Spring training, day nine

Day 9, Spring Training. Ed Smith Stadium, Sarasota. Game 3 of 4 to see the Cincinnati Reds. First and only night game. Mom came to this one. “The Ed” looks better at night. Darkness hides a few of the stadium’s warts.

The Reds have two pricing plans. The “premium games”, which are all the games with the Yankees and Red Sox and all night games, cost more. They go on sale first, and for every ticket to a “premium” game you buy, you must also buy one ticket to a “crappy” game. I had planned on going to several Reds games anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal for me. Since they get more money for night games, I’m surprised they don’t have more of them. There are only three night games, and one is a split squad game with the Pirates (with the split game being a day game with the Pirates at Bradenton). By contrast, the goddamn Yankees play 7 of their 15 spring training home games at night.

The spring training games have been following a pattern. The regular starters play about five innings, give or take an inning depending on how many at-bats they’ve had, then the minor leaguers take over. Generally one or two young prospects start the game and often play the whole game when the manager gives the regular the day off. It’s like watching two games in one – about five innings of major league ball and about four innings of Class AA ball. I don’t see how the manager can evaluate his talent this way. Except for the prospects who play early, the minor league batters are only facing minor league pitchers and vice versa. How do they know if this young batter can hit major league pitching, or whether this young arm can get major league batters out?

I’ve seen a few prospects hit home runs and other strike out, but how much can you really tell from a couple at-bats? The biggest difference I notice is in the field. I’ve seen dropped fly balls and Bill Buckner-like ground balls that go through infielder’s legs. It’s not so much the inability to make the difficult play, it’s the frequent botched routine play that’s noticeable. I’ve also seen some pitching prospects throw well and others get bombed. But what can you really tell from one outing? Presumably, all of these guys must have some promise or they wouldn’t be here. So it’s how often do they get shelled or pitch well. Hard to tell when you only see them once.

It was a beautiful night to watch a game – 73 degrees at game time. Since it’s been very dry, the stadium was bugless. I couldn’t believe how many empty seats there were. I thought these night games would sell out. Saw the Devil Rays play for the second day in a row. The Rays departed from the usual substitution pattern and played almost all of their regulars for the whole game. Since they are now 1-13, I think they were actually trying to win the game. But the Reds, who lead the Grapefruit league at 11-2, edged the Rays 2-1. Rays manage only 3 hits, but all for extra bases. Rocco Baldelli homered, Carl Crawford tripled and catcher Josh Paul doubled. Reds only get five hits, but advanced what few runners they had with groundouts and stolen bases to scratch out a couple of runs. Game took only two hours, ten minutes.

I can’t figure out the use of the DH during spring training. The last time an AL club visited the Reds, they used the DH. Tonight, the pitchers hit.

Concession prices are also cheaper at these spring training venues. A good hot dog only sets you back $3.

Tomorrow, I head back down to Fort Myers to see the Minnesota Twins.

Dad