John Fay had some updates on Yonder Alonso and left field fro Friday afternoon. First was this article on his blog that had this note on it from Alonso:
Yonder Alonso is working hard in left field. “I played there some last year (at Louisville),” he said. “But I didn’t know what I was doing. It’s like night and day now.”
Then later in the afternoon he posted this article on his blog and had this quote from Billy Hatcher:
I talked to Billy Hatcher, Yonder Alonso’s outfield tutor. He says Alonso has made significant progress.
“His footwork is a lot better,” Hatcher said. “He’s worked hard. Anyone that determined is going to get better.”
It may be tough to find Alonso some time out there in games during the spring, but I get the feeling that he might get some reps out there at least in the early parts of spring when most guys only play 3-4 innings each. If Alonso could play something even close to a passable left field, it could solve a lot of problems.
Chad from Redleg Nation was guest writing for ESPN.com last week and had up this article on Aroldis Chapman and Chris Sale, and whether they should be starters or relievers. Personally, there is no way I would let Chris Sale start. His arm action is just too violent. At the same time, there is no way I would let Chapman come out of the bullpen until its painfully obvious he can’t start.
I have been having an interesting conversation on a message board all weekend about Ronald Torreyes and the comments made by Jim Callis and mainly it has been about his size. It seems that some are out there who believe that size simply doesn’t matter. I am on the other side of the fence. While there are exceptions to every rule, when a guy is 5’7″ and 130 pounds you might want to be a little skeptical in my opinon. That isn’t to say he can’t be the exception, because it could happen. But that the odds are against it if he doesn’t grow and fill out some more. Where are you at on this one?