2018 Spring Training Starting Pitchers, concern?

Spring Training Starting Pitching

The chart on the top is from 2018 and the chart on the bottom is from 2017. The idea here is to pick and choose what may be important and to eliminate what is not. The truth is spring training results do not matter much at all. Please refer to the 2017  chart for a minute. Notice that on this list of the poor performers is the AL Cy Young winner Corey Kluber. A more detailed look shows the major portion of the CLE rotation of Kluber, Carrasco, and Bauer on this list! Others that made it are Robbie Ray, Aaron Nola, and Jeff Samardzija. The difference in the two lists is the 2017 version is complete and the 2018 version is not. 

The goal here, for now, is to see if Bundy, Matz, and Nikolas improve as they get stretched out over their next starts. Although Bundy and Nola show up on both lists, they would be a lesser concern if any at all. However, Matz is recovering from an injury so he will need to show better. It is important to have better outings as the spring progresses if you are coming back from injury, missed MLB time by playing in a different league overseas, or are a youngster trying to make the rotation. Steven Matz fits that parameter. Mikolas pitched the last couple of seasons overseas (he is being counted on for the STL rotation) so he too is in need of better performances. Fulmer is trying to make the CHW rotation, just as Ynoa is trying to make the Oriole rotation. Let's see if there aren't any better results for these pitchers over their next few starts. 

Keep in mind that there have been 4-8 innings of work so far. The entire spring should see more like 18-25 innings from each of these pitchers. The lion's share of the load is yet to come. It is just nice to see who needs to be better compared to others.