Spring Training Off And Running...

Spring training has fired up and we are all excited in the baseball community to see our teams and all teams as they have their players getting back underway.  Pitchers and catchers is nice and all but having live game action back once again always gets the blood pumping.  Its's a totally different type of preseason compared to nay other sport.  Obviously it has its similarities as in wins and losses doesn't matter much but its more about seeing the new young talent and how the off-season trades and work the players and teams have put in to try to earn a spot or be noticed.  This is my favorite time of year because baseball is back on TV and streaming all day long.  As a player its fun to see the young guys compete and how they carry themselves and show their love and passion for the game and give all their effort to earn spots or be noticed, but the most interesting thing is seeing the veterans and how they try to help the younger guys in their organizations learn and get better.  The giving back to the game that occurs in spring training is something that always amazes me in how much the older players still love and have passion for the little things in game.  Baseball is a game of inches and small things.  The slightest advantage or the ability to be consistent matter so much on a daily basis that the improvements guys are able to make in these areas yearly is astounding to me.  As you can tell my passion for the game far exceeds a normal fan because i am a player myself and will be working post graduation in the baseball player development field, so spring training is the basis for the highest level of player development.
Flipping the script here for a second, how are Bryce Harper, Kimbrel, and Kuechel still not signed?  It is absolute madness that these three top players in the game still don't have a team.  We would like to think that something is in the works but the news has petered out slowly over the past weeks about potential landing spots for all three and is not making any strides as of today.  The money market for these players is there in baseball but teams just don't seem as willing to spend as they have in the past.  I feel the new analytical age has scared people into not always trusting the numbers at time when it comes to big spending.  They will go after mid-level names with great analytics and underpay but when it comes to big name guys with the same types of big numbers they get hesitant with the dollar signs because they expect a drop off.  Maybe its because of all the recent big deals in the pat that have gone sour because the length of the players deals have been too long.  Ten years is a long time to be attached to a single player, but with the youth in baseball these days i can totally understand why they would just want to wait around for the next young talent and then sign that guy cheaper down the road.  It amazes me that players don't recognize this and get paid massive amounts for shorter deals, but it understand they want job security like a normal person does as well.