Posted by Travis Rodgers on Mar 10, 2010

Spring Training Hysteria #MLB

Next Big Thing.

I’m not a spring training guy. For a number of reasons, really. I have never been one of the “baseball is a metaphor for life” guys. The whole “rebirth and renewal” angel has never worked on me. It’s baseball, and baseball is good enough for me. Assuming of course the games are actually competitive, and competitive spring training baseball rarely happens.

As bad as the life and death metaphors may be, they are better than the ‘Player A might be the greatest player since Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle or Babe Ruth’. Uh, probably not. Punching out a bunch of guys who will never sniff the major leagues, or veterans just trying to get their swings in, isn’t the same as striking guys out when they are keeping score for real.

Meet Reds' pitcher Aroldis Chapman and Nats' (yes, they still exist) pitcher Stephen Strasburg. Both have been impressive in their spring debuts. Both have been made out to be the second coming of Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson.

Also, the Next Big Thing

Tigers' manager Jim Leyland on Strasburg:

"A lot of guys now are throwing 96, 97, but not many of them have that kind of breaking ball to go with it," Leyland said. "He's a very gifted young man, no question about that."

Royals manager Trey Hillman on Chapman:

"It sounded like he was throwing real hard. I couldn't see it," Royals manager Trey Hillman said, laughing. "He gets it up there. I'm not sure I've ever seen a longer stride. It looked like he was going to run out of mound."

Potential? Sure. 20-game winners? Maybe someday. But until they actually get someone out who isn’t trying to make the team or to get their swing in shape, I am going to withhold my enthusiasm.

Some guy who no one is even paying attention to is going to be the next 10-time All-Star, some guy that is scrapping to make a team is the ‘next big thing’. Every season there is one of those guys. Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Todd Van Poppel. The high school coaching ranks are filled with guys that were going to be the next Pedro Martinez.

But if you remember, Martinez was a guy who no one knew about, a guy buried in the Dodgers' bullpen before GM Fred Claire went brain dead and traded him for Delino DeShields. Maybe Chapman and Strasburg will become great pitchers, but until they actually do something that matters, maybe we should wait on carving their HOF busts.