Spring Into Hope

Today as I worked on the Shooter Fantasy League Rankings (three leagues this year, and yes, I need help), I turned on the Phillies-Cardinals game. Your starter today for the Fightin's is Chan Ho (Pliss) Park, the possible fifth starter and immediately derided off-season free agent acquisition, given that he'a always been an arsonist outside of Chavez Ravine.

Here's the final line for Chan Ho: 4.2 IP, 3 H, 0 Rs, 6 Ks. And that's a Cardinals lineup with Albert Pujols, Rick Ankiel, Ryan Ludwick, Khalil Greene and Colby Rasmus. He had good movement on a lot of breaking stuff, and got some hitters to flail on stuff that bounced. If he didn't have a 61 on his back, you'd be officially encouraged.

The announcers talked about how Jamie Moyer has been helping Park to have more confidence in his change-up, and how he's truly healthy now for the first time in years. He's also grown a freaky three-quarter beard, which just looks all kind of wrong on an Asian gentleman; in his post-pitch interview, I kept expecting him to speak in dubbed dialogue.



(Oh, and nice work by the local affiliate to rarely switch to commercial ion the inning breaks on the HD channel. I knew the economy was bad, but is it so bad as to have no ads at all?)

Now, in the grand scheme of things, does this matter? Probably not: Park has a career 4.34 ERA over 1846 innings for a reason, and the Phils will be his fifth team in the last five years. It's one thing to pitch well in a more or less meaningless preseason game in Clearwater, Florida; it's an entirely different matter when the home crowd is surly and the ball is carrying well to left.

But, well, less of Kyle Kendrick is an almost unquestioned benefit, and it's not as if Park doesn't have the talent and stuff to be an above-average fifth starter and overall asset. If I were drafting in an NL-only deep league, he might be worth a last-round grab. And that, in a nutshell, is why you should never watch spring training games while you are making your rankings...