Stars of spring training

Spring training is but 28 games and teams may not even play their best players. But let's have a look anyway at some of the players who lit up the scoreboard in these exhibitions.

Whether these performances will continue in to the regular season, who knows. After all, it's just a 28-game sample. And even if someone started all 28, we're talking in the neighborhood of 100 ABs. Or in the case of pitchers, about 5 to 6 starts, and for relievers, maybe 15 to 20 appearances.

Twenty-eight games is almost one-sixth of the regular season so a quick-and-dirty projection of what a spring training pace would look like over 162 games would be to multiple by 6 (or maybe 5.5, that gets to 154 games while x6 = 168). Of course, any projection based on games wouldn't take into account strict platoons.

Three players reached double digits in homers. You'd expect Merrill Creek's Kyle Schwarber, with 10, and Mitchell Award runner-up Shohei Ohtani of Poovey Farms with a DMBL-best 11, and Merrill Creek's Kyle Schwarber with 10 but Hoboken's Davis Schneider, also with 10, was a surprise. As a platoon, Schneider led the league with 8.8 HR/AB, besting Ohtani's 9.4.

The rest of the top 10 HR leaders slugged 9 dongs. Some names you've seen before, like Corey Seager and Aaron Judge of Sardine City, Pete Alonso of St. Augustine, and Philly's Giancarlo Stanton, but also newcomers Junior Caminero of Los Angeles and El Paso 2nd rounder Colson Montgomery, and even Livingston's Daulton Varsho. Schwarber was tops in extra base hits with 20.

Los Angeles 1st round pick Jakob Marsee and Empire City's Mickey Moniak led the league with 6 triples. Marsee was a bit more impressive, doing it in his first 24 starts of the spring. That would project to about 33 over a full season - essentially double every league leader over the past decade and challenge the modern-day league record. It helped Marsee finish 2nd in extra base hits (19).

Hoboken rookie and 1st round pick 2B Luke Keaschall won the spring training batting title, entering the final day hitting .400 and finishing at .392. He also smacked 11 doubles, 2nd only to Philly's Bryce Harper, and swiped 12-1 SB, including 3 against Newark on Saturday to pull away from Jose Ramirez for the league lead.  He also ranked among the top 10 in runs, OBP, and SLG, looking like an early Listach Award front-runner. The same could be said for teammate Drake Baldwin. who started the spring strong and finished with 7 HR and 23 RBI, 6th in DMBL, just ahead of fellow rookies Caminero and Montgomery, both with 22. 

Philly's Giancarlo Stanton topped spring training batters with 29 RBI, holding off Tucson's Jordan Westburg with 28. They were followed by Ohtani with 27, Judge with 26, and Green Lake's Yandy Diaz with 25.

Ohtani should make a run for the Mitchell Award again judging by his spring. He led he league in HR (11), OBP (.480), SLG (.748), OPS (1.228), runs (25), R/27 (14.9), RC (38.0), and total bases (77). Seager was right behind in several categories, including total bases (72), runs (23), and SLG (.667).

From the peculiar department, Vancouver's Tyler Heineman was hit by a pitch an incredible 7 times in 17 games - despite only 6 starts, sharing a weak-side platoon at C. Sardine City's Cody Bellinger enjoyed the longest hit streak, an impressive 17 games. Four players led the league in plate appearances with 133: Philly's Bryce Harper, Juan Soto of Livingston, and Sardine City's James Wood and Aaron Judge.

Overall, Sardine City had the best scoring offense with average 5.8 runs per game, compared to a league average of 4.4. Erie ranked last at 3.3 runs per game.

Pitching

If Green Lake is to defend their title in 2026, it probably will be on the strength of its pitching again. The Gators had the best ERA this spring at 3.32 and were the only squad to reach 300 strikeouts. The next closest? Philly, with 283 Ks. But the Green Rage also finished last in ERA at 5.70. The league average ERA was 4.10. 

St. Augustine's Brayan Bello was perhaps the best starting pitcher of spring training. He was the only hurler to throw a quality start each time out, finishing 5-1, tied for the best mark and most wins with Sardine City's Nathan Eovaldi. He also edge Eovaldi by a fraction for the ERA title, both finished at 0.96 ERA. Bello also topped the league with 47 IP, thanks to a league-best 12 GDP, out-logging the Allentown duo of Kris Bubic (43 IP) and Zach Littell (42 IP).

Livingston's Jacob deGrom aims to make a comeback this season and his DMBL-best 0.68 WHIP was tops in the DMBL this spring, followed by Newark's Freddy Peralta (0.72) and Emmet Sheehan of Merrill Creek (0.81).

St. Augustine lefty Blake Snell led pitchers with 62 strikeouts and 13.4 K/9, followed by Green Lake's Chris Sale. with 47 Ks and 12.2 K/9 (tied with Vancouver's Joey Cantillo). deGrom led all right-handers with 46 Ks, tied for 3rd in DMBL with Trevor Rogers of St. Augustine.

 On the relief end, Livingston's Manuel Rodriguez easily led the DMBL with 9 saves, nearly double that of David Bednar of Arkansas (5). The two were the only relievers with perfect save percentages. The busiest bullpen was El Paso's. Anthony Banda matched Green Lake's Randy Rodriguez for most appearances (22), followed closely by teammates Kolby Allard and Louis Varland (21).

Sardine City finished with the best win-loss record, 19-9 (.679) and highest run margin (55), with defending champion Green Lake just a game behind at 18-10 (.643) and second in run margin (24, tied with Vancouver). They were the only outright "division winners." Then it was a 3-way tie, with Paige Division leaders Merrill Creek and Tucson along with Hobbs Division runner-up Livingston at 17-11 (.607).

The 6-9 positions were locked in at 16-12 (.571) marks: Quisenberry Division leaders Arkansas and Vancouver, and Poovey Farms and newcomer St. Augustine. Should four teams tie at the end of the regular season for the 8th playoff seed, we'd have a series of tiebreaker games. However, since it's spring training, I'll note that Arkansas had the best division record (6-2) among the four, Vancouver was an even 4-4 and the other two were 3-5, but I didn't get into head-to-head.

On the other end of the spectrum, Philly had the worst record (9-19, .321) and worst run differential (-47). Three teams tied for the 2nd-worst mark (10-18, .357): Team Andy, Erie, and Allentown. 

Sardine City enjoyed the best home record (11-2), a perfect 3-0 in extra innings, although Merrill Creek (4-1) and Green Lake (4-2) had the most extra inning victories; Arkansas never went extras in spring training while Vancouver only once, and lost. The Straphangers also hung a 9-1 mark v. LHP, besting Newark at 8-3. Merrill Creek was unbeaten but only 4-0, and sported the best road record (11-4) overall.

Arkansas was a perfect 14-0 when leading after 7 and Green Lake also had an unblemished 13-0 mark. Also notching 14 wins when leading after 7, though each stumbling once with a loss were Tucson, Poovey Farms, and Vancouver.