"There is no shortage of stats and metrics these days that attempt to predict how baseball teams will fare in an upcoming season. But there is one area lacking in all of it: human will, and how certain players can push themselves to be better than even the best analytical models could have foreseen. The foundation is laid over the winter, when pitches are learned and swing mechanics are tweaked and bodies are molded."
"Athletics: SP Gage Jump The Athletics' pitching might be lagging way behind their hitting at the major league level, but the team has built some really intriguing starting-pitching depth in their minor league system. Jump headlines that group, and people within the organization have identified him as the most likely to force their hand and trigger an earlier-than-expected callup this season."
Predictive statistics and metrics proliferate, but human will remains an underrepresented factor in forecasting baseball performance. Offseason work on pitching, swing mechanics and conditioning creates the base for potential breakthroughs. Coaches, managers, executives and scouts from all 30 major-league teams identified players they are most excited to see in spring training, with sizable year-to-year growth becoming the prevailing theme. With camps opening in Florida and Arizona, one player to watch was chosen for each team. Most of those players are believed by sources to have the capacity to exceed predictions and force unexpected roster moves, such as A's left-hander Gage Jump, a 22-year-old drafted No. 73 in 2024 who posted a 3.28 ERA between High-A and Double-A, struck out 28.4% of hitters and saw his fastball velocity tick up.
Read at ESPN.com
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