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What was the most memorable spring training?


Frobby

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What spring trainings really stand out in your mind?   My nominees:

2006: From day one, all eyes were on Nick Markakis, who had rocketed through the farm system and torn up the Arizona Fall League.    I think the very first blog entry Roch Kubatko ever did (one of the first, anyway) was about Markakis launching moon shots in batting practice.    Markakis got on base something like 14 of 15 times at the start of spring training, and ended up making the squad despite having played only about 40 games at Bowie.   

2007: Cabrera (24 IP, 2.63 ERA), Bedard (23 IP, 1.96 ERA) and Loewen (22 IP, 1.64 ERA) all looked like studs that spring and hopes were sky-high for all three.     Loewen cracked his elbow in April, DCab reverted to his usual poor form as soon as the games counted, and only Bedard fulfilled the promise from that spring, along with Jeremy Guthrie, who made the team after being claimed off waivers, posted a 1.20 ERA pitching mostly in relief that spring, and eventually joined the rotation after Loewen's injury.

2005:  I can't find stats for this one, but DCab showed up having gained a lot of weight and throwing much harder than the previous year, piled up a ton of strikeouts that spring, and everyone thought he'd have a monster season.   That hope was quickly dispelled when he allowed 5 runs in 3.1 innings in his first outing of the regular season.  

2011:  Buck's first spring training, and also the first year of the renovated Ed Smith Stadium.    Buck was the star that spring, bringing his hyper-attention to detail and running a far more organized spring training than the O's were used to.    Hopes were high after the O's went 34-23 upon Buck's arrival late the previous season.    But, the season that followed was disappointing.   

Those are the ones that stand out to me the most.    I remember there being a lot of attention on Matt Wieters in 2009, and on Dylan Bundy in 2012-13.    

 

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Eh, most ST's are ho hum except for die-hard fans, especially when you go back to pre-internet days, because you just didn't get the level of reporting that you do now.  1998 was probably an interesting one, coming off the wire to wire ALCS season and the Albert Belle acquisition.

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8 minutes ago, esmd said:

Eh, most ST's are ho hum except for die-hard fans, especially when you go back to pre-internet days, because you just didn't get the level of reporting that you do now.  1998 was probably an interesting one, coming off the wire to wire ALCS season and the Albert Belle acquisition.

We didn't acquire Belle until '99.

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Spring Training is the absolute worst. Nothing good can happen. It's something you just hope your team survives in one piece. 

 

That is, of course, unless you get the wonderful experience of escaping winter (not so much this year) for a week down in Florida, watching baseball. 

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40 minutes ago, crissfan172 said:

Spring Training is the absolute worst. Nothing good can happen. It's something you just hope your team survives in one piece. 

 

That is, of course, unless you get the wonderful experience of escaping winter (not so much this year) for a week down in Florida, watching baseball. 

I met justD and Weams.  I also got to watch a healthy Britton throw out of the pen.

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Jim Palmer's 1991 comeback was memorable.  A couple details this story - http://seamheads.com/blog/2010/02/08/jim-palmers-attempted-comeback/ - reminded me of:

-He was already in the Hall of Fame

-He and Mussina were in camp together - maybe right then and there there could have been a pitch off for best pitcher in franchise history.

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