"Spring Training."  Those two words when combined get me about as excited as any other words in the English vocabulary. Hope springs eternal.  We all believe that our team has a "chance" of making the playoffs and we all think that if everything falls into place and there's a little bit of magic mixed in, this just might end up being the Rangers best season ever.

Unfortunately, this excitement blinds our minds and we start to seeing potential and possibility instead of concrete reality.  The early responses to Julio Borbon and Franklyn German are fine examples of this type of spring training blindness.

Let's begin by looking at Julio Borbon.  There's no doubt that Julio Borbon is a good athlete.  He's very quick and was whenever he played at the university that I most closely follow and support, Tennessee.  He's got a 1.278 OPS at this point in spring training, with a home run, and seven RBIs.  That's awesome, in fact, that's about as awesome as you can be in nine at bats.  But that's what we have to remember.  It's only nine at bats.  Borbon has the speed and athleticism to be a very good defensive center fielder.  But let's not think that nine spring training at bats will somehow trump his college career.

Here's another number from Borbon that you might not know, but is slightly larger than his nine spring training at bats.  The number is 37.  That's his total number of walks in three complete seasons at Tennessee.  When averaged against his plate appearances, he would have the lowest walk rate of anyone on the Rangers in 2007, and that was against college pitching.  His percentage actually declined in his final year of college.  That's not good.  Surprisingly, one of his ten plate appearances in spring training was a walk.  That one walk does not trump his college career.

So whenever I read esteemed writers like Sullivan say, "The Rangers have a definite and legitimate prospect in centerfield," I'm not going to disagree, but I'm going to chime in and say, "let's hold those horses."  Borbon, even if he has an amazing year in A ball this year and AA ball next season, won't see the major leagues until September 2010.  So whereas, he is a "prospect" at this point, I'm not so convinced by nine spring training events that I'm willing to call him a legitimate centerfield prospect at this point.  After all, the B game pitchers he is facing are most likely the same level as the pitchers he will face in A and AA ball during the next two seasons.  Let's see a little more before making such confident pronouncements.

Another fine example of spring training blindness is Franklyn German.  Sullivan calls him "a big hit in camp so far."  Schiller thinks "he can make the team...due to his play," and MLB.com gave him a whole article dedicated to how he has been "impressive" thus far.  With all of the praise thus far, he must have done something really amazing right?  Well, yeah...at least as amazing as you can be in only three innings.  

German is now 28 years old.  He first pitched in the minors ten years ago.  He pitched in his first major league game six years ago.  The scouting report on German has changed little during the last ten years.  He's got some major heat, but he can't control it.  When he cranks up to 98mph, there is no telling where the ball will end up.  That's why in AAA for the Redhawks last year he had a walk rate of 7.02.  That's really high.  Of course, his K rate was really high as well (10.92).  He hasn't pitched in the majors since 2006, and then only for 12 innings.  He has one successful season in the majors, which came in 2005, as a reliever for the Tigers.  He put up a 3.66 ERA in 59 IP.  He also had a much reduced K rate that season (5.80), with a walk rate just behind it (5.19).  That would be fine, but let's not forget that came three years ago in Comerica, which is clearly a pitchers park.

I'm just as excited about everyone else that baseball season is quickly approaching.  I personally can't wait to wake up every morning, log into Slingplayer and watch the games.  But let's not jump the gun and think these guys who have been playing against "B" game players, many of whom are still trying to get into playing shape, are future stars.  German, may be able to fill a hole when needed, but he's no longer the prospect that he was in 2002, and most likely won't make the team.  Borbon has a lot of questions to still be answered, and needs to show that he can play A ball before we start talking about him as a "legitimate" centerfield prospect.