Clearwater Happenings
Fun hitting drill
(Steve Potter, a longtime Phillies fan now living in Clearwater, is a baseball enthusiast who files news and notes from time to time for the Phillies Insider blog).
Those not on the travel squad on Wednesday for Bradenton (Pirates) had a full day of work at Carpenter Complex.
There were morning workouts on all four fields. The highlight for me was a hitting drill on the Robin Roberts field conducted by coach Rafael Chavez and overseen by Charlie Manuel. About 16 players were divided into two teams, the object of the drill was to hit the baseball off the pitching machine on a line drive angle. Each got one pitch and alternated in and out of the cage with a hurried pace over three or four rounds. Coach Chavez rewarded points as he kept score for batted balls that qualified within the parameters and would state also if a hit was considered as an extra base knock, presumably worth more points. Balls skied high in the air didn’t get points regardless of their landing point as they didn’t meet the criteria. Consider it a “launch angle” drill.
There were no fielders so the reward was the highest scoring team didn’t have to go pick up the balls afterwards, the losing squad did. It was a very animated exercise as the young fellas got into the competition, fun to watch. A few scouts and I chuckled as the guys reacted to the coach rulings. Of course the team that won had to chirp a bit to the guys who lost as they retrieved the baseballs. It was a great way of getting guys to focus on their swing and have some fun.
An intra-squad game (photo) was held following the 12:30 lunch break. Eight different pitchers took the bump. I was impressed mostly by a couple young fellas from Mexico. Manuel Urias and Efrain Morales are both 17 year old right handers. They each tossed a scoreless frame and showed “big arm” type stuff with good command. You could hear the ball pop into the catcher’s mitt.
Jake Scheiner, who played first, second, third and the outfield at Lakewood, is taking a mini-course on catching. Versatility is big in today’s game. Infielders Danny Brito and Jose Gomez are here now. Also saw Pat Gillick.
