Overcast conditions with the threat of rain meant for early starts at camp today. We arrived at shortly before 9:30 AM - infielders were already going thru the paces of infield practice on Roberts Field.
Afterwards outfielders went thru their practice sessions on Roberts. Pitchers then warmed up and threw live BP on three fields -Ashburn, Carlton and Roberts. We focused on Carlton and Roberts so missed most of the hurlers who threw on Ashburn - we aren’t privy to the schedule so have to bounce between fields as quickly as we can to see who is where.
I did notice that rehab pitchers Brett Schulze and Jordi Martinez were in uniform and threw bullpen sessions on mounds in front of the David Montgomery training center - both seem well on their way back to joining the regular group.
Live bullpens we witnessed today were Kyle Glogoski, Mark Appel, Micah Ottenbreit, Fernando Lozano, Maikel Garrido, Tommy McCollum, Matt Osterberg, Malik Binns and Jordan Fowler.
The 18 year old right-hander Micah Ottenbreit was very impressive. His mechanics are stellar, nothing is forced and ball comes out of his hand easy. The stuff seems electric, breaking ball ( curve ) has a lot of spin and downward action. His changeup had good fade and the fastball jumped - swing and miss cutting action. He’s got a big frame and plenty of room to expand in strength and velocity - the 2021 4th round selection from Trenton High School in Michigan is definitely a pitcher to get excited about. Sometimes ya can just tell good things are to come, that’s my takeaway today. He reminds me a lot of a young Andy Ashby for those Old-timers like me who might remember the three time all-star from the 1990-2004 time frame.
Today was our first glimpse of RH Malik Binns. The 23 year old was drafted in the 18th round of the 2021 draft from Benedictine University in Arizona. He’s a big man at 6’7” and reportedly has mid to upper 90’s velocity. His release is at about three quarters and there’s run on the heater as evidenced today. Perhaps some tweaking still to the mechanics and repetition of release is in order - we certainly saw promising potential in his session this morning.
Matt Osterberg looks like a solid lefty, the 15th round selection from 2021 from St Cloud State University in Minnesota has a no nonsense approach - gets the ball and gets after it - scouting reports say that he’s generally in the 91-93 range with the FB but can pop mid nineties and has a very good slider - curve and change up complete the repertoire. Matt was a starter in college but might be one to develop in the Adam Morgan type mold - he’s 22 years old.
Videos taken of some of today’s action can be seen using this link : https://www.philliesbaseballfan.com/post/3-16-22-videos-from-today-s-minor-league-st-camp
We ventured up to BayCare Ballpark after minor league practice concluded. Bailey Falter, Christopher Sanchez and Francisco Morales each threw live BP’s but our access is limited to the left field line seats so can’t really comment on how their pitches looked. Sanchez did saw off Jhailyn Ortiz with one of his fastballs, the bat barrel flew out to the shortstop area on the field.
That was a wrap for us for the day, tomorrow the minor league Spring Training game schedule begins - here’s the schedule if ya missed it before.
Word is that Mick Abel will pitch in one of the Dunedin games tomorrow against the Jays, I don’t believe the Jays have opened their facility to fans so I’d suggest to not make the trip over there.
Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️