Big League Camp :
I started the day up by the Bowa half field after arriving at around 9:30 AM and watched infield drills and practice. We saw Matt Kroon, Scott Kingery, Nick Podkul and Carlos De La Cruz take ground balls. We then ventured down to the complex - a high attendance day - my guesstimate of around 300 folks or so - I checked with the food vendor on my way out later (he’s selling Italian sausage, hot dogs and drinks) and he said he had a very busy day!
Made my way thru the audience acting in my self designated role as the unofficial fan ambassador of the complex 🤓 - initially chatted with a young man today and his two daughters - he told me that he was from Philadelphia originally but now lived in Buffalo, NY - his two daughters are huge Bryson Stott fans - have seen a lot of that in the first three days of camp - both Bryson and his walk up song are very popular! Had baseball chats with multiple other folks, some from Lima,PA - others from the Reading area, some from Villanova, PA and a few more from South Jersey. Many wanted to chat about prospects - a lot of interest in young catcher Eduardo Tait. Of course I’m happy to accommodate those chats - it’s my charter 😎.
The crowd thinned out tremendously at around noon - those who left missed the best part of the day - a live BP. Kolby Allard threw shortly after 12 PM on Roberts Field to catcher William Simoneit. JT Realmuto, Garrett Stubbs and Aramis Garcia served as hitters. Garcia took an inside hanger over the left field wall. Allard is a pitch-ability type hurler, balls up in the zone are not his friends.
Minor League Pre-Mini Camp :
Andrew Baker, Samuel Aldegheri and Cristian Hernandez each threw live BP sessions today on Roberts Field (time frame from 12:30 to 1:30). Baker showed his signature slider against the right handed batters he faced, from my vantage point behind the plate it has a late and sharp break to it, is a very effective pitch that can force swings and misses. Against the lefties today he seemed to be throwing a change up - it had downward drop and a good speed differential off the fastball. Aldegheri had a very impressive session, he was hitting spots consistently and produced multiple jammed swings with weak contact. He’s got the mix to continue on his path as a very effective starter - had the strongest outing of all the live BP’s today in my humble opinion. Hernandez had decent run on his fastball in his session albeit Marcus Lee Sang did hammer a pitch that entered the danger zone for a left handed hitter and sent it over the right center field fence. That’s a testament to the quick swing that Marcus possesses and the high exit velocity on contact that he is capable of. I stayed around for one more session as every other fan had left - Brett Schulze threw his bullpen session on Carlton field - a good amount of the deliveries were benders and sliders - Brett is a reliever who relies on mix but can also pop the heat when needed. Hitters today in live BP included Marcus Lee Sang, Bryan Rincon, Raylin Heredia, Aidan Miller and Leandro Pineda.
Pitchers who threw bullpen sessions on the seven mounds included Tristan Garnett, Wesley Moore, Trey Dillard, Andrew Walling, Andrew Schultz, Micah Ottenbreit, Mitch Neunborn, Jordi Martinez and Paxton Thompson.
Minor league mini camp starts Monday.
Videos :
I posted videos as I took them again today on multiple platforms - X, Facebook and Instagram - they seem to draw a wide audience - last time I checked there were about 3,000 or so combined views - who knew 🤪😂. If interested you can see the videos on my Phillies - A Fan’s View Facebook page, my Phillies Baseball Fan X page and my personal instagram page.
Back at em tomorrow - weather pending - rain is in the forecast.
Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️
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