11 March 2008

It's still spring training, so let's not get too hasty, but I think now is the perfect time to inaugurate an ongoing new feature of the Chop-N-Change blog: Things Alex Got Utterly Wrong. Jair Jurrjens had a great game yesterday and has been having a great spring: 4 innings, 2 hits, 1 K, 1 BB, no runs. This spring, he's gone 9 innings, giving up 4 hits, 1 run, and 2 walks against 4 strikeouts. His stuff has been filthy and his control mostly solid. He's been pretty easily our best pitcher of the spring, though Lance Cormier can tell you that's not always meaningful. Still, I ranted and raved this offseason about how Jair wasn't ready, and he's been working pretty hard to prove me wrong. If the season were to start tomorrow, there's almost no question Jair would be in our starting rotation, so I certainly hope he continues pitching as well as he has been. If he does so, I will have been completely incorrect. Meanwhile, Ryan Drese -- whom I touted as "terrible" -- pitched 2 scoreless innings yesterday giving up 3 hits, no walks, and no strikeouts, and this spring he's gone 5.1 innings, giving up 6 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), with 2 strikeouts and 1 walk. That's a tiny sample size, but it certainly looks nice. Similarly, Jordan Schafer (about whom I wrote my very first piece, looking for ways to avoid playing him in 2008) went 1-2 yesterday and is batting .389 on the spring. So it looks like I may be wrong a lot this year! But if our players outplay my expectations, I'm happy to be wrong every time. In any case, I'll be eagerly watching.

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