Nine Startling Stats From Red Sox Spring Training
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- In many ways, spring training is a most wonderful time of the year. Just the imagery of green grass, sunny skies and seven guys standing still while watching a pitcher throw to a batter once every 30 seconds is enough to get us all jacked up for our favorite summer pastime of watching those guys watching the pitcher.
At the same time, spring training is the absolute worst, because it's baseball ... but not really. While there may be some positional battles playing out, there's really nothing on the line. Pitchers are just trying to get in their work. Veteran position players might just be going through the motions. Most starters are out of the game by the fourth inning. Really, there might as well not even be a scoreboard, because who cares? (Every beat writer who's had to cover an extra-innings affair in early March is no doubt raising a fist in solidarity at this exact moment.)
Even with that understanding, well, spring training's all we have right now. And so while it would be wrong to put too much stock into anything taking place in Florida or Arizona, we should still keep an eye on things just to protect ourselves from being surprised once real baseball begins in April.
With that in mind, and with the Ides of March representing the unofficial halfway point of the interminable spring schedule, here's a look at three positive stats and three negative stats out of Red Sox camp thus far.
(All stats are prior to Monday's game vs. the Pirates.)
THE GOOD
1. Travis Shaw Is Killing The Game
Travis Shaw continues to dominate the sport of baseball in every possible way.
In 23 at-bats and 25 plate appearances, he's batting .522 with two doubles, two homers, nine RBIs and two walks. He has a 1.430 OPS, and he's played 36 innings of error-free baseball in the field (31 at third base, five at first base).
While Shaw may not be a millionaire and therefore will have trouble getting playing time over Hanley Ramirez or Pablo Sandoval ... the 25-year-old is going to force John Farrell's hand if he continues to tear the cover off the ball for the rest of this month.
2. Marco Hernandez Has 5 Doubles In 16 At-Bats
The 23-year-old shortstop isn't on too many people's radars, largely because with Xander Bogaerts entrenched in the infield for the foreseeable future, folks aren't looking for the shortstop of the future.
Yet Hernandez has been impressive thus far in the spring, as he's hitting .500. What's more, he's got five doubles in his 16 at-bats. Add in his two walks, and he's got a shiny 1.368 OPS.
3. Jackie Bradley Is Bulldozing His Way Through Spring Training Again
Jackie Bradley Jr.'s career regular-season batting average and OPS in the major leagues: .213, .638.
Jackie Bradley Jr.'s career spring training batting average and OPS: .322, .858.
It shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that Bradley is tearing it up again. He's batting .412 with a .500 on-base percentage, as he's got six singles, one homer and three walks.
Bradley is flirting with his own numbers from the spring of 2013, when he batted .419 with a 1.120 OPS. He ended up starting the season on the big league roster and batting .097 over the first 12 games before getting sent down to Triple-A. He'd finish that season with a .189 MLB average on the year.
But, still, hey, dude is killing it again this spring.
4. Tommy Layne and Matt Barnes Are Getting Everybody Out
While much has been made about the back end of the bullpen with the additions of Craig Kimbrel and Carson Smith, what about these guys?
Layne has pitched five innings, allowing three hits, walking nobody, and striking out four batters. He has a 0.82 WHIP.
Barnes has pitched 3.2 innings, allowing two hits, walking one, and striking out five batters. He has a 0.82 WHIP as well.
These two could prove to be very valuable pieces in middle relief for the 2016 team.
THE BAD
1. Rick Porcello Is Strugg-A-Ling
As previously noted, pitchers don't necessarily take the hill in spring training looking to shut down the opponent. Often, they're looking to work on specific pitches, build up their velocity, and above all else, feel healthy and strong when they finish their work. So, when the results are ugly, it's not time to panic.
Yet, even with that caveat, Porcello's numbers through two starts really jump off the page.
In five innings pitched, he's allowed nine runs -- all earned -- on 13 hits. It all amounts to a 16.20 ERA and 2.60 WHIP. That's bad!
2. Pablo Sandoval Isn't Batting Half Of His Weight
So, Pablo Sandoval had a rather interesting entrance to spring training this year, after John Farrell claimed the third baseman lost 20-25 pounds but ended up looking to have lost between zero and negative-10 pounds.
The response was tremendous, and so Pablo entered with a chip on his gut. Even Tom Werner reiterated last week on the Rich Eisen Show: Pablo has something to prove.
Well, he must be saving his hits for the regular season, because he's 2-for-16 with zero walks, good enough for a .125 batting average and OBP. He also has two errors on nine total chance in 36 innings of work at third base.
In his career, he's roughly a .300 spring training hitter, so he's been quite bad, even by his own standards.
3. Bryce Brentz Almost Always Strikes Out
The 27-year-old outfielder is a top-25 prospect in the organization, but WOW! He's been bad! Remarkably so!
In 15 at-bats, Brentz has struck out 11 times. That's a .734 strikeout percentage, which is something I may have invented just for this very situation.
Brentz doesn't have a hit in his other four at-bats, and he has two walks, giving him a batting average of .000 and an OBP of .118.
For reference, Brentz did get 26 big-league ABs in 2014, and he struck out nine times but had eight hits. Last year in Triple-A, he struck out 74 times while batting .232.
So it's probably not indicative of anything. But 11 strikeouts in 15 at-bats. That's really something.
4. Henry Owens May Have Just Walked You
As has been stated twice already, the raw numbers on pitchers in spring training really don't matter much. They're really just practicing.
But, pitchers still want to be accurate. And Henry Owens has not been accurate.
In 7.2 innings, he's walked seven batters. He walked four Marlins over 2.2 innings on Saturday, and he walked two Twins over two innings in his first spring start of the year. He's also allowed six hits, bringing his WHIP to 1.70.
He's never had tremendous control problems before in his career, so chalk it up to a 23-year-old hitting a bump. However, it's not exactly promising for a lefty who was given a golden opportunity to break camp with the big club in the wake of Eduardo Rodriguez's injury.
THE UGLY (BUT ALSO KIND OF AWESOME)
1. David Ortiz Gets Absolutely Nothing Out Of Spring Training
You just have to appreciate how much David Ortiz finds spring training to be a waste of time. He's never come right out and stated it in plain terms (at least, I don't think he has), but he has hinted at it in the past. Last year, he missed a chunk of spring training due to "dehydration," which was strange but notably came after he had already piled up a sufficient number of hits for a spring. In all, he's played just about a full season of spring games since 2006 (158 games), and he has just 15 homers, 60 RBIs and a .685 OPS. In the regular season from 2006-15, he's averaged roughly 39 home runs and 120 RBIs per 162 games played.
Clearly, spring is not David's thing.
This year, in what is the final spring training of his career, Ortiz is treating it perfectly. He's hitting .083, owning just a lone single in his 12 at-bats. If he keeps it up, he'll break his own personal worst, which was his .054 batting average in the 2014 spring. He'd go on to hit 35 home runs and drive in 104 runs that season. No wonder he thinks spring training is a useless endeavor.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
