Every damn year

Anthony Rendon was cut from the spring training roster.  BUT HE WAS HITTING SO WELL!!!

Bryce Harper is a man on fire.  HE'LL HAVE A MONSTER SEASON!!!!

Stop.  Bryce Harper might have a monster season.  Anthony Rendon might cruise through double and triple A and be in a Nats uniform by June. But it has little to do with how they performed in what amounts to two weeks of at bats.

We've gone over this before pointing out the guys that led the team in hitting before (Mark DeRosa last year!) and yet here we are again. But it's not being crazy, you say.  I'm not being influenced by Spring! Perhaps if you see what's happening elsewhere, you might take a breath.

Jackie Bradley Jr for the Red Sox is tearing it up.  He hit .270 with limited power last year in half a AA season.  Fans are clamoring for him to start the season with the team,

Jeff Baker is having a super hot spring for Texas.  The 32 yr old career part-time player with declining stats has a good shot at opening the season as the Rangers utility guy.

Shane Robinson is killing it for the Cardinals. He is a feel good story on perseverence and proving something to people.  (lucky for the Cardinals they have their OF set so he's only in line for a small promotion to 4th OF from last year)

Donovan Solano crushing it for the Marlins.  He spent his minor league career as a mediocre average, no power, no patience guy. But thanks to a strong finish in the majors and a hot spring he could hit at the top of the order for the Marlins (though to be fair he might be their best hitter left after Stanton)

Adam Lind is having a resurgent March. He's watched his ability to hit lefties slowly degrade over the past 5 years until now he's just a platoon player at best. They Blue Jays still might waste a month of the regular season seeing if he's somehow regained that ability, in part based on how he hits them in the spring.  How many at bats will that be? 30?

I'm not even cherry picking here. That's really just picking the Top 5 guys by average from the Spring Training stats. You may not think that it can happen to you.  That there is no way that I could be affected by Spring stats anymore, but its a battle everyday to avoid falling back into that trap. It happens to everyone.