Dynamics of a Spring Training game

These games don't feel like regular nine-inning baseball affairs. They're not played the same way. They're not managed the same way. And they don't have the same purpose.

During the regular season, a baseball team tries to win as many games as they can. They have, for the most part, a set roster for which to accomplish this rather straightforward (yet, far from simple) goal. Coming into Spring Training, a team has a somewhat different set of goals; all with the final regular season goal in mind. Some of these goals include...

1) Warming up the regulars. Most teams have the majority of their starting positions filled before Spring Training even starts. For example, the St. Louis Cardinals know that Albert Pujols will be manning first base, and the Twins know that Joe Mauer will be behind the plate. The Yankees have four-fifths of their starting rotation all planned out: Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, and Javier Vazquez.

For these guys who are basically assured of a starting spot, Spring Training is a time to put in some regular work, get back in the groove of real-time game situations, and generally shake off some of the cobwebs from a long off-season. Pitchers are usually held to a strict schedule: one to three innings per start, just enough to work on velocity and location without getting fatigued. Batters will usually play only a handful of innings - again, just enough to work on the timing of their swings - before giving way to the replacements. Which brings me to the next goal...

2) Filling up all the roster spots. Some teams enter Spring Training with various roles yet to be filled. For instance, the Dodgers aren't exactly sure who will play second base. The Blue Jays have about three guys who could potentially close games. Nearly all 30 teams have at least some level of competition for at least one spot in the rotation. (Possible exceptions in this category: the Rays, provided David Price and Wade Davis turn out to be the real thing, the Braves, if Kenshin Kawakami's arm holds out, and the Giants, provided Madison Bumgarner meets expectations.)

For the players competing for starting jobs (or backup types competing for roster spots), Spring Training is an opportunity for them to show their stuff and prove they belong in the big leagues. And even though it's only preseason, the pressure's always on, since players generally don't get a lot of spring at-bats. These players who are on the fence have to show up to camp sharp and ready to play to the best of their abilities in a relatively small sample size.

3) Give the young kids a taste of the action. During the first part of Spring Training, you'll usually see a lot of players in major league camp who are basically guaranteed to either start the season - or play the entire season - in the minor leagues. After a couple of weeks, these guys will generally be sent down to minor league camp.

Teams let these kids play with the big boys for a couple of reasons. One is that when the regular starters are still on strict schedules or limitations, they need warm bodies to replace them during the late innings. And another reason is to give these minor leaguers some time playing against actual big league talent. Granted it's during the spring when nobody's at full strength. But players (good ones, at least) learn a little bit more about the game with each at-bat, and the more experience they get, the better players they will be in the long run. And better players help a team score more runs (and thus win more games) than worse ones...


With these different goals in mind, it's useful to look at Spring Training games not as a single contest between two teams, but as several mini-contests between two organizations. The first few innings resemble a regular season games, what with most of the regular starters on the field (or roughly half of them if it's a split-squad game) and a starting pitcher who's at least in the running for a rotation spot. As these guys get their regular work in and start coming out of the game for replacements, we can start to reevaluate the statuses of the players in the game: In the 4th or 5th innings, you could see a lineup entirely made up of projected bench players. Come the 7th or 8th innings, they'll mostly be either minor league veterans who have continually struggled to make the major leagues or greenhorns who are seeing their first action against the big boys.

If you want to learn about a particular organization's depth, and you're willing to keep every player and his role in proper context, watching a Spring Training game all the way through can be a fun and rewarding experience... but only for those of us with True Baseball Grit.