Report from the Cactus League During the Last Week of Spring Training

Putting aside the two games the Dodgers and Padres played in Seoul, South Korea last week, Opening Day of the 2024 Major League Baseball season arrives this coming Thursday, March 28. All 30 teams will see action. The first game will feature the Brewers against the Mets at Citifield, with first pitch scheduled for 1:10 pm EDT. Opening Day will wrap up with the Red Sox taking on the Mariners at T-Mobile Field at 7:10 pm PDT.

Last week was the last full week of spring training games. I met my daughter in Scottsdale, Arizona during her college spring break to enjoy some warm weather and take in three ballgames.

Programming note

Before I dive into my report from the Cactus League, a quick note on content.

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I’ve taken on two new clients that are keeping me busy. That means I’ll have less time to write about baseball this season. And my schedule means the newsletter will not publish on a regular schedule.

That’s why I turned off paid subscriptions.

I’ve also unlocked all of my content from the 2023 when I was still publishing on Substack. All of those newsletters were migrated over to Beehiiv and are now free to everyone.

Enjoy.

Angels look like a sad, sad team

As you approach Tempe Diablo Stadium, where the Angels play their spring training games, you see red promotional banners on the light poles touting the Angels’ stars that you just have to watch play baseball this season.

Mike Trout is featured, of course.

The next most-promoted player is Anthony Rendon. Yes, the guy who told reporters at the beginning of spring training that baseball is just a job and not that important to him.

The Angels signed Rendon to a 7-year/$245 million deal in December 2019 just months after Rendon powered the Nationals to a World Series Championship. Rendon has played—on average—only 49 games each season in 2021, 2022, and 2023. He’s been plagued by a series of injuries and he never seemed to feel any urgency about speeding up his rehab to get back on the field.

Yet fans are supposed to believe that Rendon is the second-best reason to go to an Angels game this season.

The other two players featured on the red banners are starting pitchers Reid Detmers and Patrick Sandoval. Believe it or not, Detmers ended 2023 with 0.1 fWAR more than Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher but only because Detmers threw more innings. Sandoval issued 4.6 walks per nine innings on his way to a 4.11 ERA.

Would you go out of your way to watch those guys pitch in a game?

It’s going to be long season for Angels fans.

Last Wednesday, I watched the Giants take on the Angels at Tempe Diablo.

My biggest takeaway from this game was how somber Mike Trout looked. We were sitting down the right field line, close to where the regulars walk to the bullpen for extra work once the minor leaguers have taken over the game. With a bag slung over his shoulder and some bats in his hands, Trout walked with a heaviness and with no hint of a smile, even as young fans screamed his name.

Who can blame him? He’s the only star on his team, and a fading one at that. Trout is no longer considered the best centerfielder in baseball. He’s coming off back-to-back-to-back injury-plagued seasons and at 32, his chances of ever playing in the postseason again—much less winning a World Series—are slim to none.

Hiking galore

With the ballgames starting at 1 pm, there’s plenty of time to fit in a morning hike. In the Scottsdale area, there are a ton of good hiking options to choose from.

I didn’t bring my hiking books, so we skipped Camelback Mountain in favor of a short path up to Hole in the Rock and then a longer hike around two buttes.

Salt River Fields puts on a good show

The Rockies and the Diamondbacks share the spring training complex known as Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. The ballpark is the first to ever be built on Native American lands. It opened in 2011 but looks brand new.

The Rockies hosted the Cubs on Thursday afternoon, but from the crowd, you’d have thought the Cubs were the home team. There are a lot of Cubs fans in Arizona—going back before the Diamondbacks came into the league—owing to folks who escape to Arizona for part of the winter or in retirement.

The announced attendance was 11,147. When the number was announced I thought, “That might be what the A’s get on a good day in Las Vegas.”

Of the three games we saw, this was the crispest. The game moved along quickly, even after the teams started subbing out all of their regular players. Charlie Blackmon hit a 2-run home run to put the Rockies up early. Blackmon will be 38 in July. He’s played his entire career with Colorado and will be a free agent at the end of the season. His beard, however, will only be eligible for arbitration.

The Cubs won the game with a late rally off a Rockies reliever Victor Vodnik, who I was surprised to learn after the game is on the Rockies’ active roster. Coors Field chews up and spits out pitchers, so I’m not holding out hope for a good season for Vodnik.

Giants beat Cubs after being down 10-0 in the 2nd

Logan Webb is the Giants’ ace. He placed second in the National League Cy Young voting last season and the pitcher who won that award—Blake Snell—is now Webb’s teammate. Due to his very late signing, Snell will need some time to build up arm strength before seeing game action, so Webb will start for the Giants on Opening Day and will anchor the rotation at least until Snell makes his Giants debut.

But Webb has been downright awful this spring. He’s pitched 21 1/3 innings over 6 starts. His spring ERA was 10.97.

In Friday’s game against the Cubs at Scottsdale Stadium, Webb gave up 9 runs on 9 hits across 4.1 innings but that doesn’t tell the story. Most of the damage was done in the 1st inning. He was laboring so hard that Giants manager Bob Melvin removed Webb in the 1st inning with the score 4-0 and runners on the corners. Reliever Tanner Kiest then a gave up 5 more runs before Webb returned to the mound in the 2nd inning. (That’s a spring training rule that allows pitchers to avoid very long innings but return to the mound to build up arm strength).

The bright spot for the Giants was the offensive, which chipped away at the Cubs’ 10-0 lead and eventually won the game 13-12. Webb has never received that kind of run support during the regular season. Maybe the additions of Jorge Soler, Jung Hoo Lee, and Matt Chapman will make a real difference for the Giants’ offense this season.

Scottsdale sunsets are amazing

Central Arizona had an unusually cold and wet winter. The weather turned to true spring right around the time we arrived and we enjoyed hot days and warm nights. There were some sprinkles Wednesday evening, around dinner time, which led to a beautiful and haunting sky.

The world is on fire—literally and figuratively.

Baseball is my salve.

Happy Opening Day, friends. We made it.