Spring Training Stat: The Elephant in the Room

[Beef Supreme]

I know, I know... Spring Training stats mean nothing. Nada. Zilch! But, truth is, sometimes they do show us something. True, I don't have the 1939 Grapefruit League stats. But I would wager huge bucks (huge for me, at least) that if we had the ST stats, Lou Gehrig's offensive production would be poor. Of course, Lou was an extraordinary case because of his illness. Gehrig's life came to an end just two years after that Spring Training.

Fully recovered now, Trey Mancini looks to have a long life ahead of him. I have really loved his simple swing since first seeing it in either 2014 MiLB highlight videos. But Trey may need a little more time to get his strength back. This is not a new sentiment -- many other posters have expressed happiness about his recovery while also expressing wariness about whether he would be ready this Spring. So far, Mancini has registered 22 PAs this Spring: Six singles, Zero extra-base hits. Consider me concerned.

I realize things could all change tomorrow. I know ST stats don't count for anything. And, yeah, SSS... All of those criticisms are valid. And I hope it's not true that Trey is not yet strong enough to hit major league pitching again. But how surprising would it be if Mancini isn't quite fully back up to the strength he had two years ago? Here's hoping the statistical power outage is meaningless and that he truly is back up to 100%. But if he is still a little weak, it might be in his best interest as well as the team's best interest to start the season on the DL. And that might be a good thing for the Orioles as they figure out whom to plan their near future on among their OF/1B/DH options.

[Sports Guy]

Yea, there is no “elephant in the room” here.

 

[Can_of_corn]

The O's can afford to let him play himself into shape.

[owknows]

4 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

The O's can afford to let him play himself into shape.

I dunno man.

If he only hits for average instead of power for half the season, it could put a serious dent in their post-season chances.

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, owknows said:

I dunno man.

If he only hits for average instead of power for half the season, it could put a serious dent in their post-season chances.

Please, Davis will be back soon.  Scoring runs won't be a problem.  Put Mancini in front of Davis and watch 60 singles become 60 runs scored.

[owknows]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

Please, Davis will be back soon.  Scoring runs won't be a problem.  Put Mancini in front of Davis and watch 60 singles become 60 runs scored.

With Elias telling us Ruiz is staying at 3rd, how are we going to weave Franco into this run factory?

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, owknows said:

With Elias telling us Ruiz is staying at 3rd, how are we going to weave Franco into this run factory?

Catcher.

[owknows]

15. Franco goes in where the others have been.

[Moose Milligan]

I'm assuming you could find 22 plate appearances for a lot of players in their careers and find a stretch where they had nothing but singles.  

That said, his power might be slow to come back.  Who knows.  But at least he's healthy and swinging pretty well this spring so far.

[interloper]

Dumb thread is dumb, sorry.

Why isn't this thread about Santander (0 HR) or Mountcastle (0 HR) or Pedro Severino (1 hit, 0 HR) or Sisco (0 HR)?

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, interloper said:

Dumb thread is dumb, sorry.

Why isn't this thread about Santander (0 HR) or Mountcastle (0 HR) or Pedro Severino (1 hit, 0 HR) or Sisco (0 HR)?

Because they didn’t just survive cancer?

[interloper]

2 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Because they didn’t just survive cancer?

And yet Trey is outperforming basically all of those guys, with exception to Mountcastle's doubles. He's stung the ball on a few of these hits, too. I think we all expect a lighter year from Trey, but making that argument based on ST stats is silly, especially when there are so many guys not hitting right now. Trey being one of the exceptions! 

Like... what? 

[interloper]

When you start a thread "I know, I know, spring training stats mean nothing, but...", you should stop writing that thread. Especially if you're going to cherry pick one guy who is actually hitting pretty well compared to his peers. LOL 

Again, perfectly sensible to expect a down year from Trey. But that's because of the cancer/layoff, not because of anything his spring stats are telling us. So far they're telling us he's performing better than the majority of the rest of the lineup, in fact. 

[Sports Guy]

9 minutes ago, interloper said:

And yet Trey is outperforming basically all of those guys, with exception to Mountcastle's doubles. He's stung the ball on a few of these hits, too. I think we all expect a lighter year from Trey, but making that argument based on ST stats is silly, especially when there are so many guys not hitting right now. Trey being one of the exceptions! 

Like... what? 

Of course it’s a silly argument but you asked why he was singling out Trey..the answer is obvious.

[interloper]

4 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Of course it’s a silly argument but you asked why he was singling out Trey..the answer is obvious.

Okay.

What a joy it is to have you back on the board once again.