Don’t Rely on Spring Training Stats

        Opening Day is now a week away.  Many leagues have waited until this week to take part in their drafts.  One thing many fantasy players keep an eye on are Spring Training stats.  While their are certain stats worth looking into, such as position battles (Manny Corpas vs. Huston Street), most stats should be overlooked.  Here is a look at some of last years Spring Training stats:

Dustin Pedroia – .179  1 HR  4RBI

Ivan Rodriguez – .429  6 HR  9 RBI

Ichiro – .119 AVG

    When looking at these three hitters, we can see that these stats meant nothing last year.  Dustin Pedroia was the AL MVP, batted .326 with 17 homers, while Ichiro collected his annual 200 hits and batted over .300.  As for Pudge, his 6 homers last spring were the most hit, while he finished the regular season with only 7.  

   As for the pitchers, here’s a look at 2008’s Spring Training stats:

Cliff Lee -  8.31 ERA  5 K’s  4 BB

Ricky Nolasco –  7.84 ERA

Zack Greinke –   6.43 ERA   9 K’s  5 BB 

Cole Hamels – 6.55 ERA  11 K’s  3 BB

Jake Peavy –  9.00 ERA  11 Ks  3 BB

Tim Lincecum –  9.00 ERA

      All of these pitchers were top 35 SP last year during the regular season, and should finish the year that way this year as well. 

    As far as Spring Training 2009, heres a look at a group of pitchers and their stats, through Friday March 27th:

Zack Greinke –  7.17 ERA

Matt Cain  -  6.33 ERA

Jordan Zimmerman –  3.14 ERA  20 K’s  2 BB

Brandon Webb –  5.82 ERA

James Shields –  10.45 ERA   4 BB  6 K’s

    Greinke, Cain, Webb and Shields have all struggled this spring, but will settle down and be valuable SP’s this year.  Many starting pitchers will try new pitches, or wind-ups during the spring, or just simply work on location and not be too concerned with their stats.  These 4 starters have no worries about losing a starting job, and therefore can be less worried about how they perform through March.  As far as Jordan Zimmerman, he is the talk of Spring Training this year.  With a 20/2 K:BB, he has been impressive to say the least, but remember, he is only 22 years old.  Do not go into your draft thinking he will be valuable this year.  He is their top pitching prospect, but it takes time to be a major league pitcher.  Clayton Kershaw may only be 21, but he has had the experience of the big leagues, and will be much more valuable than Zimmerman, for 2009 atleast.  Remember, with this years World Baseball Classic,  spring training had even less major league hitters than normal, so dont pay for his numbers, and dont discard proven player’s becuase they have had a bad spring.

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