Snowflakes drifted by my window earlier this month, but spring has danced into my heart, people. This is the glorious time when all the seamheads of the world can shout that blessed phrase: pitchers and catchers have reported!
It's weird, but this might be my favorite time of the baseball season. So many questions to ponder. So many teams and players with a theoretical chance to shine.
That said, spring training is not an entirely helpful exercise for fantasy purposes. The swarms of reporters in Florida and Arizona don't have much to write about some days, so out come the tales of veterans who reported in the best shape of their lives and youngsters with as many tools as Mickey Mantle. There's always some obscure dude who hits .800 with four homers in the first two weeks and suddenly seems like a viable fantasy pick.
Yes, as fun as spring training is, it's an incubator for misleading information. You guys know the drill for combating this festering hyperbole. You try to block out most of the chatter when making draft lists. You focus on the two important questions spring training can help answer: Who's healthy and who's going to get a chance to play?
That's it. Everything else is static. So with those two strains of curiosity in mind, here are just a few of the many players and job situations I'll be watching the next six weeks.
Jay Bruce -- The Orioles are thrilled to have Adam Jones, but if the Cincinnati Reds had offered Bruce for Erik Bedard, they would have taken him with little hesitation. He's the consensus best prospect in baseball, a young outfielder who has made hard contact against older pitchers at every level. And the Reds seem to have cleared a spot for him by trading Josh Hamilton. Keep an eye on him in camp, however. With veteran-lover Dusty Baker at the helm, Bruce will have to earn his job. If he does, he might be worth an aggressive bid on draft day, especially in a keeper league. Statistician Bill James projects Bruce to be this year's Ryan Braun, a rookie who can step in and hit .300 with immense power and some speed. Other systems are more conservative but not much. Bruce won't come cheap in 2008, but he might come cheaper than he will again until about 2020.
Evan Longoria -- If Bruce is hitting prospect 1A, Longoria is probably 1B. He was the best college hitter in the 2006 draft and has torn through the Tampa Bay Rays' minor league system. Longoria is a power-hitting third baseman with a good eye who could probably hit .280 with 25-30 homers in a full season. Watch him in camp because the Rays have already made noise about starting him at Triple-A Durham. If they keep him, pay up.
