Spring Training is a time of year to work out the kinks and use unknown players in various situations that will not likely happen throughout the year.
For instance, if Nik Turley ends up starting a game that counts for the New York Yankees this year, I will eat my hat. So, we get weird anomalies in the Spring like Turley, who has pitched one game above High-A, starting against the Baltimore Orioles. These weren't your likely 2013 Opening Day Orioles, but they were nearly all hitters who had long since moved past the likes of the Florida State League. Nonetheless, a Rookie League team might fared just as well against Turley yesterday in some instances, especially when he couldn't locate anything (and not just at the plate either).
First off, he threw away a pickoff attempt just six pitches into the game and caused a weird collision between his first baseman, Dan Johnson, and baserunner Alexi Casilla. It was obviously determined interference... which I guess might have helped Turley. Otherwise the speedy Casilla could have possibly moved to third, but he could only move up one base. You're slicker than I realized, Great Pumpkin, or something like that. The other two clips in the GIF are back-to-back wild pitches uncorked with a runner in scoring position, a 4-0 deficit already, and still no one out. The top of the first inning was just painful for Turley, who departed shortly afterward when he actually got his first out of the game, a strikeout of Lew Ford. His ERA is now 108.00. Spring Training.
Turley was actually credited with an error on that play, one of an ugly five errors on the day for the Yankees in the field. Everyone was throwing the ball away in the infield, as Jayson Nix, Walter Ibarra, and Jose Pirela all fired inaccurately. None of them missed as terribly as Triple-A prospect Corban Joseph, a second baseman who has been spending his first time at third base since 2010. CoJo actually looked quite good on some plays this afternoon, but inevitably, there were signs of growing pains. It was truly a throw that would make Chuck Knoblauch wistful and so spectacular that catcher Chris Stewart later challenged him to a throwing contest with a horrendous misfire on a Ford stolen base. Don't worry though, he still has no Spring Training errors because Ford didn't advance to third. Fielding percentage.
Back in '82, Stewart could throw a pigskin a quarter-mile. He could probably throw it over them mountains.
What did you think of the game, Jorge?