SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The Diamondbacks open their Cactus League schedule Friday with a game against the Rockies at Salt River Fields beginning at 1:05 p.m. MST, and we’ve got you covered for what you need to know and watch for this spring when games get underway.
Look for young arms early
The names of the starting pitchers for the first three games of Cactus League play will likely not be familiar except to the diehard fans. Right-hander Tom Hatch will start the opener and there won't be a veteran going until Michael Soroka following the weekend slate.
"We're just going to slow play some things," D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. "Everybody is going to be ready and built up to six innings and 85 pitches by the time they take their last spring start."
Different story for position players
The Diamondbacks have a number of players headed off to the World Baseball Classic in the coming weeks, so look for some of the veteran position players to get time in the lineup before that.
"They're going to get on the field early," Lovullo said. "How often? I'll leave that up to them. I don't know what the workload is going to be for them once they leave on March 1, but I want to be fair to them and get them as ready as possible so they can go represent their country."
It’s going to take time to sort things out
No one is going to earn or lose a job in the first week of Spring Training as Lovullo and his staff allow the players to get their feet underneath them.
What Lovullo looks for
When you hear people say that “results don’t matter” in Spring Training, it begs the question: What exactly does matter?
Lovullo shared some insight as to what he’s looking for when making decisions on pitchers.
“The shape of pitches,” Lovullo said. “Mound presence and the ability to step back and execute after a crisis situation.”
And for hitters?
“What do you look like after you make an error or have a bad at-bat,” Lovullo said. “What's your body language like? Those are the things that I'm really honing in on. And then specifically the breaks and movements of players [defensively]. You just find out where these guys are with their confidence level when they're on defense, and then their ability to not miss pitches offensively.”
What GM Mike Hazen watches for
By this point in spring, Hazen and Lovullo have had meetings with each player and know what everyone worked on during the offseason and what their points of emphasis will be this spring.
"For pitchers, it's more about their stuff and where they're at physically, kind of getting a gauge for where they're going to be at the start of the season," Hazen said. "It's also about watching for the things they told us they worked on during the offseason to see what progress they've made from last season.
"For hitters, just the way they look at the plate, the way their swing looks. Again, we've talked with them as well about what they worked on during the offseason, so we'll see how that looks."
Big spring for the young players
With so many players participating in the World Baseball Classic, young players in camp will get a longer look than in a normal spring.
On the pitching side, Arizona fans will get their first look at lefties Mitch Bratt (No. 9) and Kohl Drake (No. 6), who came over as part of the Merrill Kelly trade last season.
"With all the guys playing in the WBC, I'm really interested to watch our young guys go out there and perform against the 'A' pitchers," Hazen said. "Usually they don't get to start games and face the other team's best pitchers and this year they'll get a chance to start a lot of games. That'll be fun for me to watch, because some of these Minor League kids that haven't even been above Double-A will be going against Major League pitching."