With camp officially starting in just a couple of days, more and more players are arriving (Milone, Rosario, Benson just to name a few) thus more and more is going on in the backfields. Infielders/Pitchers could be seen fielding grounders on the half field while pitchers were throwing under Hammond Stadium, this day however I was not pulling myself away from the Sano and Arcia outfield drills and workouts on Field Four. It was a definitely a sight to see, defensive outfield drills followed by batting practice, a little over three hours condensed into less than 20 minutes of videos.

The two slugging outfielders, Arcia and Sano, took to the field around 9am and started off with just some simple long tossing. From 120 feet out Miggy shows off a strong accurate arm but as Arcia keeps backing up and increasing their distance, Sano starts to break out the crow hop early to get the ball to Arcia.

Afterwards, Coach Lepel started rolling balls to the outfielders and having them throw it back to the cutoff man at second. It’s one of the more basic fundamentals that all outfielders know how to do to prevent a hitter from taking an extrabase. From the get go Sano was having obvious difficulties especially when compared to Arcia. Miggy was repeatedly charging and throwing as if he was a third baseman. It got to the point where Coach Lepel called the outfielders in to talk to Sano about his technique and even Arcia gave some advice. They returned to the field, where it was solely Sano working over and over again on the technique until he started showing improvement.

The next drill up was a little more challenging in a roller to the glove side then spin and throw to hit the cutoff man. In this task Miguel performed better which I take as he has done it before as an infielder. Next up flyball over the shoulder, spin and throw.

Then Lepel started throwing flyballs straight on with the two throwing to the cutoff man. Once again a basic fundamental that outfielders know how to do: position yourself with forward motion on a catch. Again Sano had issues often catching the ball behind him. Lastly, Sano, Arcia, and Jorge Fernandez took flyballs from a jugs machine in rightfield with the wind blowing in and gusts of 30 mph. In Leftfield, Eddie Rosario, Adam Brett Walker, and Travis Harrison. In Centerfield, Joe Benson, Tyree Davis, Darin Mastroianni.

Other Sano notes: there were numerous times Sano could be see massaging and stretching his throwing arm and was asked a few times by Lepel if he was okay. Sano likes to hit, I counted three times in the hour plus of defensive drills where he asked Lepel when are we hitting. Smartly, Lepel used it as a carrot with Baki (sp?) telling him after this drill, nope after this drill. As anyone can see Sano has ALOT to still LEARN to be ready for the outfield on Opening Day. So this puts to rest that Miguel has been practicing his outfield drills this offseason.

Finally, it was Sano’s favorite time, hitting in the cage where he did not disappoint. Lifting a few balls but never clearing the fences with the strong wind. Sano likes to hit so much, he jumped Rosario in the batting order. Talk about a murder’s row of a batting practice lineup: Arcia, Sano, Park, Rosario followed by AB Walker, Harrsion, Buck Britton, Mastroianni. Even with all those power bats, Byung Ho Park was the only one to lift a ball through the 30mph gusts blowing in from RF to take it out of the park.

Notes on Arcia, he looked good in the field and if I hadn’t seen him prior I’d think it was more due to fielding with the extremely raw Sano but Oswaldo has worked hard on his defensive game. Namely that first step and working on his reads. On of my favorite things to watch is while he shags in BP, he’s actually putting forth effort runnings routes. In one instance, a flyball off Britton’s bat, Arcia blazed past Sano and caught the would be gapper.