Wednesday I turned the calendar on another year, taking the day off from the heat and humidity at the Carpenter Complex.  I returned Thursday to observe similar exercises and drills as the previous couple days.

The format remained the same with the players coming out around 10:00 AM for stretching exercises, conditioning drills, and long toss.  These were followed the various fielding drills for each group – infielders, outfielders, catchers, and pitchers. 

I noticed a lot of one-on-one during drills.  They even had the poor outfielders serve as base running “dummies” during simulated steals and double steals.  In an unseasonably hot September, the late morning temp was already plus-90 with stifling humidity.  Afterwards, batting practice started.

BP was once again held on all four fields with two set up for pitching machines and two for live pitching by coaches.  The machines were set up to pitch high.  Coaches had to reach up fully extended to insert the balls.  As I noticed last year, at least one prospect had difficulty adjusting to the machine.

During BP, players waiting for their turns shag.  There are two groups on each field.  Pitchers who aren’t scheduled to throw shag, too, as well as any coaches and staff not otherwise involved.  You’ll notice in some of the videos that there was base running instruction behind a protective screen at third base.  Players in the hitting group would hustle over to third base until it was their turn again.

I’m guilty of spending most of time on the shady side of the Complex.  So, the following videos may be a little repetitive over the past few days.  They played music today, so I had to cut them short after 30 seconds.  And, when players took too many pitches, I stopped and started a new stream.  So, some of today’s videos will run a little short.

Carlos De La Cruz

Juan Aparicio

Alec Bohm

Bruce Wang

Freddy Francisco

Jhailyn Ortiz and Jhailyn Ortiz 2

Jose Cedeno

Juan Herrera

Luis Garcia, Luis Garcia 2, Luis Garcia 3

Luis Matos

Luke Miller

Madison Stokes

Malvin Matos

Rafael Marchan

Yerwin Trejo

Coaches present include –

• Pitching – Rafael Chavez, Carlos Arroyo, Matt Hockenberry, Brad Bergensen, Les Straker,
• Infielders – Chris Truby, Waner Santana, Tyler Henson, Shaun Williams, Marty Malloy
• Outfielders – Andy Abad, Christian Marrero, Homy Ovalles, Rob Ducey
• Catchers – Ernie Whitt, Milver Reyes, Greg Brodzinski

And today, Charley was behind the cages. 

2018 Instructs Roster

2018 Instructs Schedule link

In addition to the seventy Instructs invites, the AFL guys will be here in a few days.  There are also several guys here who aren’t on the Instructs roster.  I’ve seen Aaron Loup (who left the Complex Monday to join the big club after being activated Tuesday), Nick Fanti,  JoJo Romero, Malvin Matos, Cornelius Randolph, Jonathan Guzman, Adonis Medina, Jhordany Mezquita, Brayan Gonzalez, Cole Stobbe, Waylon Richardson, Colton Eastman, Bruce Wang, Mauricio Llovera, Chi-Ling Hsu (I think).  I also heard that Jake Scheiner will be here soon.  Sixto Sanchez arrived Wednesday and took part in fielding drills  today.  As did Kevin Gowdy.  However, Gowdy was limited to fielding the ball and did not complete any throws.  I’m now concerned that he may not pitch during Instructs.  Logan O’Hoppe is here but also not taking part in drills.  Heard he has a muscle strain.