Spring Training: “Around the Horn”
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With the first spring training exhibition games set to begin on Wednesday, this blog is checking out the news at some of the training camps.
In Tampa, the Yankees are reporting that right fielder Bobby Abreu, obtained from the Phillies at the end of July, 2006, could miss a few weeks of exhibition play, according to Yanks manager Joe Torre, after having suffered a strained right oblique muscle. For the Yanks, it looks like more training at-bats for outfielders Melky Cabrera, Kevin Thompson and Kevin Reese while free agent outfielder Bernie Williams apparently remains out in the cold.
Apparently Yanks GM Brian Cashman does not share Torre’s assessment of
of Abreu’s strain. MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch reports;
“He had a significant oblique strain, and it could be timely,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “I know Joe said two weeks, and I’ll probably say three weeks. But we’ll see. It could be one week.”
Torre said that Opening Day is not considered to be in jeopardy for Abreu, who batted .330 with seven home runs and 42 RBIs in 58 games for New York last season after being acquired from the Phillies on July 30.
“You’re happy that it happened at this juncture because you do have time,” Torre said. “The only thing he’s going to have to do is basically keep his sanity and keep in shape. He’s going to be limited on what he can do, conditioning-wise.”
Cashman was less optimistic, saying that he could envision a situation in which Abreu was not ready for the Yankees’ April 2 opener against Tampa Bay. That would be a “worst-case scenario,” however, with Abreu returning to action too late to round into regular-season form.
“If it was going to happen, you’d rather it happen on Feb. 26 than June 26, or March 26,” Cashman said. “Right now, I know where he’s going to be spending his days.”
Abreu is expected back to the team’s complex on Tuesday, but will be limited over the next few weeks to simple cardiovascular exercises, such as riding a stationary bicycle. He will be unable to throw or swing a bat, which will put his readiness behind the Yankees’ active outfielders.
“The only bad part about this is that you basically shut down,” Torre said.
In the spring training home of the Washington Nationals, Viera, Fla., things are not all fire and brimstone or head to the grindstone as the Nationals prepare to try to make a dent in the NL East.
Washington Post staff writer Barry Svrluga relates a human interest story;
Each morning when Robert Fick walks into the clubhouse at Space Coast Stadium — shades covering his eyes, hat cocked a bit sideways on his head, Starbucks in his hand — the rest of the Washington Nationals brace for whatever might follow.
“Look at him, right now,” reliever Ray King said Saturday. “He looks like he’s ready to do something silly.”
Such is Fick’s reputation, a 32-year-old cross between class clown and traffic cop. His stream of jokes is endless, his wit biting, his boundaries nonexistent and, as King said, “no one’s off limits.”
But what the Nationals don’t know about Fick is that right now, this is all just an escape. Jokes, baseball, hanging with the guys. “This isn’t life,” Fick said. “This is a game.”
two weeks ago, as he closed the door to his Southern California home and headed east for spring training, Fick had just one inescapable thought.
“I’m probably never going to see my mom again,” he said Saturday. “She’s probably going to die.”
Gloria Fick is 75. She is stricken with lung cancer. She doesn’t leave her home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., has a portable oxygen machine, eats little more than grapes and carrot juice, has refused chemotherapy and radiation and surgery and, her son said, believes she is going to beat the disease. A year ago, she was told she had two months to live. She is still here.
“The doctors are amazed,” said Robert’s older brother, Joe. “She really thinks she can trick the disease.”
Unbeknownst to the rest of the clubhouse, he is now an example of how to keep his personal travails from affecting anyone else. “I don’t need anybody’s sympathy,” he said.
“I wish all mothers could have this,” Gloria Fick said. “He’s a great kid. You’ve always been there for them, but when you need them, they’re there for you.”
Robert has been through this once before, when he was coming up through the Detroit Tigers’ system. His father, Charles, had been sick most of Robert’s life, beginning with open heart surgery six months before Robert was born, continuing with the insertion of nine pacemakers into his chest. But in the summer of 1998, Charlie Fick’s youngest kid made his way to the majors. A gang of perhaps 20 Ficks — Charlie included — made its way to Kansas City for Robert’s second series as a big leaguer.
Charlie Fick was so ill he was afforded use of a private elevator and had to be carried to his seat at Kauffman Stadium. That night, Sept. 21, Robert hit his first major league home run, his dad looking on. The following night, he hit another.
“It wasn’t his only dream for his son to play in the big leagues,” Fick said. “But he sure did want that for one of his boys.”
By Thanksgiving, Charlie Fick was dead. Robert was 24. Now, all his bats, all his gloves, bear the word “Charlie.” “He was my best friend in the world,” Fick said.
Now, he feels as if he is preparing to lose another friend. Because he is gone nine months of the year, because his brothers and sisters have families to tend to, he said he felt the offseason was “my turn” to take care of Gloria.
“I would tell her every day,” he said, “‘There isn’t anywhere in this world I’d rather be than here with you.’ . . .
“My mom raised eight kids. I know everybody says they have the best mom in the whole world, but my mom has set the best example my whole life. Now, she’s setting this example when she’s dying. Dude, it’s unbelievable how tough she is and how disciplined she is, the way she’s fighting it.
“Most people would quit. She really thinks she’s going to get better.”
The din in the clubhouse continued in the background. Robert Fick — catcher, comedian, caretaker — continued to speak quietly.
“I don’t know if that’s the case,” he said. “It wears on me every day.”
In Port St. Lucie, the Mets apparently have found a new dimension to outfielder Lastings Milledge’s game. MLB.com’s Marty Noble reports;
The Mets still can swing the bats. The offseason has not changed that, evidenced by developments in the first intrasquad game Monday. Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes hit home runs — Reyes’ came with two runners on base — in a 5 1/2-inning dress rehearsal for the first exhibition game Wednesday.
The most eye-catching play, though, had nothing to do with offense. Lastings Milledge, playing right field, made a brilliant throw in the third inning to catch pinch-runner Fernando Martinez trying to advance from first to third on a single by Shawn Green. Milledge charged the ball and from medium right field made a low, pinpoint, one-bounce throw to David Wright at third, the kind of throw seldom seen in recent Mets seasons.
Manager Willie Randolph said Milledge’s arm isn’t his best tool, and Milledge agreed.
“I hit. I’m here to hit,” he said, aware that any team will make room for a hitter; not so for a guy with an arm.
But his throw is what stood out most on Monday.
Milledge made a few strong throws last season, but none that he or anyone else recalled with the “carry” he demonstrated on Monday. The strength of the throw, he said, was the result of his daily work with coaches Jerry Manuel and Howard Johnson.
Milledge, a right-handed thrower, explained that his technique deteriorated two years ago. He began throwing from a different arm slot, i.e., a different arm angle, and with his left shoulder opening too early and too wide. His throws began to sail.
“I was putting my body in an awkward position,” he said. “It’s like I was throwing around my body.”
With input from Manuel, who helped Cliff Floyd make dramatic improvement in his throwing in 2005, Milledge has concentrated more on technique and essentially forced his arm into the proper slot by throwing an oversized, weighted ball against a small trampoline in the clubhouse and throwing repeatedly off a mound.
“The heavy ball makes your arm go to it’s natural angle,” Milledge said, “and if you repeat it enough times, you develop muscle memory.”
Throwing may not be what Milledge does best. But he does it well enough to be the strongest right field arm the Mets have developed since Darryl Strawberry. And he likes to throw.
“When you can throw,” Milledge said, “you can control the damage.”
And finally, from Phillies training camp in Clearwater, the debate about the #5 spot in the Phils lineup goes on. For previous posts on this debate, click here and here. Personally, I find the idea of leading off with Shane Victorino, batting Jimmy Rollins #5 behind NL MVP Ryan Howard and moving Pat Burrell to the 6th slot intriguing. In my humble opinion, it may be worth trying during spring training where the games don’t count.
But despite all of the statistical mumbo jumbo, Burrell remaains in the #5 slot, at least at present. Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports for MSN;
For the Phillies, that guy remains Burrell, a walking statistical contradiction, and thus the perfect symbol of this complex debate.
Burrell’s critics point to his .167 batting average with two outs and runners in scoring position last season as proof that he is incapable of protecting Howard. Yet, Burrell finished with 29 homers, 95 RBIs and an .890 on-base/slugging percentage even in a trying season. And, in 22 plate appearances after a Howard walk, his OPS zoomed to 1.356.
Those numbers, along with Burrell’s overall track record, suggest that he should be given another shot to hit behind Howard. But so many other factors will help determine how Howard is pitched.
Howard points out the importance of the three hitters in front of him — Rollins, Shane Victorino and Chase Utley — getting on base. His manager, Charlie Manuel, says the sixth hitter, most likely center fielder Aaron Rowand or third baseman Wes Helms, also will play an important role.
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