March 1st, the Phillies became the talk of the sports world when they lost 6-2 to Division II, Tampa University.   Aaron Altherr had a nice game as did Elvis Araujo.  I attended the game and covered it in an earlier story.

Mike Nesseth and Seth Rosin were added to Spring training as non-roster invitees (NRI).  Nesseth was also added to the 40-man roster, brining the total number of players on the roster to 41, where it still stands as of Friday.

March 3rd, the Phillies blew a 4-run lead in the top of the 9th inning of their Grapefruit League opener and settled for a 5-5 tie against the Yankees.  The Yankees’ Aaron Judge stroked a 3-run home run off Mario Hollands.  Dave Buchanan, Jerome Williams, Joely Rodriguez, and Jeanmar Gomez held the Yankees to 1 run through 8 innings, scattering 8 hits.  The Phillies collected 6 of their 8 hits and 4 of their 5 runs off Yankees’ prospects Luis Severino and Jacob Lindgren.  Ryan Howard, Cody Asche, and Altherr drove in runs and Howard went 2 for 2.

March 4th, the Phillies defeated the Yankees in Tampa, 3-1.  Odubel Herrera went 3-4, scoring 2 runs and stealing 3 bases.  Cord Phelps, Maikel Franco, and Altherr drove in runs.  Kevin Slowey, Paul Clemens, Ethan Martin, Hector Neris, and Justin De Fratus held the Yankees to 1 run on 5 hits.

March 5th, the Phillies travelled to Kissimmee and lost 6-3 to the Astros.  Domonic Brown, Asche, Cameron Rupp, and Andres Blanco each had 2 hits.  Asche, Chris Nelson, and Brown each drove in a run.  Cliff Lee made his first start and pitched well.  Miguel Gonzalez, Phillippe Aumont, and Sean O’Sullivan were eached touched for two runs.  Araujo and Cesar Jimenez each pitched scoreless innings.  Araujo recorded 2 strike outs.  The Phillies managed 3 hits and a run in two innings off Astros’ #2 prospect Mark Appel.

March 6th, the Yankees split squad came over to Clearwater and beat the Phillies 4-1.  Cole Hamels made his first start.  He looked sharp in 2 scoreless innings.  Nefi Ogando, Jake Diekman, Andy Oliver, and Luis Garcia pitched scoreless innings.  Oliver struck out 4 in his 2 innings.  Nesseth got roughed up for 3 runs in 1 inning.  Ken Giles allowed 1 run in his 1 inning.  Herrera got another hit but the offense was provided by Xavier Paul on his 7th inning solo home run.  Six Yankee pitchers held the Phillies to 4 hits.

Over at the Complex today, I watched pitchers and infielders run through some fielding drills.  They broke for BP for position players 5 pitchers.  At this point, I realized I could very well be watching a large portion of the IronPigs roster and their starting rotation (except for a couple additions and subtractions) – Joseph, Rupp, Hill, Blanco, Hernandez, d’Arnaud, Nelson, Phelps, Altherr, Bogusevic, Mastroianni, Clemens, O’Sullivan, Slowey, MAG, and Rodriguez.  Aaron Rowand pitched a portion of BP.

Joseph looked comfortable swinging the bat.  Rupp launched several bombs over the left field fence.

A lot of young players were coming and going during practice.  Minor league position players are scheduled to report tomorrow.  Hopefully group rosters and practice schedules will be available at their first scheduled practice on Sunday.