Good weather finally returned to Scottsdale today. It was still about 5 degrees below normal at 67 and 15 degrees less than last years 82 on this date. But since it was 12 degrees warmer than yesterday, I will take it. This is an overall shot of the main field with Camelback Mountain in the background.

As I said in the photo captions.....there were just a ton of position players in camp today. 17 by my count. Who knows maybe they have been here all along. I only went over and checked out the practice field while the pitchers were warming up because I heard the sound of balls being batted. There must be a "secret" route (like a tunnel) to get from the practice field/batting cage area to the clubhouse. Out of the 17 players that were on the practice field, I only saw 4 or 5 come back to the clubhouse via the main field dugout. There is another gate at the end of the 1B concourse that would take the players directly through a public area.....but I didn't see anyone head out that way either. The press has written that several position players have been here all week. Assuming there is a tunnel for player access....that would explain why I haven't seen any of those players up until now.

I covered pretty much everything in the photo captions. The catchers took live batting practice again after the pitchers were finished today. None of the other position players participated. The first group of catchers (Molina, Alfonzo and Rodriguez) appeared to be having a competition to see who could hit the most HRs. After only 1 HR total yesterday........all 3 catchers had 2 or 3 each today. The farthest of the day was a shot by Guillermo Rodriguez that went way up the grass berm in LF under the scoreboard. It was a pretty good poke. The ball was jumping off of the bats a lot better than yesterday.

The pitchers were done by 11:30 and practice was completely over by 12:15. The position players officially report tomorrow. Usually, the day is tied up with physicals and other check-in procedure. Some of the position players may make a cameo appearance.....but the first official full-team workout will be Tuesday.

That's it for today. Back at it tomorrow.