The kids are back in town!  According to Larry Shenk, about 50 minor leaguers have been working out at the Carpenter Complex for the past few weeks, and the rest of the 170 invited to minor league spring training reported this past Friday.  I caught most of the workouts held on Saturday and Sunday.

I need to explain that it is near impossible to keep track of particular players.  The organization hasn’t broken the players out into their respective groups, nor have they provided rosters yet.  The kids are wearing light gray T-shirts with their uniform pants.  The white lettering on their backs is difficult to make out from a distance.  The outfielders are usually in the outfield when they aren’t taking batting practice.  So I’m really not 100% sure who is or isn’t here.  It has been easier identifying the pitchers, infielders, and catchers. Continue reading They’re here! →

Before the game, the Phillies held a morning workout at the Carpenter Complex.  It consisted of stretching exercises, sprints around the bases, long toss, and BP off the coaches.  I spotted Dugan and decided to watch him and his group which included Franco, Joseph, and Marson, who followed Brown, Byrd, and Gwynn.  I didn’t pay much attention to the first group while waiting for Dugan and Franco.  Dugan started slow but really picked it up after his first two ABs.  He made good contact before launching a couple towering home runs to right.  However, towering drives is not his trade mark result.  Franco launched a couple over the left field fence.  But otherwise made inconsistent contact on his other swings.  Joseph looked good and showed a little power.  Marson had a nice swing and hit a lot of line drives, but no power.  Practice ended, on to Bright House. Continue reading 2014 Spring Training, Intrasquad Game →

Not much to report today.  Just a short practice.  The annual golf outing is this afternoon.

They started a few minutes early.  I arrived after the meeting and exercises.  They were just finishing their run around the bases.

The pitchers long tossed on Schmidt Field.  Cole Hamels was among them, and looked to be throwing well. Continue reading 2014 Spring Training, Day 12 →

So, tomorrow is the last day of major league spring training at the Carpenter Complex.  Tuesday the Phillies are playing an intra-squad game at Bright House Field.  The Complex will be turned over to the minor leaguers for their spring training.  Already there are dozens of them reporting to the Complex to use weight and batting in the facilities there. Continue reading 2014 Spring Training, Day 11 →

Same start as on previous days – meeting at the mound, stretching routines, exercises, then running drills.  Today’s drill had the runners take a turn at first.  When all were in line again, they went from first to third.  You could see the coach watching the runner approach second then looking down to watch the foot placement as each player touched the base.  Kelly Dugan was Continue reading 2014 Spring Training, Day 10 →

Larry Andersen is a special pitching instructor this year.  I had a conversation with Larry during Phantasy week in January.  Larry presides as the commissioner during Phantasy week and spends a lot of time visiting with the people watching the games.  During one of these visits, I asked him about his upcoming stint as instructor and his future in the broadcasting booth.  Larry said that he was supposed to be a special instructor each of the past two seasons but that something came up each year that cancelled his appearance.  He said that he would love to be a pitching coach again and that he would gladly Continue reading 2014 Spring Training, Day 9 →

Similar routine as yesterday – meeting at the mound with Sandberg, stretching exercises, and then base running.  Today, home to second, and second to home.  There was more effort from more players, but 3 or 4 still look like they are taking it easy.  One or two might be going easy due to injuries last year.

Continue reading 2014 Spring Training, Day 8 →

The morning started with a team meeting at the mound on Schmidt Field.  After calisthenics and stretching, the position players broke up into 2 groups on Schmidt and Ashburn and ran drills from home-to-first, and first-to-third.  As could be expected, Utley ran the hardest from the start.  Most others started slower.  Ruiz, Asche, and Frandsen kept pace with Utley throughout.  Rupp and Marson hustled but were handicapped by the fact that they are slow.  Cedeno and Revere eventually reached a faster speed.  The rest maintained the same comfortable pace throughout. Continue reading 2014 Spring Training, Day 7 →

First full squad practice. You would think that there would be more to write about, but I really don’t have much.

After all their preliminary stretching, calisthenics, running, and long toss, the players split into 4 groups – a handful of pitchers went to the “Seven Mounds” (apparently this is their official designation for the mounds between the buildings), outfielders went back to Bright House for batting practice. the infielders and outfielders split into two groups on Schmidt and Ashburn Fields to practice fielding bunts.   Rupp and Marson rotated at catcher.

Schmidt Field included the 6 infielders we expect to be on the 25-man roster – Howard, Utley, Rollins, Galvis, Asche, and Frandesn.  Rollins and Galvis rotated at short, Asche and Frandsen rotated at third.  The pitchers were – Buchanan, Biddle, Diekman, De Fratus, Garcia, Hollands, Lincoln, Jimenez, Martin.  I think Rosenberg, Aumont, Gonzalez, Lee, Kendrick, and Papelbon were also part of this group. Continue reading 2014 Spring Training, Day 6 →

Tomorrow the full squad begins working out at the Carpenter Complex.  As of today, the only guy I haven’t seen in camp is Michael Martinez.  You don’t know how good it feels to finally be able to type that.

Okay, I watched 3 BP sessions  on Saturday, Sunday and today.  Here’s what I saw from the prospects.

Tyson Gillies – First, this guy shows boundless energy.  He seems to run everywhere.  He chases down a lot of fly balls during BP, and does it at full speed.  Saturday, he continued to make good contact, swinging well though the ball with lots of line drives as the result.  He reached the RF Berm on a couple swings.  He’s the only guy I’ve seen bunt after the two mandatory bunts each batter has to lay down at the start of his turn at bat.  I missed his BP on Sunday.  (He was part of a group that batted after shagging fly balls from Samuel).  Monday, he was still making good contact on most of his swings. Continue reading 2014 Spring Training, Day 5 →