Mueller Minute: Josh Donaldson impressive this Spring

I love Spring Training. I get a chance to see all the off-season acquisitions put on the Blue Jays uniforms for the first time, I get to see some minor league players play their hearts out in an attempt to impress, there’s the position battles, the injuries, and the surprises.

This Spring has had all the above story lines play out. We have read about Russell Martin and RA Dickey trying to become battery mates, Marcus Stroman gone the season, the 5th (not 4th and 5th) starter battle between Aaron Sanchez, Daniel Norris, and Marco Estrada, the 2nd base and 1st base battles, who will be the closer, and debate over bring rookie spring sensations Miguel Castro and Roberto Osuna.

All this attention being paid to these stories have overshadowed the very impressive and encouraging Spring that Josh Donaldson is having.

Josh Donaldson will play an integral role in the success of the 2015 Blue Jays and should become an important cog in this organization for the next several years. Getting off to a good start is always important. It gives a player confidence, which in baseball is huge. The great Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is 90% mental and the half is physical.” and I tend to agree.

Year after year players move from one team to the another team through free-agency or trades. Year after year we see players struggle because they are ‘pressing’. It’s human nature to want to impress your new team/boss/co-workers/friends, so we try and do too much with mix results.

Last year with the Oakland A’s, Donaldson started off with a great April and May, but really struggled in June and parts of July before turning it on in August. This was after an equally impressive spring training. The

2014 Month-by-Month breakdown (baseball-reference)

With Josh having another solid spring, the Jays are hoping that he can get off to another hot start; however, they will be looking for more consistency from his bat. The overshadowing story lines I listed about took the spot light off of one of the Jays bigger off-season acquisitions. It allowed him to focus on preparing for the long season ahead, without the media attention typically associated with being the new kid on the team.

2015 Spring Stats

Going into the season, Donaldson will continue go about his business with less media attention then one would expect. The Jays will be carrying several impressive rookie (read more)whose performances will be analysed after every outing. If Josh has a couple 0-4 days to start the season, he rest assured that the roasting won’t be as intense.

People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. ~Rogers Hornsby

Let the real games begin and let’s hope that Josh bring his hot bat north with him.