Spring Quotes: Buy or Sell?

Around baseball in every single camp there are players telling reporters that they are in the best shape of their life. What they've been working on. Their new diet. There are a number of ways to convey that this season will be different.

So today, let's take a look at some of the early quotes from around A's camp and see if we're buying or selling what the guys in green and gold are selling.

First up, Ramón Laureano.

He told Martín Gallegos that he hasn't had a regular spring since 2019, and then talked about how Spring Training is big for him. To his point, there was the pandemic season in 2020, and the lockout plus his suspension in 2022. Laureano says that he has also been in Arizona at the A's complex for the past four months to work on his strength and conditioning and to get ready for 2023.

Last year he started the season by serving the rest of his suspension, and finished it on the IL. He ended the season batting a career-worst .211 with a career-worst .287 OBP. He smacked 13 homers, but also struck out 27.2% of the time. It wasn't a great season. In 2019, his first full season in the bigs, he hit .288 with a .340 on-base, hit 24 dingers and struck out 25.6% of the time.

So are we buying into Ramón this season?

It feels like a safe bet that he will improve upon his numbers from a year ago, because they were pretty bad, and Ramón is, in fact, good. That he has put so much energy into preparing for this season should be a good indicator of how seriously he is taking his preparation, and that dedication could lift him to new heights in 2023.

Next, new arrival JJ Bleday.

Bleday was just acquired from the Miami Marlins in exchange for A.J. Puk last week, and will be in contention for a spot on the A's Opening Day roster as a member of their outfield mix. He can play all three spots.

He spoke with Matt Kawahara of the Chronicle about the trade, and the upcoming season this week, but what was most interesting is that he admitted to being unprepared for the jump from Triple-A to the big leagues, saying "There's 95-plus on the mound every night. And it's relentless."

When the A's made the deal last week, I mentioned that it seemed as though Bleday had been pushed through his minor league assignments pretty quickly with Miami, without really mastering a single stop. The quote above would make it seem as though the Marlins did a bad job of mentally preparing their guys for the next level.

He also told the Chronicle that he felt like he was dropping his hands just a little, which is something he's done in the past, so he's made some adjustments, and this is the best he's felt since college. He also said his goal is to dominate the heater in 2023. Bleday hit .180 against fastballs last season.

So are we buying into JJ Bleday's comments?

Yes and no, and the no is just because we don't really know his personality yet. The reason you can believe in his comments is because Miami has a problem developing bats. Now he has had some time in The Show and has seen what it's all about, and he's had a full off-season to make some adjustments. He'll also be getting some different coaches to help him along, which can only be beneficial.

I'm buying on the basis that he's going to raise his game now that he knows what he has to do in order to be successful in the bigs, but not because he feels the best that he has since college.

Finally, we have Adrián Martínez.

The 26-year-old right-hander is set to represent Team Mexico in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, so we know he has talent. Yet, in his first taste of the big leagues last season he finished with a 6.24 ERA in 12 starts, spanning 57.2 innings pitched.

Way back in October, I wrote about Martínez and how I thought he needed one more pitch to help with his tunneling. The two-seamer is what I suggested, so that he would have a pitch that could dart in each direction out of the tunnel.

Well, he talked to reporters on Saturday, and I was on the right track, but had the wrong conclusion.

From Kawahara, talking about what he'd been working on this off-season: "Martínez focused on 'staying on-line (toward home) a little bit longer, using the ground to stay behind his fastball better, which hopefully makes his slider and changeup that much more appealing to the hitter as everything tunnels down the same lane.'"

Turns out his pitches weren't tunneling to begin with, but now that he's been working on his delivery to get his pitches back in line, that could lead to an entirely different pitcher than the one we saw last season.

Do I believe that this will have an impact? Yes I do. The real question is going to be how much of an impact? Martínez used his sinker roughly half the time last season and the opposition hit .338 against it and only whiffed 13.5% of the time. Is his new delivery going to help those numbers substantially, or is it going to just be a little better?

I still think he starts the season down in Las Vegas, but I'll be watching him intently when he suits up for Team Mexico in just a couple of weeks.