If I Had Known People Were Watching...

Many baseball previews had Seth McClung pencilled in as Tampa Bay's closer, so a lot of people were surprised to read that he's headed to Triple-A Durham to start the season, while the rest of the D-Rays kick things off in the Bronx.

Most surprised? McClung himself.

As the St. Petersburg Times reports, McClung was confident both in his position on the roster and in the fact that he was out of minor-league options. Wrong on both counts. As a result, he spent the spring tinkering with new pitches, confident that he'd be with the big club in spite of his 11.57 spring ERA.

The Rays are now expected to use Al Reyes to close games.

Let McClung's demotion be a lesson to you: don't trust stats from spring training. If journeyman relief pitchers don't take Grapefruit League games that seriously, how much effort do you think the real established stars are putting out? Will that aging slugger look as good when the fastballs down the middle turn into sliders on the outside corner? Will that rookie starter continue to fool hitters once they actually start digging in to the scouting reports?

Enough with the games that don't count. Let's play some ball.

Following Up:
In Friday's post on pitchers that will start the season on the disabled list, we neglected to mention Arizona's Randy Johnson. The Big Unit will start the season on the 15 day DL as he continues his recovery from back surgery, but according to reports, he's much healthier than at any point during the '06 season. He's expected to make his season debut around April 19th.

Two other starters were shelved this weekend. Oakland's Esteban Loaiza and Cincinnati's Eric Milton were placed on the 15 day disabled list by their respective clubs; both are suffering from back spasms.

We did mention Cleveland's C.C. Sabathia, whose opening day start was in doubt after the big lefty took a line drive off his pitching arm. But the Indians official site reports that Sabathia will take the ball in Monday's opener against Chicago.

Originally published at About Baseball