Cooper: MLB Gets It Right With Spring Breakout Idea
Image credit: Reds infielder Cam Collier (Photo by Norm Hall/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
I’ve long thought that most fans miss out on the best part of spring training.
The back fields are where it’s at. It’s where the big league stars of tomorrow can be watched day after day for free. There are usually two or three games going on at any moment, meaning there’s never a dull moment. You can watch a top prospect go deep on one field, then walk a few steps to find out there’s someone you’ve never heard of who is making it clear you need to know his name.
On Thursday, Major League Baseball brought the best of the back fields to the big league spring training stadiums.
Long live the Spring Breakout games.
If you’re a Baseball America reader, March 14-17 has just become the best stretch of prospect watching of the baseball season.
Yes, we’re only two games in with 26 teams yet to play in the Spring Breakout series. Feel free to say I’m being premature, but I’m already comfortable saying that by the end of this weekend, we’ll have had our best prospect matchups of the season, even though the regular season is still a few weeks away.
Sebastian Walcott vs. Rhett Lowder? Yes, please.
Brock Porter vs. Sal Stewart? Thank you.
Jackson Holliday vs. Paul Skenes? OK, this is almost too much. Our cup runneth over.
And that was only day one. As good as Pirates-Orioles was, the Mariners-Padres game on Friday will have even more Top 100 Prospects. We’re going to get three more days of seeing the stars of tomorrow get a chance to stand out today.
The Futures Game is great, but it goes by in a blink of an eye. With 50 players trying to get a moment in a seven-inning game, many of the game’s best prospects make the briefest of cameos.
In the Rangers-Reds’ game, Texas shortstop Sebastian Walcott played the entire game. Reds starter Julian Aguiar and Orioles starter Cade Povich each worked three innings.
The Arizona Fall League is also amazing, the only top pitching prospects (at least in Top 30s) allowed to pitch are the ones who missed most of the season.
We got to see Lowder and Skenes, two of the top pitching prospects in the game, take the mound on day one. Many more of the best pitching prospects in baseball are scheduled to pitch over the next three days.
There’s a reflex among many baseball fans to assume that any idea that Major League Baseball has to be a bad one. But in this case, MLB deserves credit. This is an idea that was a slam dunk from inception, but that doesn’t mean it guaranteed to happen.
The crowd for the Reds-Rangers game was good, but not great, as many of the fans decided to wait til the big league nightcap to show up. That’s to be expected, as this will always be a niche event for more casual fans.
But it’s an awesome niche, and Spring Breakout serves that niche in a nearly perfect way.
