Tigers Minor League Baseball Blog

There are two things on the minds of the American sporting fan at this time of year. First I would have to say is the NCAA basketball tournament, and rightfully so. And second and what I wish could be as much at the forefront as the tourney is spring training. This is the time of year when the folks in ticket sales for teams all over major league baseball are trying to pull off as many last minute deals as possible, and when us players are beginning to play our first games against other competition in preparation for the upcoming season (we are also highly interested in the NCAAs due to the fact the many of us have some sort of wager based around the event. And given the diversity of players’ backgrounds in our system, things can get very interesting). As for myself, I toed the rubber for the first time this spring yesterday in an intersquad scrimmage. Most of this first outing is used to feel out hitters once again and to gauge where you are and where you need to get to in terms of being season-ready. Well the first hitter I faced, a good friend of mine Devin Thomas, figured my stuff out pretty fast as he took the second pitch I offered over the fence. Was I a little discouraged seeing all that hard work and preparation I put in throughout the offseason lift off and fly 380 ft.? Sure, but I also know that at least it was a strike and that was my goal for this first go ’round. I will say that I bounced back and went 1-2-3 to follow that and did a fairly decent job of throwing strikes. It is always better to learn from your mistakes than your successes, at least for me, and now I know not to leave change ups high in the zone. You see everyday we learn something, and even though I already know this fact, sometimes everyone is in need of a little reminder. I guess one could say, “better now than when it really counts.” As for the other March Madness, I am just excited that Michigan has made it back to the tourney without, paying, or doing anything illegal to get the necessary personnel in line to achieve it. I need a win or two to make up for, well, we will just call it a bad fall.