Today was SOS-Same Old Situation, more of the same PFPs (pitcher fielding practice), catcher drills, bunting practice for the pitchers and batting practice for the catchers.
There was a fairly sizable crowd today. They still haven’t opened up Spectrum Field to the public to watch batting practice for the position players. Baseball Ross is such a dedicated blogger, he had his camera up against the gates to get a few shots.
So I stayed at the Carpenter Complex to get a few shots of my own:
It was a great day for baseball and the Phillies young guns made it even better with a win.
Baseball Ross and I were impressed with the play of Dylan Cozens, Roman Quinn and Jorge Alfaro. We put together a video of pictures and clips along with our thoughts on the game. You can watch the video HERE.
Yesterday, Spring Training was shortened by an afternoon golf outing that the Phillies were holding. Today, it has been raining off and on all day. So what to do? A preview of tomorrow’s game against the University of Tampa!
Baseball Ross and I put together a video of photos and commentary on the line up for tomorrow’s game. Â You can see the video HERE.
It was another day of drills and batting practice. It was also a day of a little bit of levity.
During the pop-up drill, Freddy Galvis came from third base all the way in to the first base line, just in front of the plate…but when he got there, he missed the ball. Not to let him off easy, Luis Garcia who had “pitched” and was backing up Galvis, threw his glove to the ground before throwing his hands in the air and kicking his glove across the grass. He did it with the over-dramatic flair, all the while, he was pretending to be angry. It was hilarious! (There’s photos of this in the vlog for today.)
There’s a ton of pictures including Odubel Hererra, Mickey Moniak, Aaron Brown, Andres Blanco, Nick Pavetta, Alberto Tirado, Elniery Garcia, Cole Stobbe, Jorge Alfaro, Roman Quinn, Ben Lively, Jeremy Hellickson and Dylan Cozens. You can see the video HERE.
The clouds started rolling in this morning but we were able to get a full day of spring training in before the rain came.
It was an eventful day. We saw the pitchers warming up then went to the stadium to watch batting practice. Then we returned to the Carpenter Complex in time to catch the catchers take BP then do pop-up drills.
Baseball Ross and I put together a rather extensive video of today’s activities, you can watch it HERE.
The best picture of the day is when Logan Moore ran into the fence right in front of me during pop-up practice. You can see it in the video above and of course, I keep shooting when he did. This is what I got:
Below you will find some more stills from the day:
The 2017 Philadelphia Phillies Major League Spring Training roster was released today. I am including a copy for you.
Again this year, I was privileged to be asked by Reading Eagle Sports Writer Mike Drago to be part of the “Rank the Phillies Prospects” survey. He asked us to “rank the top players in the Phillies organization from No. 1 to No. 25, based on their present value to the organization and their major league ceiling/potential. (A weighted ballot will be used, with first-place votes earning 25 points, second place 24 points, etc.)”
This is one of my favorite things to take part in as it’s so cool to be included with so many other reporters and bloggers whose work I enjoy reading.
So I talked through my list with Baseball Ross and we realized that we have seen so many of the prospects as they have progressed, save for a few that were acquired via trades or the draft. Â So here’s “our” list:
1. Jake Thompson
2. Dylan Cozens
3. Rhys Hoskins
4. Jorge Alfaro
5. J P Crawford
6. Roman Quinn
7. Mickey Moniak
8. Franklyn Kilome
9. Elniery Garcia
10. Nick Williams
11. Jose Taveras
12. Scott Kingery
13. Ben Lively
14. Tyler Viza
15. Jose Pujols
16. Cornelius Randolph
17. Jhailyn Ortiz
18. Andrew Pullin
19. Andrew Knapp
20. Jiandido Tromp
21. Alberto Tirado
22. Jimmy Cordero
23. Sixto Sanchez
24. Nick Fanti
25. Adonis Medina
As you can see, I have been able to take pictures of all but two, and I have seen all 25 but sadly the two I missed were on days where I didn’t have my camera with me or the battery was dead by the end of the day during spring training. So Ross and I really put a lot of thought into our list.
The list from Drago as complied by all my fellow reporters and bloggers:
Reading Eagle Phillies minor league prospect ranks
(with position, current club)
1. J.P. Crawford, SS, Lehigh Valley
2. Jorge Alfaro, C, Reading
3. Nick Williams, OF, Lehigh Valley
4. Jake Thompson, P, Philadelphia
5. Mickey Moniak, OF, Gulf Coast
6. Dylan Cozens, OF, Reading
7. Roman Quinn, OF, Reading
8. Cornelius Randolph, OF, Lakewood
9. Franklyn Kilome, P, Lakewood
10. Rhys Hoskins, 1B, Reading
11. Scott Kingery, 2B, Reading
12. Andrew Knapp, C, Lehigh Valley
13. Adonis Medina, P, Williamsport
14. Nick Pivetta, P, Lehigh Valley
15. Jhailyn Ortiz, OF, Gulf Coast
16. Ricardo Pinto, P, Reading
17. Elniery Garcia, P, Clearwater
18. Ben Lively, P, Lehigh Valley
19. Kevin Gowdy, P, Gulf Coast
20. Carlos Tocci, OF, Clearwater
Others receiving multiple votes( in order of vote total):
Mark Appel, P, Lehigh Valley
Sixto Sanchez, P, Gulf Coast
Jimmy Cordeo, P, Reading
Cole Stobbe, SS, Gulf Coast
Jose Pujols, OF, Lakewood
Alberto Tirado, P, Lakewood
Alec Asher, P, Lehigh Valley
Thomas Eshelman, P, Reading
Drew Anderson, P, Clearwater
Andrew Pullin, OF, Reading
Cole Irvin, P, Williamsport
Arquimedes Gamboa, Williamsport
JoJo Romero, P, Williamsport
Malquin Canelo, SS, Clearwater
Tyler Viza, P, Reading
It’s enlightening to see where all they players fall per the weighted vote. Of the list, Ross and I could see almost any of them on the list though may be in a different position (as was evidenced by our differences on our list). I will find it interesting to see how this pans out in the future.
Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Starting Pitchers
The Bullpen
Reading Fightin’ Phils
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Starting Pitchers
The Bullpen
Clearwater Threshers
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Starting Pitchers
The Bullpen
Lakewood BlueClaws
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Starting Pitchers
The Bullpen
Extended Spring Training
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Starting Pitchers
The Bullpen
Extended Spring Training Rehab
It started out as a muggy afternoon and by the time the games were over, it was breezy and starting to sprinkle. I was kept busy by having the majority of my pitcher friends all pitching in the same game. There were two major leaguers, Carlos Ruiz and Charlie Morton on the other field. I was also lucky enough to meet two fans and the father of a player who loves the pictures of his son that Ross and I have posted. It’s things like that that make what we do so fun.
Here are the two major leaguers:
And the rest of the guys:
I was excited to get this shot, as Encarnacion hit a homer on this swing.
Now that my foot is healing, I am able to get to spring training almost every day. I feel like I am playing “catch-up” after missing so many days. There are so many players that I haven’t had a chance to see, let alone photograph.
The highlight of yesterday was being able to catch Carlos Alonso’s home run:
Ryan Howard was playing and it seemed like he was struggling at the plate, striking out all three times I saw him bat, though Baseball Ross thinks he saw him hit a double later.
Drew Stankiewicz also hit a home run.
Here are some other shots from the day.
Baseball Betsy 