Warning: Spring stats don’t matter.
Okay, but, ignoring that warning, you have to be stoked about Mike Minor’s start yesterday.
Three innings. One hit.
So far this spring his ERA is 1.80. This might bode well for him this season.
Minor was frustrated last season by the short leash he was on. He’d get to 80 pitches and it was time for him to come out. He said he felt he was “harnessed back a lot.” He said he was never told what the plan was, but all he knew was that they had a pitch limit for him last year and he didn’t like it.
“If a hitter had a long at-bat or something. I was already thinking about the result at the end of the game, being taken out early because of pitch count or innings,” he recalled.
If we think as fans it’s frustrating to watch this steady parade of pitchers, imagine what it must be like to be a starting pitcher who wants to take the ball and finish what he started but not be allowed to.
But it’s a new season, a new regime, and a new start for Minor.
The Rangers could use some great stories this year.