Last night we had some pretty wicked storms come thru the Clearwater area, fields were wet this morning but for the most part they drain miraculously well here ... practice resumed without missing much of a beat.
I didn’t get over the the stadium/complex until around 10 AM or so ... went directly to the Bowa Half Field where I watched a crisp round of infield practice. The group I watched included Guarner Dipre and Raymond Mora at third base, Jonathan Guzman and Christian Valerio at shortstop, Jose Tortolero and Chris Corneluis at second base and Rudy Rott at first base. Infield Coordinator Marty Malloy and Reading Manager Shawn Williams were the fungo hitters ... one thing I’ve always noticed with those two fellas ... they hit everything hard and set a quick pace ... if you’re in their infield drill ya better be paying attention and on your toes 👍. The two shortstops stood out to me ... both very good fielders.
I ventured around to the south side of the stadium to peer thru the gates as we were made aware that live BP sessions would be going on in the stadium. We saw five different pitchers throw twenty pitches each ... the pitcher/catcher combinations were as follows :
Dominic Pipkin & Mitchell Edwards
Jack Perkins & Vito Friscia
Ethan Evanko & Logan O’Hoppe
Luke Leftwich & Colby Fitch
Mike Adams & Nick Matera
Adams is the young man from south Jersey who was signed this offseason after popping the mitt at 98 mph in a showcase. He’s 26 years old and had become a trainer and co-owner of a baseball performance center. He applied the things he was teaching to himself and earned a pro contract with the Phillies, pretty cool story. What we saw today certainly aligned with the reports of his pitches being firm and quick. Cole Stobbe lined the first delivery for a single but thereafter there were quite a few swings and misses from the batters Adams faced. We didn’t see many off speed deliveries and his pace was also really quick ... got the ball and threw it. We’re anxious to see him in game action.
Pipkin also looked to be bringing it pretty good as was Leftwich. Dominic struggled a bit with command ... Luke, coming off an Australian Baseball League season seemed to be the sharpest of the group with his mix ... good to see him back out there after pushing through some injuries the past couple years.
Some of the hitters we saw today ... Rudy Rott, Nate Fassnacht, Jonathan Guzman, Hunter Markwardt, Jhailyn Ortiz, Corbin Williams, Bryson Stott, Cole Stobbe, Matt Kroon, Dalton Guthrie and all of the catchers previously mentioned.
Edwards, Fassnacht and Stobbe each had hits during the sessions from my recollection ... tough to tell sometimes as we’re peaking thru the stadium gates. 🥴
Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️