Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle was over at Pirate City today, instead of being in Fort Myers for this afternoon’s game. There were also a few major leaguers in camp, with Jason Grilli and Charlie Morton both getting a lot of attention. Notes below.
**Grilli pitched an inning against the New York Yankees high-A squad. He didn’t have much trouble, getting two groundouts and a strikeout. The notable thing about today is that it was the first time this Spring that Grilli has pitched on back to back days. Grilli said he’ll take a few days off, then pitch about two more times before the start of the season.
“My arm’s live, it feels good,” Grilli said. “All my pitches are right where I want them to be, and now it’s just turn on the lights and sing the anthem and let’s do it for real.”
**Charlie Morton threw a 30 pitch bullpen session today, then threw some live batting practice to the short-season hitters. Morton threw to a few batters, sat down for five minutes, then got back up and threw a few more pitches, simulating an inning break. Pretty much everyone was watching Morton when he threw. That included Hurdle, Assistant General Manager Kyle Stark, Special Assistant to the GM and former Minor League Pitching Coordinator Jim Benedict, Minor League Director Larry Broadway, and Minor League Pitching Coordinator Scott Mitchell. Below is a video of Morton throwing to outfielder Elvis Escobar.