In the absence of meaningful good news, perhaps its best to focus on the mildly irrelevant and wishcast meaning into the good we see in shadows and whispers. Anything to take one's mind off of KU's latest meltdown is welcome too... Without further preface, a positive look at some Spring Training stats...
Thanks to Zack Greinke's hiatus, David DeJesus may be the face of the franchise moving forward, and he's responded with a .333/.368/.556 line this spring. Only two walks isn't the best thing in the world, but there's something to be said for swinging as much as possible when the games don't count. Lets just hope he doesn't develop any hacktastic bad habits.
In an interesting battle for one of the team's last spots, Kerry Robinson and Joe McEwing are entering an Iran-Iraq war level conflict. I'm not sure who the good guy is, nor who will ultimately prevail (I-I took 8 plus), but its fund seeing these dude's go at it. Kerry's hitting .444/.483/.593 through 29 PAs, with a perfect 3/3 steals record added for good measure. Not to be outdone, Super Joe McEwing has responded with a .517/.563/.828 line in 31 PAs. Yes, that was a .828 SLG that you saw. Joe's ripped six doubles and a homer. Its almost like he's a real first baseman.
Lots of people think Doug Mientikiewicz is a real first baseman, and he's hitting an incredible .433/.514/.633 through 36 PAs. Wow. Shades of a 2003-style miracle anyone???
Meanwhile, Alex Gordon is keeping the pressure on Mark Teahen, hitting .455/.571/.545, which hereafter should be referred to a Joe McEwing-esque numbers. I guess it is hard to screw up the 2nd overall pick...
Mike Wood is announcing his continued existence to a franchise that seems to undervalue him, throwing down a 1.50 ERA in 12 IP, including 10 Ks. Similarly, Burgos and Gobble each sport 3.00 ERA's after 6IPs.
Not that anyone's planning a parade, but Elmer Dessens has a perfect 0.00 ERA after one inning pitched...
Lastly, thanks to two homers, Paul Bako is hitting .417/.500/1.083 through 14 PAs. For the curious, Bako has only hit 14 homers in 530 non-Spring Training big league games, including a run from the last three seasons which has featured only 1. An epic shot in 2004 whilst a Cub.