Spring Training Spotlight: Who Is Michael Ryan?
Michael Ryan is out to prove one simple thing this spring: That age, like the designation on his back, is just a number.
Typically in Spring Training, the higher the number on your uniform, the lower your chances are of making the big league squad.
At least, that's how it's supposed to work.
Ryan plans on changing that.
Decked out in his bright red No. 83 jersey, the 32-year-old minor league outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim is working to help fans and scouts alike focus on the numbers that really matter.
Through 13 games this spring—just about halfway to Opening Day—Ryan is batting .389 with seven RBI, including one bomb of a home run. In the field, he's shown surprising range and a cannon arm, gunning down a runner at the plate in Tuesday's victory over the San Diego Padres.
In that game, he also belted his second double this spring. It came with an RBI attached, naturally.
As starters go, only catcher Mike Napoli and first baseman Kendry Morales have even come close to Ryan's production. Each is hitting at a .333 clip, and while Nap leads all of Spring Training with four homers, he has only seven RBI.
Morales, for his efforts, has one big fly and five runs driven in.
Ryan's competition in the outfield has fared far worse.
Juan Rivera leads the starting three with a .211 average and the trio has zero home runs with only four RBI combined.
Backup utility man Robb Quinlan is sitting none too pretty with a .182 average and just one extra-base hit. Minor league outfielder Terry Evans isn't looking much better at .200.
Elsewhere, bench-warmers Reggie Willits and Chris Pettit are both sidelined with injuries, the latter projected to miss the entire 2010 season.
Now, the majority of the names mentioned here who are guaranteed to make the club come April 5. But for a guy like Evans, the future is not so certain.
The Angels' minor league All-Star is out of minor league options, meaning if he fails to break camp with the major league squad, he will be released.
Evans is fighting this spring for his professional life, and where he once seemed like a lock to make the Opening Day roster, his lack of production thus far is putting his future with the Angels in jeopardy.
If ever there was a time for Ryan to step up, it's now.
Ryan played sporadically at the big league level for the Minnesota Twins from 2002-2005, where he showed flashes of talent but was ultimately done in by inconsistency.
He popped up on the radar with the Florida Marlins last season, but a lackluster spring kept him from returning to the major leagues.
This year, he seems to be playing with a renewed determination that may have been missing before. Not many guys suddenly break through at 32, and Ryan knows it.
However, instead of submitting to old norms or gloomy statistics, Ryan is playing like a man who has nothing to lose. Because at this point, he doesn't.
So he has chosen to push forward, to swing with authority, and patrol the outfield like a Minute Man on the Rio Grande.
Along the way, he's also replaced meaningless numbers with numbers that are hard to ignore, shifting the focus from 32 and 83 to .389/.455/.667.
Typically, the higher those numbers are, the higher your chances are of playing beyond Spring Training.
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