Spring Training 2011: Week Two Review - Moylan Hot

Week Two of Major League Baseball Spring Training wrapped up today, with many Australian baseballers producing very solid results. There are now 18 days to go until Opening Day, and there are still 12 Australians  in contention for a place on the Opening Day roster for their respective clubs. There are at least four who look to be certainties for starting the season on the 25-man roster (Peter Moylan, Grant Balfour, Brad Thomas, and Rich Thompson), and at least another five who can stake a genuine claim to a position (Brendan Wise, Chris Oxspring, Shane Lindsay, Ryan Rowland-Smith and Luke Hughes).

The story of the week for Week Two has to be Peter Moylan, who was at his unhittable best in a few outings for the Atlanta Braves. Other notable achievements included solid pitching from Rich Thompson, Brad Thomas, Drew Naylor and Shane Lindsay, and some good hitting from Luke Hughes and Trent Oeltjen.

The usual process at Spring Training is to start with a really large squad and then progressively cut it down as the weeks go by. So far, most teams have had at least one cut. At this point in time, only one Aussie - Joel Naughton, the 24-year-old catcher in the Phillies' organisation - has been cut from the 13 who started on day one.

A week for the pitchers


While last week it was one of the Aussie hitters who led the way, in Luke Hughes, this week our pitchers made quite the resurgence. They were led by veteran sidearmer Peter Moylan, who was nothing short of dominant in his two appearances.

Peter Moylan

In an excellent feature posted on MLB.com this week, Mark Bowman wrote about Moylan's rise to Major League Baseball. He noted that in the four-plus years since making his debut in April 2006, Moylan has posted a 2.58 ERA and made 274 appearances, which is 112 more than any other Atlanta pitcher over that period. 


He showed that strength this week - pitching two innings over two appearances and five of the six outs he registered were strikeouts. He was not exactly facing the best talent in baseball this week. Moylan pitched to a bunch of youngish hitters from the Yankees and the Mets. However, Moylan did what he is paid to do, he gave up just one hit, did not walk a batter and made short work of both teams. 

Brad Thomas

Brad Thomas is another veteran relief pitcher who had a good week. For the second week in a row he appeared in three games, although this week he gave up just one hit. Thomas is a guy who had probably surprised a few people with the quality of his season last year, and he is probably not quite assured of a place on the Tigers' Opening Day roster unless he can keep his form up. Tigers' Manager Jim Leyland has noticed the quality of Thomas' spring camp though, and he puts it down to improvements in Thomas' curveball. 'His breaking ball is better,' Leyland told The Detroit News. 'He's more apt to handle a lefty than he was last year'. Apparently Thomas has been working on a new grip to give his curve some more bite. 


Two other Aussie relief pitchers have been getting noticed this week too. In particular, Shane Lindsay has surged into contention for a spot in the Chicago White Sox bullpen. Lindsay has been kicking around the minors for about eight years, previously with the Colorado Rockies. However a couple of very strong performances this spring, including a three-up three-down performance in his debut game for the White Sox. Lindsay has quite a variety of pitches according to The Chicago Sun-Times. He is said to throw a fastball, curve and changeup and is adding a slider-cutter. 'I like it here and what they are preaching. They are keeping it simple, not trying to over-coach me, and they're willing to work with what has worked for me. It's really good...' he told the Sun-Times. 

Rich Thompson

Alongside Lindsay, and quietly going about his business has been Rich Thompson at the Los Angeles Angels. Thompson  pitched two scoreless innings over two appearances this week, allowing just three hits while striking out four. Like Moylan above, Thompson didn't face off against the cream of the crop, but he did face (and strikeout) some genuine big leaguers like Justin Upton and Russell Branyan. Thompson is in an interesting spot - he is out of minor league options. This means that if the Angels decide they want to cut him from the big league 25-man roster, he must go through the waivers process on the way down to the minors, meaning that he could be picked up by another club. Angels' skipper Mike Scioscia has been considering taking a 12 man pitching roster - which would be good for Thompson, however the Los Angeles Times has reported that Scioscia might toy with the idea of an 11 man option, which could make things interesting. All Rich can do at this point is keep putting the numbers up. 


Also solid this week were Chris Oxspring (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 SO) and Drew NaylorAstros number five starter. Perhaps working in his favour is the fact that the Astros are not looking very strong all round at the moment, so management may be willing to take a gamble. 


Aussies with the bat

Luke Hughes

With Joel Naughton dropping out of the big league squad for the Phillies there are just three Aussie hitters left in contention - Luke Hughes and Justin Huber at the Twins, and Trent Oeltjen at the Dodgers. This week all three had a pretty solid week. The highlights were a three-run homerun to Oeltjen as the Dodgers got shellacked by the Royals, and Luke Hughes' amazing consistency. This week Hughes hit two doubles, a home run and five RBIs. His average for the spring is now .333. Of the hitters, Hughes still looks the most likely to find a home on an Opening Day roster. The Twins have been experimenting with him in a number of positions in the infield and the outfield. Justin Huber has not been as consistent or as powerful as the Twins would like, and Trent Oeltjen is likely to fall victim to the fact that the Dodgers have approximately three hundred and forty two outfielders, and just not enough room for them all.

What will we be watching next week?
1. What is going to happen with Shane Lindsay? Will he get more opportunities to shine, and will he seize them?
2. Can Rich Thompson keep putting up good numbers, and will it be enough to earn him a spot on Opening Day?
3. Can Luke Hughes learn how to play shortstop or find some other way to make it onto the Twins roster?
4. When will Grant Balfour settle into some rhythm?
5. Can Ryan Rowland-Smith take some positives out of last week's game and build a strong performance?

As always, do what the pros do (including Ryan Rowland-Smith, Rich Thompson and Peter Moylan) and follow me on twitter for all the latest Oz MLB Player updates.