Spring Training Thread

[yandro]

Dontrelle made the Tigers rotation. Good for him.

[FishFF]

TAMPA, Fla. -- Minnesota Twins outfielder Denard Span hit a foul ball struck his mother in the chest in the first inning of Wednesday's spring training game against the New York Yankees.

Wanda Wilson was wearing a Span jersey and sitting with about 20 family members and friends near the third-base dugout. Span took a defensive swing against Yankees starter Phil Hughes in the first inning and hit a liner right at her in the box seats.

A stunned Span sprinted from the batters' box to the stands and stayed with his mother while paramedics treated her. The split-squad game was delayed for a few minutes as she was taken to first aid, and the Twins said she was sore but OK.

Span returned to the plate with the count 3-2 and struck out looking on the next pitch. The Twins originally said Span would leave the game, but his mother was sitting in a different seat by the bottom of the first inning and he went to center field.

She was treated by paramedics and back in the stands minutes later, but eventually was taken to a hospital.

Span flied out in the second inning, then left in the bottom of the third.

Span was born and raised in Tampa, and he regularly volunteers to make the long trip from the Twins' spring training home in Fort Myers when Minnesota visits the Yankees so he can see his family.

man, what are the chances.

[MiamiHomer]

Yeah I saw that. That has to be such a horrible feeling. Not only did your foul ball hit someone but it was your mom.

[mbaamin08]

The Phillies had precious little pitching depth before Brad Lidge had cortisone injected into his right elbow Tuesday and Joe Blanton strained his left oblique Wednesday.

They are even thinner Thursday.

"Yeah, we are," Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. "We've talked about it. That's one of the things we don't have: A lot of pitching depth. We have some bullpen depth, but we don't have a lot of starting pitching depth.

"There's a hole in there between the Major Leagues and [Class] A ball, where there aren't a lot of candidates for us. That's part of the risk of making some of the trades we've made. It's kind of what happens when you make a run for things and you try to improve your club at the Major League level. This is where we've sacrificed, and hopefully we can kind of weather the storm here a little bit."

The Phils said Blanton will begin the season on the 15-day disabled list after straining his oblique throwing in the bullpen. He is expected to miss three to six weeks. Right-hander Kyle Kendrick will take Blanton's spot in the rotation, and right-hander Andrew Carpenter is expected to take Kendrick's place in the bullpen, although Philadelphia does not have to finalize its 25-man roster until 3 p.m. ET on Sunday.

The Phillies are not expected to find pitching help from outside the organization before Opening Day on Monday afternoon in Washington.

"If we had another guy go down right now, we'd be scrambling a little bit," Amaro said.

Blanton on DL with strained left oblique

It looks like the lack of injuries to the Phillies is catching up to them.

[m26555]

Jenrry Mejia hit 98 mph on the gun and has the support of most of the Mets' decision makers to win a spot in their bullpen. GM Omar Minaya has said that he wants to go slow with Mejia, but he may become convinced to take him. Bobby Parnell hit 97 and is another candidate for the unsettled bullpen. Kiko Calero, who is throwing 85, won't make the team.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...se.rays/1.html

Wow.

[nny]

Who cares about his fast ball speed though. Not like he's a hard thrower, he was throwing 88 last year. It's his slider that allows him to dominate

To me, the speed thing says he's probably still injured, which might be what your Wow is about, but does show why no arbitration/no ML deal from us/ect that we complained about. Sucky part of being a fan, not knowing everything and making bad assumptions because of it.

[Bobbob1313]

Well, yeah.

But he needs to have other pitches for the slider to be successful. If he's throwing up 85 MPH meatballs 60% of the time, the slider won't matter.

[nny]

Originally Posted by Bobbob1313

Well, yeah.

But he needs to have other pitches for the slider to be successful. If he's throwing up 85 MPH meatballs 60% of the time, the slider won't matter.

60% of the time is his slider

He's only used his fastball 35% of the time in his career

-3 MPH is not that drastic.

[Bobbob1313]

Get out of here with your facts.

[m26555]

Originally Posted by nny

Who cares about his fast ball speed though. Not like he's a hard thrower, he was throwing 88 last year. It's his slider that allows him to dominate

To me, the speed thing says he's probably still injured, which might be what your Wow is about, but does show why no arbitration/no ML deal from us/ect that we complained about. Sucky part of being a fan, not knowing everything and making bad assumptions because of it.

Yeah my "wow" was the shock of him likely not making the team; nothing to do with his fastball speed.

[Ramp]

man, his numbers outside of that inflated ERA look solid from the spring

6.1ip 5h 4r(4er) 3hr 1hbp 3bb 7k .208baa 1.26whip

[Festa]

If you're not generating the arm speed to throw 89-90 MPH (in Kiko's case) you're not going to generate the arm speed and torque to throw a hard slider.

[Fish and Chips]

Leake, the 8th pick overall last year, won the reds 5th starter spot. And he will be the 1st drafted pitcher to skip the minors since Darren Dreifort of the Dodgers in 1994.

[FishFanInPA]

Scott Olsen not in Nats rotation.

[Mainge]