Hasn’t he already set an example of what it takes to be a successful baseball player and leader of a team?

Would showing up early help all the other players be as productive as Jeter?

Would Cliff Lee showing up a week early help turn the rest of the pitchers that report into Aces?

The whole point of showing up early to camp is for players who may need some extra work to get it. And get more individual schooling from the coaches than they would if the entire roster was here and the coaches time had to be split among them.

If everyone showed up early it would actually defeat the purpose of coming early.

The significance of when they report may have an impact on who the manager decides to keep. But not so much because they showed up early but because it gives the manager a chance to see something from another player who did show up and put him in the mix.

The team doesn’t lose anything by a guy showing up on time, only the ON TIME player is hurt as he gives himself fewer opportunitites to show the manager he belongs.

Now that doesn’t mean coming early isn’t a smart move for a player.
Every spring Pitchers and catcher report earlier than the regular players and as a result the pitchers usually are ahead of the batters in early spring. It takes the batters some time to get used to hitting ML Pitching but even with that extra week the pitchers get the batter have usually caught up by the time the season starts.

This is really much ado bout nothin!

If Castillo hasn’t come early well the only one who will lose because of that is Castillo! A guy we really don’t want to keep anyway!

As for Bay, it would be nice if he came early due to his poor season. He came early last year though and look how great that worked out for his numbers.

It really doesn’t matter when they show up to ST, what does matter is what they do once they get there!
Only players who are fighting for a position really need to get there because you wouldn’t want the coach to fall in love with your competition while you were not around!

Shouldn’t he be setting an example?

it’s easy to forget that in 2009, up until he got hurt, he was having a huge year. And last september, he was crusing the ball.

so it doesn’t look like his skills have gone anywhere, so if his leg really is OK to play, could have a big year (and he is playing for his last contract, so most likely he isn’t letting a minor ache or pain stop him from playing!)

a normal Reyes and Beltran season, any kind of improvement from Ike and Bay rebounding to something passing for his normal year, and this lineup can score a lot of runs.

Will you wear the brace?”I have to wear the brace, but what happened is the brace I was wearing last year, I have to readjust it because my quad got bigger and it doesn’t fit properly.” Is the new brace lighter?”No. The same.” But you said the brace wasn’t the factor limiting your mobility?”No. For me the problem was I didn’t spend a lot of time doing what I do — being in the outfield, hitting in the cages. Physically right now I feel great. Hitting-wise, I feel good. I don’t feel like I’m compensating at all. All the training that I did, I did it without the brace because I wanted to make sure my quad was responding well. And it responded well. When I play, I probably will have to wear it, but that’s not going to be an issue for me.”

so yeah, it looks like he might have come to camp in OK shape.

It isn’t like the old days, when guys came in all fat and out of shape, and needed a month to get back into playing shape.

most of the position players could probably work out for 2 weeks of drills, a few practice games, and start the season be early march.

Guys like Reyes who need to keep his legs in shape and build up his obliques, Beltran doing his needed regimen of building up strength in his knee and spend time in a cage to keep his eye sharp.

People think they just go fishing and golfing in the offseason (which they do!) but when they are not doing that they are (the good ones) working out and keeping fit and working on all the parts that need working on.

How well they dedicate to that is more important to their season than the 4 – 10 days they show up early.

Bottomline is if they didn’t work and do those things in the offseason the extra days wouldn’t be enough to help them anyway!