A Suprise Spring Training Trip
Baseball fever is spreading across the country with the college season starting and spring training now picking up. I was lucky to make an impromptu stop by the spring training facility in Surprise, AZ shared by the Rangers and Royals while driving home from a vacation in Yavapai County. Since I only had a few hours and have an affinity for the Rangers since my days attending college at UT Arlington, it was an easy decision to go check out Texas’ favorite ballclub.
After pitchers and catchers got some initial work in, the pitchers went to the bullpen to warm-up before live BP. After warming up, pitchers immediately went into live BP across the different fields where groups of hitters were broken out. There I was able to watch the first group of pens before shifting over to watch live ABs with Corey Seager, Sebastian Walcott, and Nate Eovaldi. Due to this I was not to see the full list of pitchers in the second group.
General Notes
- Degrom, Gray, and Rocker were all getting in fielding work before live BP and were throwing in drills
- Veterans led the first group of bullpens: Jesse Chavez, Dane Dunning, Nate Eovaldi, and Tyler Mahle
- Second group of bullpens included: Jacob Webb and JT Chargois
- Last group of bullpens was: Luis Curvelo, Patrick Murphy, Jack Leiter, and David Buchanan
Live BP Notes
- Eovaldi looked sharp while facing his hitters which included Dustin Harris, Corey Seager, and Sebastian Walcott. He was getting ahead in counts and generating swing and misses on his fastballs, slider, and splitter. Good vibes throughout catch play, bullpen, and live BP. His at bat against Seager ended up being my favorite at bat of the day to watch (video below).
- Seager had a hard opposite field line drive his first ABs against Eovaldi and hit a routine fly ball against Webb. He looked to be taking full swings and should ready to go the 2025 season coming off the hip injury in September.
- Walcott struck out swinging in his at bat against Eovaldi on 4 pitches. In his second AB, he worked back from an 0-2 count to draw a 9-pitch walk against Jacob Webb. Showed patient approach early in counts and good to see him getting work against quality MLB pitching as he still 18, turning 19 in March. Excited to see what the rest of the spring has in store for Walcott.
- Jack Leiter gave up hard contact on fastballs to Adolis Garcia, Marcus Semien, and Higgy. He generated some whiffs and called strikes on the slider and curveball. I believe improving command of his breaking balls and being able to mix those pitches in on fastball counts would help Leiter take a step forward in 2025. in 2023 and 2024 he threw his fastball over 50%, with MLB hitters slugging .625 off the pitch in 2024. Keep an eye on the pitch mix with Leiter as he still has some of the raw tools to be a productive major league pitcher and will just be turning 25 this season.