On Thursday, Major League Baseball took the unprecedented step of canceling the final two weeks of spring training and pushing Opening Day back another two weeks. One had to sense that such a move would be made, especially after the Oakland Athletics canceled their March home games and the Mariners needed to find another venue to play their own games in.
This means that our ability to evaluate players in a competitive atmosphere is at an end, at least for now. Spring training statistics may not mean anything, but they remain the best way to see which players, at least with a casual look, deserve more attention.