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What Nolan Arenado's impressive spring training means

If Spring Training stats are indicative of what is to come (and they totally are), then the Rockies' young third baseman is primed for the greatest season of all-time.

By Mitch Hahn
Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images

Welcome to the 48th Purple Row edition (and 152nd overall) of Tuesdays With Mitch, where winter is officially, officially, 100 percent over. Let's get into it.

It seems like every afternoon I open my Twitter feed and see a tweet from Patty Saunds or T-Hard or the good folks at this website talking about Nolan Arenado's Spring Training batting average. He's hitting over .400. He's hitting .450. He's hitting .500. He's hitting .600. It just keeps going.

Well, we all know that whatever happens in Spring Training is always 100 percent indicative of what will happen when the real season starts. So with Opening Day less than two weeks away, I found it appropriate to find out what Arenado's numbers from one half of Spring Training will mean for his 2016 season.

Let's start with a quick look at Nolan's numbers so far this Spring:

AB

R

H

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

OBP

SLG

OPS

35

6

22

2

9

0

.629

.632

1.028

1.660

My friends, it's pretty clear that Arenado is not only primed for another All-Star Game appearance, he's not only ready for a historically great season, but he's about to have the greatest season of all time.

If we project those stats out to a full season of at-bats (using the number of ABs he had last year), the numbers become pretty jarring. Obviously the counting stats will skyrocket. And of course, the rate stats will remain completely unaffected over the course of a 162-game season.

AB

R

H

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

OBP

SLG

OPS

616

106

387

35

158

0

.629

.632

1.028

1.660

Guys, don't even try to tell me that that would be anything other than the greatest season in the history of the game. The last player to hit even .400 was Ted Williams in 1941 when he hit .406. That was 75 years ago! And here's Nolan about to demolish that historic mark and hit over .600! Bryce Harper dominated and won the MVP with an OPS of 1.109 last year. Nolan is about to put up a 1.660 mark. The record for most hits in a season was Ichiro in 2004 with 262. Arenado is about to knock 387 of them. Add in 35 dingers and almost 160 RBIs and ... that's pretty darn good, right?

Well guess what? He's actually about to drastically exceed even those crazy numbers. Here's the kicker:  Nolan is putting up all of those numbers in the thick, heavy air of Scottsdale. Once he starts getting half of his at bats in The Greatest Hitters Environment On Earth, he's bound to improve on the numbers he has put up in Spring Training.

Arenado was, naturally, a better hitter at home last year than on the road. His batting average was 58 points higher at Coors Field last season. His OPS at home was .960, compared to just .835 away from the thin air of Denver. Almost across the board, Arenado was a better hitter at home in 2015 and throughout his career. So, to accurately project Nolan's 2016 season based on 35 meaningless Spring at bats, we must adjust for the bump he'll get when he starts hitting at 20th and Blake.

Here's how I think his 2016 splits will look. For the road numbers, I just used his all-important Spring stats projected to a half of a season. For the home numbers, I just gave those road numbers a significant bump based on last year's production (or my gut feeling, whichever makes Arenado look better; please don't check any math on this).

AB

R

H

HR

RBI

AVG

OBP

SLG

OPS

ROAD

308

53

194

18

79

.629

.632

1.028

1.660

HOME

308

65

220

25

100

.700

.710

1.200

1.910

TOTALS

616

118

414

43

179

.665

.671

1.114

1.785

The numbers speak for themselves. Nolan Arenado is about to shatter almost every single-season offensive record in the history of our nation's pastime.

For some reason, there's a lot of negativity surrounding the Rockies as we approach the 2016 season. Me? I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the greatest single season the world has ever seen.

Now we proceed to the weekly departments...

Instead of naming studs/asses/Vines of the week, I'm just going to present a whole boatload of fun stuff from the NCAA Tournament's opening weekend. Plenty of notable clips and media were produced from both the incredible on-court action to the fun peripheral noise that I enjoy so much. Of we go...

My favorite thing from the whole weekend was this smart-ass response to a condescending and stupid question. Dude handled this perfectly.

You've probably seen Wisconsin's buzzer-beater from the corner to send the Badgers to the Sweet Sixteen. I love this unique camera angle from behind their bench.

Wisconsin legend Frank Kamisky was watching that game on TV and reacted appropriately.

I'm only including this one because this here is a baseball website and this is a celebration I've seen in more than a few dugouts.

These Stephen F. Austin bros didn't really understand how to react to the Lumberjack's mini-collapse in the final minute. I guess staring off to space with your mouth open is pretty fitting.

We had Villanova flute girl last year... Now this poor band member.

While we're on the topic of crying lady fans, this CU cheerleader taking comfort on a big, fluffy mascot's shoulder kind of cracked me up.

These Texas A&M ladies are acting like what I would expect Texas A&M ladies to act like during an epic comeback.

Also from the A&M comeback, the best bench celebration of the weekend.

Northern Iowa's half-court, game-winning buzzer-beater late on Friday night was possibly the coolest part of the opening weekend. This vantage point is a thing of beauty.

Here's a non-NCAA one that's worth a chuckle. This kid tried to look cool for the camera, only to get laid out by a large professional basketball player.

And finally, this one made its internet rounds yesterday. If you're the kind of person that enjoys laughing at the physical failures of young girls (WHO ISN'T?!) then this might be one of the best videos ever. (NY Mag caught up with the girls for a little backstory if  you're interested.)

Happy Tuesday, everybody. Thanks for readin'. See ya next week.

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