Feb. 18, 2018
Pro tip: if you want to catch home run balls flying out of catchers’ batting practice (between 9 and 9:30), play back rather than hang on the back fence. If you hang on the fence, the girl in red will already own the ball by the time you get there.
While watching the guys head to today’s Circle of Trust, I spotted Max Scherzer sporting one of the new bucket caps. I yelled “Hey, Max, I’m wearing your shirt!” (I was wearing the Hit Like a Pitcher shirt he had made after the 3-run homer). Got a “Sweet!” from him.
The Circle of Trust finally looked like a circle after many days of practice. Good job!
https://twitter.com/Bernie_Gilbert/status/965292549106782209
After the Circle breaks up, the pitchers who aren’t throwing head over to a field for stretching. As you can see, these guys are NOT synchronized. And if you look in the back of the photo, you may be able to see Eaton coming back from his run. Yes, he was running—full out. And being a nice guy, he picked up all the orange markers on the way back in.
Someone called to coach Bobby Henley “Is Victor Robles in the house today?” He responded “No, I don’t think so: if he’s here, I would have heard him!”
Gio Gonzalez was sporting a bucket cap, and went over to the cart to get two more for his teammates. He also heard a song he liked in the playlist, got up and started dancing. Gotta love him, but geez his attention span is short.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, Koda Glover is participating in all drills. I was going to comment on Koda’s faker-than-other pitchers’ pitching motion during the PFP drills, but the sore shoulder explains that which was revealed on an MRI as shoulder inflammation.
Spouse caught Max Scherzer chatting with Shawn Kelley. Looks as if Kelley is discussing his arm and that new-age stem cell therapy.
Next photos are Max during the comebacker drill, Enny Romero in the covering first drill. They do move from field to field for these drills, but no point in trying to get signatures before the end of the drills: they won’t stop. If you can catch them at the end, a lot of them will sign.
B-man was running around again (but with his red plastic bat, not daddy’s bat). Met Mrs. Gott and their daughter (about nine months old). Saw at least two other wife/kid combos, but didn’t get names. The next Eaton is due to arrive May 26.
Max with a snowcone catch in the popup drill. The coach even included some foul pops toward the lines, which I didn’t see yesterday. Could have been ramping up the difficulty, or could have been just a difference between the coaches.
Same as yesterday, field 5 was batting practice and fielding grounders for the early-reporting position players. Reid Brignac, Howie Kendrick, and Brian Goodwin were among the guys I spotted. At this stage of spring training, it takes four guys to cover second.
But the big deal was Daniel Murphy showing up and doing some batting coaching. He looks a bit scruffy, like he just rolled out of bed: hair wild, beard untrimmed, but there he was, giving advice to the hitters in that group. Couldn’t overhear a lot, but did hear him talking about muscle memory and saw him demonstrating some “bat on ball” techniques (Candide may have gotten video). Mike Rizzo came out to that field, and greeted Reid Brignac specifically. As usual, Rizzo was unprotected (on his head).
As we were leaving, I overheard a guy talking with his son (maybe 2 years old). Told son “The players are done playing baseball for today.” Son responded, “But they didn’t play baseball.”
True, kid: you’ll have to wait until Friday. Of this week!
