Spring Stats

They (generally) don't mean anything, but spring training stats are (generally) fun to talk about in lieu of actual games. A few notables:

• Francisco Liriano has 26 strikeouts and 4 walks. Liriano has a slight track record of his spring training control (or lack thereof) being mimicked in the regular season. If that's the case, look for Liriano to have a rebound this year.
• Last year Zack Greinke led all qualified starting pitchers with a 10.54 K/9 while also limiting his walks (2.36 BB/9) but bad luck and bad defense made his ERA of 3.83 look worse than he actually pitched (2.98 FIP). This spring, Greinke has pitched 19.1 innings issued 2 walks, given up 14 hits and 2 runs while striking out 28 batters. Woah. The Brewers also improved their infield defense this offseason  replacing Yuniesky Betancourt at SS with Alex Gonzalez. Regardless of his spring performance Greinke would be considered prime for come-back year, his March has only made it more exciting.
• The last time Daniel Bard was a starter in 2007 in the minors he had an ERA over 7 with 78 walks in 75 innings. In 24.2 innings this spring Bard has a 6.57 ERA with 16 walks. I'm rarely opposed to any team trying out someone in the rotation and I'm not knocking the Red Sox for trying it with Bard, but he hasn't looked that impressive. However, he did finish strong, pitching 6 solid innings while hitting 96 on the radar gun. Take that Michael Pineda!
• The knock on Freddie Freeman has been that he doesn't have that much power for a 1b who strikes out a decent amount. Even though he's 6'5'' he's never displayed 30+ home run power but FWIW, this spring Freeman has 7 home runs. You never really know how young players might breakout, and if Freeman can add 10-15 home runs to his repertoire, he could become a cornerstone type player.
• Dee Gordon is 11/15 on stolen base attempts. He's said to have 60-70 SB potential, and it looks as though the only thing holding him back from reaching that will be his ability to get on base, not the green light which seems to never be off.
• Chris Young (the good hitter, not the tall pitcher) is batting .404 with 4 home runs in 57 ABs but the most impressive part is that he has 10 walks with 9 strikeouts. Young has done an admirable job keeping his strikeouts in check while increasing his walks since he first came up to the big leagues, and if he can continue that trend he might become one of the best all-around center fielders in the game.