Tag Archives: Spring Training

MLB Spring Training 2018

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Major League Baseball will return to our screens this week as the pre-season period, known as Spring Training, gets underway from Arizona and Florida.

There are a handful of games on Wednesday and Thursday pitting MLB teams against college sides in exhibition contests before the Spring leagues – Cactus League in Arizona, Grapefruit League in Florida – begin on Friday.

No one should care about game results in spring, in fact most of the established players are usually out of the game and heading off to a golf course by the sixth inning, although understandably everyone would prefer to avoid racking up a run of losses and giving the fanbase a reason to get uppity.

In 2017, the Houston Astros went 15-15 in spring, whilst the LA Dodgers just edged past .500 with an 18-17 record, so the results can be forgotten as soon as they are in the record books.

There will be few cases across the Majors where a strong spring will help a player make the Opening Day roster, but that doesn’t always mean the player will stick around for long.  Pre-season games in baseball are similar to most other sports: you’re just looking to get ready for the season and hoping to avoid any injuries.

Watching and listening to the games

As a fan, the start of spring gives you a first chance to see players in their new uniform and the simple pleasure of watching – or listening – to some baseball after a long winter.

MLB.TV subscriptions include Spring Training games and, unlike 8-10 years ago, there is now a decent number of games being broadcast even though the majority of games are not televised (if a game’s not available on MLB.TV that simply means neither team’s regional network – nor MLB Network or ESPN – is broadcasting it so there is no TV feed for MLB.TV to show you).

The full list can be found in the MLB.TV Spring Training schedule.

Start times are listed in Eastern Time on that schedule. That’s normally 5 hours behind the UK (so a 1pm listed start is 6pm for us), although that will come down to 4 hours between 11 March and 25 March as the U.S. moves into daylight saving time two weeks ahead of the UK.

Pretty much all of the other games will still be available to listen to from the team radio coverage that is also part of MLB.TV and the paid-for MLB At Bat app.

It’s rare that I would listen or watch a Spring Training game all the way through, but I’ll regularly have the first three of four innings of the Oakland A’s games on in the background of an evening.  There’s something about the relaxed Spring Training atmosphere that radiates across the Atlantic Ocean on a chilly early March UK evening that makes it a perfect way to unwind after a long day at work.  If you haven’t listened to baseball games much in the past, it’s well worth giving a try.

If you’re still considering whether to sign-up for an MLB.TV subscription, check out my guide to the 2018 packages (or package, in our case) and the growing number of comments from fellow fans in the UK sharing their experiences.

BT Sport

Usually the only Spring Training games broadcast on UK TV are the handful covered by ESPN in the States near the end of March.  ESPN are showing the following four games, although the online BT Sport schedule does go far enough ahead to tell us if they will be showing them too.

Wed 21 Mar. Houston Astros at Washington Nationals
Thu 22 Mar. New York Yankees at Minnesota Twins
Fri 23 Mar. Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees
Tue 27 Mar. Chicago Cubs at Boston Red Sox

Spring Training 2017 – MLB.TV coverage

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We’re almost there. Friday marks the first day in 2017 on which those people with an MLB.TV subscription will be able to log on, sit back and watch some baseball.

Yes, it’s only Spring Training.

No, the results don’t matter.

No, you might not recognise the names of most of those playing past the fifth inning.

However, right now, who cares? We haven’t seen MLB teams playing since the epic World Series Game Seven and some baseball is better than no baseball.  If you haven’t eaten all day, even a basic Tesco sandwich can be savoured like a glorious plate of steak and chips.

And the negative points about Spring Training games are accompanied by positive ones. Okay, the games don’t matter so the gut-wrenching tension isn’t there, but sometimes it’s nice just to enjoy a relaxing game without your team’s closer giving you a heart attack. Most of the players in later innings are Minor Leaguers, but that will include prospects that we’ve read about and now get a chance to have a glimpse of in action.

MLB.com is promising to broadcast approximately 300 games via MLB.TV (by my reckoning, there are currently 283 on their list) as well as radio coverage from pretty much every contest. The limited number of games is simply a result of the limited coverage on U.S. TV. The full list of MLB.TV games can be found on MLB.com.

The good thing for us is that the vast majority of Spring Training games are played at around midday local time, so they are evening viewing/listening in the UK rather than in the early hours. One thing to note on that is that most of America moves into Daylight Saving Time in the early hours of 12 March, whilst we don’t move to British Summer Time until 26 March. That means there’s a two-week period in which the usual time difference (Eastern – Florida games – 5 hours behind, Pacific – Arizona games – 8) is reduced by 1 hour.

To make things a bit easier, I’ve created a schedule of the MLB.TV games putting them into UK time. This first installment covers the games up to 11 March. I’ve used grey shading to more clearly separate out the days and then itallicised games that do take place in the early hours. For those games, I have still listed them under the date in which they are played in the States, so, for example, the game on 1 March between the Dodgers and Giants is actually at 1.05 am 2 March for us.

One thing I always add in my MLB.TV Spring Training round-up is that, whilst the TV pictures are great, I love listening to spring games on MLB At Bat just as much.

That’s especially the case when it comes to my own team, the Oakland A’s. I don’t normally listen to the whole game, maybe just the first hour or so, but it’s a great way to catch up on all the stories from Spring Training camp. If it’s a cold and/or rainy British evening after a long day at work, little cheers me up more than being transported across to the sunny, relaxed atmosphere in Arizona courtesy of the A’s radio crew.

If you need any further details about MLB.TV, please take a look at my overview of the 2017 offering and the ever-growing helpful comments from other Brits that use the service.

Counting down the days to Spring Training

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We are now less than three weeks away from the MLB Spring Training games beginning.

Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Detroit, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Philadelphia and San Francisco all play their first full Spring Training game (i.e. against another MLB team rather than a university side) on Friday 24 Februaury, with the rest of the teams getting going the following day.

It tends to be that the start and end of pre-season are when the games are worth a look.

The start of spring merits attention because even a casual pre-season friendly (in British sporting parlance) scratches the baseball itch after nearly four months without any MLB games.

The end of Spring Training offers games between close to full strength teams, wrapped up in the anticipation of the ‘real’ action being about to begin.

The two or three weeks of games between those two points usually are less than enticing; however this year we have the excitement of the World Baseball Classic to more than cover the gap.

It won’t be long before stateside baseball is here again and in the meantime the Australian League Championship Series takes place between 8-12 February and can be seen online.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Back on the diamond

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“Happy new year!”

To the uninitiated, Oakland A’s co-commentator Ray Fosse’s choice of opening phrase on Saturday would have seemed completely bizarre. Yet to his fellow broadcasters and all of us A’s fans listening, Fosse had got the sentiment just right.

We might have been 54 days into the 2013 calendar year, but Oakland’s first Spring Training game was the true beginning of the year.

For fans of any sport, the calendar is dictated by the season’s schedule rather than something as arbitrary as 31 December turning to 1 January. The effect is all the more pronounced in baseball because of the way the games keep on coming. This isn’t a case of a pre-season friendly one day, backed up by another seven days later over the course of a month before the competitive action begins.

Day One of Spring Training in baseball heralds the start of a daily routine –peppered with the occasional single day off here and there –that will last until the end of September, or into October for the lucky ten making it to the postseason.

Saturday was the first full day of all 30 teams taking to the field, but Friday was the first day of 2013 when you could listen to live baseball once again.

Spring Training is a time of optimism for every team and for some that optimism is better placed than for others.

The Cleveland Indians’ radio team on WTAM had every reason to be full of the joys of spring, even if the 2013 season may not end up with the Tribe pegging a playoff place. They had lived through the daily drudgery of last September, coming off a disastrous 5-24 August, with a team out of contention and no immediate hopes of making a splash in the coming offseason.

All it took was to read out the starting lineup for their spring opener against the Cincinnati Reds to put those desperate days behind them. “Wow, do things change in a short amount of time”, remarked one of the commentary team.

The WTAM crew were especially energised by their feeling that “there’s finally some personality in the clubhouse”. That’s particularly important for those broadcasting every day, but there was also a keen sense that there was a completely different atmosphere around the team, primarily due to the “non-stop talker” Nick Swisher. The commentators were quick to point out that personality doesn’t win you ballgames and Swisher, like the other new recruits, has to play well first and foremost. However if he performs on the field then maybe, just maybe, the energy and enthusiasm he and others can bring to the clubhouse can help the team too.

The early Spring Training games give fans the chance to see new players, and old players, in their new uniforms. It was typical that the first person to step into the batting box against Cleveland was the former Indian Shin-Soo Choo. He led off the game against Geovany Soto, something that momentarily caught me off guard when considering the unlikely prospect of the Texas Rangers’ catcher of the same name having changed teams and positions without me realising it.

Confusion comes easily at the beginning of Spring Training, as new Cleveland outfielders Michael Bourn and Drew Stubbs found to their cost when a fly ball landed between them. It was the classic radio commentary moment when the relaxed tone of an impending easy catch suddenly leaps in volume as “THE BALL DROPS BETWEEN THEM!”.

New outfielders were also causing confusion in the Atlanta Braves’ game against the Detroit Tigers, although this time it was among the Braves’ WFOM commentary team.

The first fly ball to left-centre posed the dilemma as to how they should call plays with two Uptons converging in the outfield. The obvious choice of referring to them as Justin and B.J. left one of the commentators a little nervous, joking that he didn’t know them well enough to be on first-name terms just yet. His colleague helpfully suggested he should take the Uptons out for a meal to get to know them a bit better. Perhaps B.J. could find a few dollars from his $75m contract to pick up the bill for that.

The WFOM team soon moved on from the Upton dilemma as the Braves’ pitching staff flirted with a no-hitter that the Tigers broke up in the top of the eighth inning. It’s a standard line in every commentary or game report that pitchers are ahead of the hitters early in Spring Training. There’s a certain logic behind the statement and it’s often true; however it can seem like a curse to a pitcher that has a bad outing.

The Seattle Mariners’ Hector Noesi was the first pitcher of 2013 to bemoan such bad luck. He gave up a grand slam to the San Diego Padres’ Jed Gyorko before departing with six runs against his name (4 earned) and only two outs recorded.

Thankfully for Noesi, he’ll be able to fall back on the argument that he’s just starting out, getting rid of the rust and maybe working on a new pitch without worrying about the results. The pressure and tension of the regular season can wait for now.

This is the time of year when we’re all just glad to have baseball back with us once again.

MLB.TV 2013 begins with 4 Spring Training games on Saturday

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Eight teams got their Spring Training under way yesterday and on Saturday the rest will join in the fun.

All 30 teams will be in action over 16 games (the L.A. Angels and Tampa Bay Rays are both fielding two split-squad teams) and four of these will be the first live games available via MLB.TV this year. The rest of the games should be available to listen to via MLB.com’s Gameday Audio or At Bat app.

To mark the occasion, here’s a brief guide to the teams playing in the televised contests today (times stated in GMT).

17.10. Nationals at Mets

Stephen Strasburg is scheduled to start for the Nationals, although in the first few weeks of Spring Training that distinction doesn’t mean much. He’ll pitch an inning – maybe two depending on the pitch count – before turning the ball over to the next hurler in line. Offseason recruit Denard Span will be donning a Nats uniform for the first time, while Shaun Marcum will do the same for the Mets.

18.05. Blue Jays at Tigers

Jim Leyland is planning to send out his likely regular season starting lineup today (Fielder, Cabrera, Victor Martinez etc) with Anibal Sanchez starting things off on the mound. Brandon Morrow will be the first Toronto pitcher.

18.05. Astros at Phillies 

Bo Porter manages the Astros for the first time against the veteran Charlie Manuel. Phillies fans will enjoy the sight of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard taking the field after both missed Spring Training last year, as well as a significant chunk of the regular season, due to injuries.

18.35. Rays (ss) at Red Sox

John Lackey is another player for whom a supposedly ‘meaningless’ exhibition game will actually mean a lot. He is scheduled to continue his return from Tommy John surgery by pitching an inning against the Rays. When a club is having a ‘split-squad’ day, as the Rays are today, you’ll often find more of the Major League regulars staying at home rather than travelling as part of the road squad. For that reason, Rays fans will have to wait a bit longer before seeing new recruits Yunel Escobar, James Loney and the exciting prospect Wil Myers as they will be playing against the Pirates instead.

 

Let the Spring Training games begin

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Don’t let the cold weather outside tell you otherwise. The long winter months are over.

Even if the gritters are out on the roads and going outside without a thick coat, hat, gloves and a scarf on is to risk catching pneumonia, from today you can always settle down in the evening and whisk yourself off to Florida or Arizona.

Whisk yourself off to baseball.

Spring Training games are similar to pre-season friendlies in football. They are not competitive games in any sense. They do not grab hold of your attention and are easy to walk away from well before the final out is made; however, that really doesn’t matter.

Just as the best pitchers will only look to pitch an inning or two early on in Spring Training, fans check in to a game for a few frames to ease their way into the long grind of the season ahead, albeit with the World Baseball Classic due to provide plenty of fireworks in the middle this year.

There are four games to start us off on Friday. At 18.05 U.K. time the Detroit Tigers begin their game against the Atlanta Braves. The other games – Cincinnati Reds v Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals v Texas Rangers and San Diego Padres v Seattle Mariners – all begin at 20.05.

None of these games are being covered on TV and therefore they are not available to watch on MLB.TV (plenty of games will be watchable on MLB.TV over the course of Spring Training); however there should be radio coverage via the MLB.com subscriptions and I’ve long been a great advocate of listening to ballgames. Just like with cricket, baseball suits the medium of radio perfectly and there’s little better than relaxing on an evening with a ballgame in the background.

Details of the MLB.TV subscriptions from a British perspective can be found here including lots of very helpful comments from baseball fans passing on their experience of using different connected devices.

The MLB At Bat app was launched on Thursday. The basic app – with news, scores, stats and video highlights – can be downloaded for free. MLB.TV Premium subscribers simply need to add their account details into the app to then use their subscription to watch and listen to live and archived games.

If you don’t fancy buying the MLB.TV subscription but want to follow games lives then you can pay $20 (£13) to upgrade to the premium services in the At-Bat app that will add live radio commentary streams. Apple device users have the option of a $3 (£2) monthly-recurring fee.

It’s worth restating, to avoid potential disappointment, that the only way you can watch the live video streams through the At Bat app is to pay for the MLB.TV Premium subscription as well (although there is normally one free live streamed game most days to enjoy).

If you think you might want to add the MLB.TV subscription later in the season (at a discounted rate) then think through how much you would use the premium At Bat app (i.e. the live radio streams) in the meantime before purchasing now. The $20 premium app features come as part of the MLB.TV Premium subscription so in a sense effectively you would be paying for this twice if you buy it now and then get the MLB.TV Premium subscription later. Still, if you plan to get MLB.TV Premium for the second half of the season and will listen to plenty of games before then, it might be well worth paying that extra $20/£13 to get the radio streams on your chosen device now.

Free webcasts during Spring Training on MLB.com

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CovHlSqThe end of the World Series and the 2010 season seems much more than a couple of months ago.  However, we’ve moved past the calendar hump, no longer looking back on the previous campaign but looking forward with hope towards the new season and the endless possibilities that it may bring.

It won’t be too long now before we’ve got some live baseball to follow again.  The games cannot come soon enough.

If you love the game and are able to subscribe to one of the MLB.com packages, you know that the end of the season is going to hit you hard.  There’s a brief period of reflection after the World Series, a welcome chance to draw breath, but soon enough the withdrawal symptoms start to kick in.   After a summer spent catching bits of games virtually every day for months, suddenly the players go into hibernation, only emerging occasionally to smile their way through a press conference or two.

So this past Wednesday brought some long-awaited news as MLB officially announced the Spring Training schedules for 2011. 

No, Spring Training games don’t count for anything.  The MLB regulars are off to the beach after five or six innings during the games played in the first couple of weeks and the period can drag on a bit as we all become impatient for the real action to begin (something that might not be such a factor this year with the regular season starting a few days earlier than in previous years).

Yet it’s baseball, wonderful baseball, back with us once again. 

And it looks like fans who do not subscribe to MLB.TV will be able to catch a few games along the way.

The ESPN Dallas site has published details of the Rangers’ Spring Training games that will be covered by radio and TV.  That’s interesting news for Texas fans, and fans of their opponents in those games, but what catches the eye is the comment at the bottom of the main blog piece.

“* The club is also offering 10 free webcasts on texasrangers.com starting Sunday, Feb. 27 when the Rangers play the Royals in Surprise”.

There are no further details as yet as to whether this is solely a Texas Rangers venture of if other (all?) teams will be providing some free webcasts over Spring Training. 

In the past, MLB.com has shown a few Spring Training games as a way for fans to try out the MLB.TV service.  They did so back in 2005 and it was the ability to try out the live service for free (in particular seeing what the picture quality was like on my broadband and computer set-up) that convinced me to sign up for the season, as I’ve done every year since.

So this should be a great opportunity to try out MLB.TV, with the vast majority of Spring Training games being played during the daytimes in the States, therefore during the evening here in Britain. 

The prices for the 2010 MLB.com subscriptions were announced on 28 January last year, and it’s likely that details of the 2011 offerings, and the all important prices, will be announced on a similar date this year.