Notes From the Field: Spying Surprises in Surprise

Image credit: © Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

With my annual family trip to Surprise, Arizona in the books, it’s time for me to wax poetic about the joys of being a fan at spring training again. The trip is without fail my favorite baseball experience of the season, year in, year out. Waking up and spending my morning hours on the minor league side of camp, almost all to myself and away from the autograph dealers, before walking over to the big-league stadium for an afternoon game is the most relaxing, up-close, intimate setting I can get for baseball at this level.

These days also help me get a strong grasp on the Rangers farm system, particularly on the A-ball and Complex level prospects unlikely to make it up my way to the Double-A Texas League during the season. Looking back on the first article of this ilk I penned a year ago, my spring viewings helped me identify Cole Ragans, TK Roby, Joseph Montalvo, and Cam Cauley as potential breakout candidates, and Cole Winn as one likely to struggle again. If I can do half as well this time around, maybe I’ll be able to convince myself it wasn’t just by dumb luck.

I will provide the same caveat I did last time around: spring training isn’t always the best scouting look, especially in early March as players are just getting back into the rhythm of baseball and pitchers are significantly further along than hitters. Nonetheless, there’s still plenty of value from these looks, especially once you have year-over-year observations to compare them to.