Spring Stats of the Day

Extra Reading
For some additional reading today, here's a good article that was shared with me yesterday on the subject of spring strikeout numbers:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/spring-training-and-strikeouts/

Two different players from the same team with similar spring stats

Name R Weeks

Team MIL

BB 4

K 25

OBP .313

SLG .446

AVG .214

C Hart

MIL

3

24

.265

.453

.234

Most people know Rickie Weeks as a player with 20/20 upside, but a serious risk in batting average. Weeks hit just .235 last year and has averaged about 1 strikeout per game in his career. Luckily he also walks at a high rate, giving him plenty of opportunities to steal bases and score runs. Corey Hart is a player also capable of a 20/20 year, but one whom most expect to continue hitting over .280 due to decent contact skills in the past.

So why is Cory Hart striking out as much as Rickie Weeks? Brewers manager Ned Yost offers some perspective at MLB.com:

The Brewers plan to use Corey Hart as the primary right fielder, but he led the club with 18 strikeouts this spring versus just one home run. Many of Hart's strikeouts were called, Yost noticed.

"He's not seeing the ball too good. [He] is thinking too much," said Yost, who insisted he's not concerned. "His history has been ... that he's really struggled at first and then really taken off."

Given Hart's history in the majors, I think this is just him getting into shape for the season. He has had short stints in his career where his strikeouts jumped up, but he was able to maintain a good level of production at those times. If most of his strikeouts are called this could simply be a spring umpiring issue as well. This shouldn't be a a concern heading into the season for Hart owners.

Cleveland's Closer in Waiting?

Cleveland	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Kobayashi (H, 5)	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2.70

Nothing eye catching here, but Masahide Kobayashi is a player worth noting. Joe Borowski wasn't as bad as we all thought last year. In fact, without 2 early season meltdowns where he gave up a total of 10 runs in 1.1 innings to the Yankees and Athletics his ERA would have been a full run lower. Still, many people feel he is a shaky option in the Cleveland bullpen and draft Rafael Betancourt as a possible saves vulture. Betancourt is certainly a valuable pitcher to own, but Cleveland management prefers to keep him in a more versatile role where he can pitch higher leverage innings and not be relegated to merely 9th inning duties.

If you are looking for a hedge for saves in Cleveland you might be better off taking a look at Kobayashi, who saved 277 games in his career in Japan.