I wasn’t at the complex today but my friend Ron Miller sent me a couple photos in regards to a catcher’s throwing competition held on Carlton Field. Dressed in full gear the catchers received a toss from a coach and then threw to second attempting to hit the top of 3 buckets stacked at the second base bag. There are seven catchers on the mini camp roster, reaching the final round of today’s competition were Rickardo Perez, Logan O’Hoppe, Vito Friscia and Herbert Iser. The 18 year old Perez prevailed and won the prize - a meal at one of the player’s favorite restaurants, Chipotle - it’s within walking distance of their hotel 🤓.
Mini Camp resumes tomorrow - the first round of live bullpens by the pitchers will occur on Saturday. The Phillies have established a pretty cool coaching partnership with the NC Dinos of the professional Korean Baseball League ( KBO ). Well regarded Infield coach Si Hyun Son is in Clearwater and at mini camp. He will spend the majority of the season in the Phillies minor league organization to collaborate/learn on how player development is done in the U.S. From a fan’s view we welcome him.
Mini Camp Spotlight : Catcher Rickardo Perez - will play the entire season as a 18 year old - signed as an international free agent 2/2/21 - Valencia, Venezuela - ‘21 Fall Instructs was our first glimpse of Rickardo in action albeit brief. He appeared to have good mechanics as a receiver and soft hands, we’ve seen that also during this year’s mini-camp. At the plate in Instructs we saw him hit a couple balls into the gaps in scrimmages for extra bases, also seems to run well. Rickardo played in 43 Dominican Summer League ( DSL ) games during the past season posting a .256 average and .370 OBP in 146 plate appearances. The 2022 season could either be stateside in the Florida Complex League ( FCL ) else back to the Dominican Academy for another year in the DSL. We’d like to see him stateside so we can watch 🤞.
Photos by Ron Miller
Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️
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