Hammond Update 2/25/2016

Wednesday's storms brought sunny skies, cool temps (low 60's) and strong winds to Ft. Myers.

Got to Hammond a little later than usual (bad traffic) and pitchers were already into bullpen

sessions. The first 5 pitchers I watched were Hughes, May, O'Rourke, Abad, and a lefty Pat

Dean. As in other years Hughes' control is terrific and Abad is a big lefty, 6-1, 220 lbs. Neil

Allen, Eddie G., and Latroy Hawkins were behind the mounds watching. The next 5 were

Gibson, Jepsen, Brandon Kintzler (AAA Brewers) and 2 leftys Logan Darnell, and Mason

Melotakis. Jepsen stopped a few times to talk with Eddie and asked his catcher about his

pitches (perhaps working on a new pitch).

I headed to the main field where the catchers were batting. Brunansky was watching Suzuki

closely and talking with him in between rounds. Suzuki and J.R. Murphy are always together,

talking, even when they are in the outfield shagging.

I saw Dozier for the first time (he spent a long time signing autographs and taking pictures with

fans). He is not a very big guy; it's amazing how much power he has.

It's interesting to see how many fans are here with back packs and duffle bags full of things that

they want players to sign. A lot of the coaches signed today (they usually don"t). Joe Mauer

was with Dozier and spent a lot of time signing, also. I didn't see it, but they said Mauer was

batting with sunglasses on, but wasn't too impressive. It was cloudy on Tuesday and he didn't

wear any.

A guy came up to me and asked if Rod Carew was there yet. I said that Oliva had said,he wouldn't be coming for a couple of days. The guy said he was a big Carew fan and I noticed he was wearing a faded Carew jersey. So naturally I had to tell him my Carew bunting lesson

story. He loved it! Later,