Hyun-Jin Ryu struck out five Indians yesterday, including getting Ryan Rohlinger, Drew Stubbs & Jason Kipnis all in the third inning, the highlight of what was generally a positive outing for him.

MLB.com’s A.J. Cassavell liked it:

For three innings on Wednesday, Dodgers left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu showed the kind of stuff that made him five-time strikeout king of the Korea Baseball Organization.

Never mind the fourth inning in which Ryu surrendered a couple of hits and was charged with two runs. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly — who made the trip to Goodyear, even with most of his starters in Glendale, specifically to get a good look at the Dodgers’ $62 million investment — came away impressed.

Those earned runs on his line didn’t do his outing much justice. Ryu looked very sharp, and he highlighted his day by striking out the side — all looking — in the third inning.

So did Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, and Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times, and so on. But on the other side is ESPN’s Keith Law, who is decidedly not a fan in an article that went up earlier today. It’s behind the paywall, so I won’t reproduce it here. Law likes Ryu’s changeup, calling it “very good” and a 55-60 on the 20-80 scouting scale, and the deception his odd motion causes, but little else. He had Ryu’s fastball not getting above 90 and not having enough movement to fool hitters, and his curve and slider as being mediocre.

I imagine that most Dodger fans will read Law’s words and think that he’s “anti-Dodger” or looking for negativity in the face of a successful outing. It’s only natural of us to think that way, right? We see a pitcher who the team invested millions in getting outs, and our instinct is to think that Law is simply looking to be contrary, and that’s not entirely unfair given Law’s well-earned snarky reputation.

Yet I look at that report and I wonder what exactly it is that we can point out as being patently unfair. We always knew that Ryu’s plus offering was his changeup, which Law acknowledges, and there were always questions about his secondary offerings. I suppose you can quibble a bit about Law’s evaluation of Ryu’s fastball, but Law was in the stands and we weren’t.

Though I respect him, it’s not that Law is unquestionably correct, either, because I’m not going to make any kinds of judgement after three spring outings — it’s still only March 6. Maybe Law’s assertion that he doesn’t “see more than a fringy fourth starter here” is right, and maybe Ryu has more to offer when he’s acclimated and in games that actually count. But the one thing we should all know better than is to judge off of spring stats, and while Ryu’s line yesterday looks nice, understand that Rohlinger is a Quad-A guy and Stubbs was one of the worst regular hitters in the game last year.

Ryu doesn’t need to earn his entire contract this March, but we do need to be cognizant that he’s far from a sure thing, with much to prove. That’s the case no matter how many minor leaguers he strikes out in spring, and no matter how many less-than-stellar scouting reports from guys like Law we see.

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Today’s game against Texas (lineups at right) features Vin Scully on the air, which is nice, because — yikes, that lineup. At least we get a chance to see Yasiel Puig on TV? Chad Billingsley starts, and Peter Moylan, Mark Lowe, & Josh Wall should all see time as well.

Oh and there’s this:

#orioles continue to scout Harang, Lilly and Capuano with Dodgers. Any would fit as veteran starter.

— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) March 7, 2013

Lilly!