A Few Semi-Meaningless Observations About Spring Training

I have a confession to make: I don't give a rat's ass about Spring Training games. I never have and I probably never will. I love seeing new players in new uniforms, talking about the positional battles, seeing which rookies will make an impression and stick with the big league club--but the games are meaningless to me. I don't watch, I don't listen, and I don't check to see if the Yankees won or if so-and-so did well. There are quite a few reasons for that, but the reality is that the Spring Training standings don't predict regular season results (ESPN went over this a few years back) and--as Crashburn Alley wrote a month ago--players Spring Training statistics aren't indicative of their regular season performance either.

"But wait, Andrew," says the contrarian. "The Yankees ended up with the best record in Florida and the Angels dominated Arizona and they met in the ALCS." True...very true. But the Yankees underperformed their Spring Training winning percentage by over 7% and the Angels by over 16.5%. The only team to make the playoffs in the National League with a winning Spring was the Cardinals. The Phillies were 13-19 and the Dodgers were 15-22. The Brewers dropped almost 20% and the Marlins improved 15%. The only teams that came close to their regular season winning percentage (within 3%) in the Spring were the A's (-2.28), Red Sox (-0.18), the Orioles (1.27), the Cubs (1.55), the Giants (1.82) and the Indians (2.62). And I think those are more coincidence than anything else (though the Red Sox did come awfully close).

I'm all for watching as much baseball as possible, but when people are experimenting with new pitches and teams make switches as often as they do in the Spring, it doesn't carry any meaning for me. It's cool to see Curtis Granderson and Johnny Damon play their old club, but I'll save my energy and time for when it really counts (and they will play their old clubs yet again) and leave the newspapers to worry about the rest. And pray that no one gets injured.

On a totally different note, I realized that if teams really want to improve their lot in baseball, they may just want to switch from the Cactus League to the Grapefruit League. Check out the dismal lot of the Grapefruit League teams:

• Angels - One World Series win and only one pennant in 49 years in the league
• Brewers - Never won a World Series and have only made the playoffs three times in 41 years
• Rangers - Only three playoff appearances in 49 years (lost to the Yankees in the first round each time)
• Royals - One World Series in 41 years and haven't made the playoffs since then (1985)
• Giants - Have not won a World Series in 41 years in San Francisco
• Cubs - 1908. Billy Goat. Steve Bartman. 'nuff said.
• Rockies - Have not won a division in their 17 years in the league
• Athletics - Moneyball never panned out into playoff success..or a movie (yet)
• Mariners - Zero pennants in 33 years
• White Sox - Only one World Series win in the past 92 years
• Dodgers - Past success but no World Series appearances in past 21 years despite high spending
• Indians - Last won World Series in 1948 (non-Major League variety)
• Padres - No World Series wins in 41 years and only 4 playoff appearances
• Diamondbacks - An anomaly with a World Series win in their 12-year history
• Reds - The newest members of the Cactus League have only made two playoffs in the past 30 years (and none since 1995) so they fit in perfectly

If the Brewers, Royals or Indians really want to change their lot, they need not spend more money--just move Spring Training to Florida!

Picture from The New York Times