4 overreactions to the Detroit Tigers beatdown in the spring training opener

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Overreaction #1: Reese Olson's outing is telling but not like you'd expect.

The Detroit Tigers gave their opening day nod to Reese Olson. Well, the spring opener, at least. Olson's got supreme stuff, with projectability remaining in the frame. There's a ton to dream on, and it's something well covered here at MCB, with our staff being high on the right-hander.

Olson came out working in the mid-90s with his usual slider. He hovered around 95-96 mph on the fastball, with his slider looking the part. The reports from the beat writers in Lakeland had Olson's slider spinning above 3,000 RPMs. The metrics were there, but the results were not.

Reese Olson's slider was spinning in his first inning this spring, including a 3095 rpm offering. His command was a bit rusty, with just 9 strikes in a 22-pitch inning that included a walk and a hit batter, both eventually stranded.
— Jason Beck (@beckjason) February 24, 2024

Olson threw 39 pitches with just 16 strikes on the day. Not the first outing many were hoping for as he battled through the first inning and was chased in the second inning due to pitch count. He finished the day with 1.2 innings pitched, walking three, hitting another, and striking out zero.

He allowed two runs and surrendered a hit. It was not the best outing for Olson, but this is spring ball. It's the first outing of the spring, and pitchers are still ramping up. The stuff was on; a lack of command and ability to work around the zone left Olson in a tough spot.

The good news is that Olson's got time to reset and get things started ahead of the 2024 season. I'm still expecting big things from Olson and one rough outing to start the spring is not enough to sway my confidence in him.

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