Today was a quiet day at Pirate City. And I’m not just talking about the on-field activities. For the last week I would show up around 10 AM, about four hours before minor league camp kicked off, giving enough time to watch the end of major league camp. The press room would either be packed, or full to the point where a few people would have to move to create a space.
I walked in today and had the room to myself. The room and all of the free mini muffins and pastries that I swore I wouldn’t eat while I’m down here.
There were five pitchers who threw bullpens today, and several groups who took batting practice. However, the day was a pretty short one compared to the last week. It will probably be that way for a few days.
A lot of minor league players have reported, but the full camp doesn’t report until Sunday. The first games aren’t until March 14th, although I’d imagine there will be a few inter-squad games starting March 11th.
Until the games take place, I’ll be limited to watching specific players run specific drills. I’ve been uploading some video of some of the interesting hitting prospects in the lower levels. There was the Josh Bell batting practice, the Elvis Escobar video, and the Jose Osuna video from today. The next week will probably include more of that.
Looking at tomorrow’s schedule, I’ll probably focus on Candon Myles doing base running drills, Gift Ngoepe doing infield fielding drills, and/or focusing on a few players hitting in the batting cages. If you have any requests for something you’d like to see, leave it in the comments.
The action tomorrow starts around 7:45 AM and runs through around 11:00 AM. I’ll be on 93.7 The FAN just after 9:00 AM.
Links and Notes
**The Pirates kicked off their Spring Training schedule with an intra-squad game. Here is Kristy’s recap of the game.
**A.J. Burnett underwent successful surgery and will be out 8-12 weeks. One of the reasons I liked the Burnett addition is because he added a lot of innings to the rotation, which would be important when a starter eventually went down. I don’t think anyone expected Burnett to be the starter going down. It’s funny how that works.
**Kristy looks at the prospects who are playing in their first big league camp.
