Whitey Has Himself a Spring (47.02)

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Whitey Has Himself a Spring (47.02)

Post by mragland » Fri May 28, 2021 3:06 pm

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Come On, You Stumps!
Musings of a Beirut Sports Curmudgeon

New Beirut outfielder Werner 'Whitey' McConnell, Jr. has won the MVP of Spring Award. He, along with fellow springtime sluggers Bratislev Marousek and Mike Best showed the parade of minor league pitchers that they faced no mercy. McConnell posted a laughable slash line of .390/.424/1.034 in fifty-nine at-bats. That's an OPS of 1.458. This alone should inform the reader how much weight to give spring stats. None … at … all. Who slugs 1.034 during a regular season? Nobody. It's silly. It's a 'Barry Bonds on the moon' figure that we ought to give no credence. It says more about the level of competition (not just a-ball, but UMEBA a-ball) than it says about these these shameless compilers.

For their parts, Brat Marousek posted an OPS of 1.248 and Best, a mere 1.241. One thing these three have in common is their newness to the club. Best came over in the Liam Dalton fleecing trade this winter. Whitey and the Brat signed on as free agents. Maybe they felt they had something to prove? Against UMEBA minor-league pitching?

Now Cedars fans are in a tizzy because the three look like world-beaters. Let's see who else put up these kinds of numbers this spring.... There's Sean Tester (1.233 OPS). Who the hell is Sean Tester? He's the number 95 ranked prospect in the Unified, that's who. There's Takanobu Nishikawa (1.420 OPS), one of Tripoli's seven catchers last season; he of the 87 OPS+. There's Elton Warr (1.323 OPS), who posted a mighty 0.6 WAR in AA last season. Warr is good for slightly more than nothing, it turns out.

So let's all just pump the brakes on the expectations for these three Beirut hitters, and look at the company they're currently keeping.

The three should hit well, seeing as the team currently has them in the heart of the order. But did they get the most out of their at-bats? Spring is a time to fine-tune your game, to focus on what you do poorly and make it better, and, yes, to make sure you're ready for the regular season. That's what you do with your spring training, you train, you knock off the rust, and you put up lousy numbers.

You know who had a lousy spring? Adam Backhouse (.299/.299/.418). That's the slash line of somebody taking the exercise seriously. Those are the stats of somebody who is working at the plate, pushing the boulder uphill and not out there 'just having fun'. We know Backhouse will be back in the summer.

With the Beirut three, we know nothing.
Morris Ragland
President, Baseball Ops, Beirut Cedars (8/25/46 - 10/23/47)
President, Baseball Ops, Valencia Stars (10/24/47 - present)
925-891 Lifetime Record
2048 Caleca Winner

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." - W. Churchill

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