I think they mean a little something, but it is more about the process. Mediocre or poor process can yield good results briefly, but it will be exposed when the season gets rolling. Spring training games are exhibition games to get the players ready for full speed and a regular season workload. You’d rather have good results, but it really doesn’t matter much. The coaches see the work that goes on behind the scenes, and that tells the bigger story.
Depends on the situation I suppose, and the track record of the player in question. A vet who has proven himself to be good, or bad, isn't someone that I put a bunch of weight on their numbers, good or bad. Two examples right now. I don't really care about how good Burnes has looked or what his numbers currently are in the spring. He's been one of the top pitchers in baseball for the past handful of years, and I trust he'll be fine. At the same time I don't really care that Mateo has a .943 OPS this spring. I've seen enough of him over the past few seasons to be fairly certain just what we have, and what we don't have, with him, so his spring training numbers don't really move me much.
Rookies are a bit different to me. Unlike most 'vets', the rookies are still improving and have room to grow, so to speak. They are also, in some cases, facing their first real taste of MLB pitching, though of course we know many of the pitchers in the spring will be in the milb come OD, and even the pitchers that are going to make the MLB teams aren't often on the top of their game or giving full effort. But it still is the first real taste we get of them against something other than just their minor league peers. Since they have a much smaller body of work than a vet, their spring training numbers tend to carry more weight with me simply as they don't have years of prior stats to either discount spring struggles or spring successes.
Spring training numbers need taken with a grain of salt, sure. But just like most of us use SOME SSS numbers to help reinforce our thoughts and opinions, spring is the same way, SSS though with more volatility behind them, IMO.
Sometimes spring performance means something, sometimes it’s meaningless. You kind of have to leave it to the professionals to determine which is which.
Spring training may help a younger guy get noticed by some people who may not have seen them before. But overall, I think almost all of these guys have a pretty good idea where they are going before they arrive in Florida/Arizona.
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