April 4th, 2022 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka * * *
“Meaningless Spring Training games.“
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Keep saying it over and over again, and perhaps you’ll buy into it.
Perhaps.
We all know that regardless of how good – or bad – Spring Training games are, they don’t count once the regular season begins. But let’s be honest here, nobody likes to lose a baseball game – Spring Training or otherwise, right? But keep saying it if it makes you feel better: “Meaningless Spring Training games.”
It doesn’t make me feel better – not one bit.
Why, you ask?
Because if a Major League Baseball player – especially a pitcher – doesn’t do well during “Meaningless Spring Training games,” chances are pretty good that it will carry over into the regular season – at least at the beginning of the regular season.
Walker Buehler hasn’t done well in his two “Meaningless Spring Training games,” and his next start will be on Friday, April 8, against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, which is Opening Day of the Dodgers 2022 regular season. In other words, it will not be “Meaningless.”
After his less-than-ideal “Meaningless Spring Training game” against the Angels of Anaheim at Angels Stadium on Sunday evening, the 27-year-old Lexington, KY native and Dodgers first-round draft pick in 2015 out of Vanderbilt told reporters that he is “…more built-up” this season than in past seasons despite an abbreviated Spring Training due to the pandemic.
“I threw some good pitches, I threw some bad ones, and they hit some out,” Buehler said after his 5.0 innings pitched on Sunday, during which he allowed five runs on five hits, including three home runs and a double. “I’m always tinkering with stuff, and maybe I tinkered a little too much. I gave up a couple homers on my changeup and struck some guys out with my changeup. It is what it is.”
“I would like to pitch better, but the velocity was close,” Buehler added. “My stuff was all right, so I’ll be all right. It felt good to go 85 [pitches]. You want to be really good, and I wasn’t, but that’s fine. I’m more built-up than I have been in Spring before, so it’s all good.”
And then there’s Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who is the grandmaster at finding the tiniest ray of sunshine in otherwise dark situations.
“Obviously, the results tonight weren’t ideal,” Roberts said postgame. “He was working on some things, the changeup being one. I think there were some misfires with the fastball; they took some good swings. But like we say throughout Spring Training with a starting pitcher, get that build-up, gets the innings logged, and then he’ll be ready for Opening Day.”
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)
What about you, Dodgers fans? How confident are you that the guy making his first-ever Opening Day start five days from now will be ready … when the games are no longer “Meaningless?”
Play Ball!
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Posted in 
I think the Dodgers are going to get off to a very slow start, hope I’m wrong.
I hope so, too.
Unlike many (most), I have never considered Spring Training games as ‘meaningless’ (as if you couldn’t tell). Although the stats may not count towards the regular season, a good Spring (or bad Spring) builds (or takes away from) a player’s confidence heading into the new season, and you simply cannot put a price tag on this.
i don’t consider them meaningless but i don’t worry about pitchers of this caliber as long as it isn’t injury or mechanically driven. i recall several greats and especially maddux discussing their ST strategies (after their careers concluded).
maddux used to make specific pitches for learning purposes. of course the professor was a rare breed indeed but he would put that information into the files and throw a similar pitch in critical situations with enough variation to get his desired result. on the other hand, i worry very much when hitters cant seem to find their stroke or timing at this point. the collective batting averages of our key guys and they way many of them look at the plate is a concern.