling the pitching. Topic of the thread, De Vries, if he is starting the games then you have an idea they might want to keep him and get him stretched out. The assessment is not the ERA but rather the mistake pitches he throws. They killed his mistakes last year, when he threw well, there were better results.