Dave Roberts and his son Cole keeping an eye on the morning workout.
Like a well oiled machine, Padres spring training camp 2014 continued to hum along today without a hitch. The only fly in the ointment has been the absence of newly acquired left handed reliever Alex Torres, who’s having visa problems getting out of his native Venezuela. The good news, as Buddy Black pointed out today, is that he is a reliever, and in general bullpen arms don’t need as much time to get ready for opening day as starters do. He also pointed out that Torres had pitched winter ball, so the time off actually may be a blessing in disguise. All in all, at this point Buddy does not seem at all concerned about Torres’ ability to get ready for opening day.
The skipper also talked about a meeting that was coming up soon, on Feb. 25th, for all the managers to discuss the imminent rule changes about collisions at home plate. There is no doubt that the new rule will be instated, the only question is exactly what verbiage will be used which is what’s causing the delay from officially announcing it. When asked if he and his staff is already instructing players on how to avoid collisions in anticipation of the new edict, he said no. The reason being that he wants to be sure he knows what the rules actually state, so that players are not taught something incorrect early on and then have to go back and teach something different. Once he has the rule in hand with the final language, then he and the staff will advise the players of how to handle potential collision situations and what each players responsibility is. It may be a greater learning curve for the runners than the catchers.
It was a quiet day for the pithing staff today as no one threw bullpen practices in preparation for the start of live BP sessions. Most guys welcome this 2 day hiatus from the mound, just to give their arm and body a little breather before the next phase of throwing to live hitters starts.
The hitters, for their part, are simply getting their foundations set while swinging at coach pitching. Balance, approach, load, hands, tracking, swing path, and rhythm are all parts of the complex hitting mechanism that these batters are trying to knock the rust off of before having to face live pitching in another day or so. To a man the batters I’ve talked with say those first few days of hitting live off the pitchers is the worst 3 days of the season. The arms are way ahead of the bats at this point, but it turns around before long. As the pitchers work through finding the feel of their breaking pitches, and the dead arm periods as camp goes on, the hitters get their revenge. By opening day hopefully the pendulum again comes to the center, and very one is equally prepared to square off.
The drill I enjoyed watching the most today took place on one of the back fields as Glen Hoffman and Rich Dauer worked out the middle infielders. In talking with Jedd Gyorko this morning he mentioned that the main thing he was looking forward to working on this spring was getting the timing back with his double play partner Everth Cabrera. It’s been 5 months since they were last on the field in a game together, but he anticipates the duo getting their rhythm back quickly. If today’s workout is any indication they should be just fine. It didn’t look like they had missed a beat since their lsat game together Aug 3rd just before Cabrera’s suspension.
All in all a very routine and quiet day of camp, which is just fine right now. Everyone is healthy and doing what they are supposed to be doing preparing for opening night.
One note of concern on an organizational level was the announcement today that top pitching prospect Max Fried has been shut down from throwing for 2 weeks due to elbow soreness. WIth all the TJ surgeries that have plagued the organization the past couple of years, the Pads are taking no chances and shut the young left hander down for a minimum of 2 weeks. According to the article by Dennis Lin of the UT, Fried started to experience the pain while throwing long toss at 120′ earlier this month. MRI results were “benign” according to Josh Byrnes, and the pain appears to be more muscular than ligament related at this point. Fingers crossed that the issue resolves itself simply with some rest.
More of the same tomorrow for the boys. Will let you know what happens in mañana’s report. In the meantime don’t forget to answer today’s Trivia challenge (the answer’s already being posted by everyone) and get yourself eligible for some free Padres tickets. Oh, and please vote on the current Poll on the home page as it’s only up for another few hours and we had a dead heat tie last time I checked between Headley and Quentin for the player the Pads most need to stay healthy.
As my good friend John “The Coach” Kentera always says, “Work hard, and play safe!”
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