The New York Yankees are under .500 in Spring Training. Cleveland and San Francisco sit on top of the Cactus League, while the Dodgers, Angels and Mariners are all struggling for wins. Is there any cause for concern here? Of course not. Everybody knows that the standings don’t matter in the Spring. You don’t get an edge by winning the Grapefruit League or the Cactus League. There’s no incentive to having the best record. Everybody is 0-0 again on Opening Day.

The World Series champs are going to be fine in 2010. Their biggest concern right now is where to put Joba Chamberlain. They’ve got Jeter locked up. The rest of the rotation with Sabathia, Pettitte and Burnett is as solid as ever. Rivera has lost a mile or two on his fastball, but his intelligence is unmatched. The Yankees are going to make another run, and a poor spring record isn’t going to affect that one bit.

Perhaps the only thing that can be taken from the win-loss record during the spring is how good the depth of a franchise is. With so many minor league players getting looks, split squad games and restricted playing time for the pros, as many as 60-70 players might spend time with each team as opposed to the usual 30 or so players that might be swapped in and out of the 25-man roster. To say one team is better than another in the spring is wrong. To say that one team just “looks good” or “looks bad” is enough before April.

Spring Training is a long month for fans and players alike. The excitement that ‘baseball is in the air’ again is infectious. But baseball is a stamina sport, and the players need every day to prepare for a long season. 162 is almost double that of any other pro sport, and daily games is tiring. The springtime is mostly for preparation; mentally and physically, and those that get their work in are the ones who are most successful in the long run.