A few thoughts on spring training stats for your viewing pleasure

If you are one of the lucky people today, you are either off work, off work during the day or maybe have access to a television at the workplace and you are among the MASN viewers getting their first look at the 2013 Orioles today. The game doesn't count of course, but it's still exciting to get that first look from spring training and the Orioles are sending out a mostly A-team lineup. During the game, feel free to leave some comments and/or questions here and I'll answer any that are asked. I'm wondering what your take is on spring training results? Sure, everyone wants their team to win but the wins and losses truly don't matter much here. Longtime readers of this blog know I don't believe winning, even at the minor league level, is that important, but I'd put winning in the minors ahead of a spring training win. Certainly what happens within the games can be very important. No doubt spring results for individuals help the coaching staff make decisions on the roster and pitching rotation and so on. Not all spring stats are created equal. I don't think there would be much reason to worry if J.J. Hardy or Matt Wieters didn't hit much this spring. Players like Chris Dickerson, Trayvon Robinson, Steve Pearce and Russ Canzler, on the other hand, probably take every at-bat like it's a playoff game. They know whenever they get a chance to impress, they have to take advantage of it to make the team. I remember, many years ago, Will Clark telling me about his spring training approach. He said, on some days, it can get very specific. He told me during an interview in 2000 about a game where he went to bat looking just to get reps hitting curveballs. If the pitcher threw something else, he would keep the bat on his shoulders and not swing. I hadn't heard anything like that before then, but it made sense for a vet that had made the team but just wanted to work on something and didn't care if he went 0-for-3. What is your take on the results we see for players and the team in spring training?