As much as I wish I was in Florida I am not in Florida, and so I must point you in the direction of others who are down there. Most of the focus so far has been on major league camp, but with more beat writers than stories it is pretty well covered (though as an aside, they are doing a kick ass job as a group right now). Minor league camp has not yet begun, but there is already a large group of minor leaguers in camp and working out. So before we jump into the major stories here is where to find the good stuff on the minor league side:
- Jim Peyton (@jimpeyton19) – Phuture Phillies
- Baseball Betsy (@BaseballBetsy) – Baseball Betsy
- Baseball Ross (@BaseballRoss) – Baseball Ross
They all do the most important thing you can do, which is to watch the games. I don’t always agree with their conclusions, but their first hand reports are incredibly valuable for knowing what is going on in camp.
The Stories:
As I mentioned earlier, the beat writers have been kicking ass so far. Here are some of the highlights.
- David Murphy on the Phillies slowly building an analytics department
- Meghan Montemurro on Jake Diekman speaking out and raising awareness about living with Crohn’s disease
- Jake Kaplan on Schmidt working with Domonic Brown on not getting loopy and uppercutty with his swing
- Jake Kaplan on Ethan Martin returning to the AAA starting rotation to make up for lost time
- Bob Brookover on Biddle’s 2014 concussion and his road back to health
Overall outside of the forced awkwardness of pre-camp articles about the veterans on the roster (especially Cole Hamels), it has been a good start to camp for the Phillies.
Here are a couple other quick hits from spring training:
- It appears Cliff Lee is healthy, even if we don’t know how effective he is.
- There is still a lot of buzz around Rule 5 pick Odubel Herrera and right now he seems as good a bet as any to make the opening day roster.
- Tommy Joseph appears to not be held back as previously reported and looks 100%
- Adam Morgan also looks healthy and sharp, but we don’t know how much the stuff has returned to pre-injury levels.
- Kelly Dugan is hurt again, which is not good for the Phillies or Dugan.
- No prospects off of the 40 man roster are in major league camp, which makes the whole Aaron Nola thing make a bit more sense.
- Minor league camp is busy, it appears most of the catchers have arrived and many pitchers have arrived or been in and out.
- Carlos Tocci has put on some weight, but not as much as the Phillies would have liked.
Come on Kelly!