How much do you put into Spring Training stats?

[Legend_Of_Joey]

While a good or bad spring might not always tell you what a player is like, how much do you put into it? Do you really just care about the first few innings when starters are usually facing other starters? Do you care towards the end when prospects and minor league guys are facing other prospects and minor league guys, with the occasional MLB guy thrown in as a closer? Do pitchers stats matter to you, or batting stats?

[Pushmonkey]

I would say sloppy play is concerning, that can be walks, errors a ton of k’s, weak contacts. 

[SteveA]

Raw stats -- practically nothing.

That's not to say that Hyde & company aren't making judgements based on play.   But they are looking at everything... whether there is solid contact, whether the player is working on what he is supposed to be, quality of at bats, command by pitchers, etc.   Work in the cage and in the bullpen, defense in preseason games AND in drills.  The whole picture.

So judgements are made based on spring training, but whenever you talk about that someone has to point out that the stats are meaningless, which they are, but that doesn't mean that judgements aren't made during spring training.

[glenn__davis]

Offensive stats i care zero about.  I do tend to watch the pitching lines for about the final 2 weeks. You want to see guys starting to get people out by that point. 

[Can_of_corn]

I don't care about the stats at all.  I'll look at the underlying data, particularly if someone is playing at one extreme or another.

[Sports Guy]

Zero

[HowAboutThat]

I remember a story about Will Clark deciding he was going to work on, for instance, breaking balls, and he wasn’t going to swing at anything else. He didn’t care about the AB, he wanted to work on recognizing and hitting breaking balls. 
There are lots of variables to evaluate. But there’s a reason Zimmermann is suddenly in the rotation discussion, Wells seems to have more of a chance than Sceroler to make the team, and folks are noticing Greene. ST performance means something, but we aren’t completely privy to what that is.

[OFFNY]

o

 

For what it's worth ........ Randy Johnson once stated in March of 2005 that as a power-pitcher, he actually expected to get lit up early in Spring Training because of the fact that his fastball was being thrown at a few miles per hour slower than what he expected it to be during the regular season. 

 

For all of the other types of players (pitchers that are not power-pitchers and all of the position-players and DH's), anyone else's guess is as good as mine ...... probably even better than mine.

 

o

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, OFFNY said:

o

 

For what it's worth ........ Randy Johnson once stated in March of 2005 that as a power-pitcher, he actually expected to get lit up early in Spring Training because of the fact that his fastball was a few miles per hour slower than what he expected to be throwing in the regular season. 

 

For all of the other types of players (pitchers that are not power-pitchers and all of the position-players and DH's), anyone else's guess is as good as mine ...... probably even better than mine.

 

o

I think that most guys come into spring training a lot closer to regular season velocity these days.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

I’m more concerned about a player’s health than his spring training stat line. 

[Sports Guy]

Let’s remember that the team is seeing each of these guys a lot more than just game times.  The “rest of the time” is a big reason why someone does or doesn’t make the roster.

[Moose Milligan]

ST stats mean practically nothing.  But I do put some stock into how the defense is playing...ie, sloppy play, mistakes, etc.  

[Sports Guy]

10 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

ST stats mean practically nothing.  But I do put some stock into how the defense is playing...ie, sloppy play, mistakes, etc.  

Well it depends on who is playing sloppy and why?

For example, are they trying out a guy at a new position and he is screwing up?  Or, has a guy been out and is just rusty? 
 

[LTO's]

Pretty sure hitters get themselves in certain counts on purpose in ST to see different looks. Same goes with certain pitcher doing different things in different counts to see what's working. By and large the stats are worthless, especially the rotational guys. 

[wildcard]

Whether its stats or just the way a player performs ST can mean a lot.   I had Bruce Zimmermann beginning the  season in the AAA rotation.    Hyde/Elias didn't have him in the O's rotation either because their alignment did not have him starting in ST but rather piggy backing with Kremer.   

However he has pitched so well this spring that if he next two outings are good they will probably have to make room for him in the rotation.