Travel and Day 1

After waiting 6 long months for March 4th, the day finally came.  I woke up early and was taken to the airport by my dad and little brother John.  I checked my bag (48 lbs...that's what I call experience), and went through security.  I met up with another Cincinnati guy on the other side, his name is Joel, he's 6'4, and a pitcher, though left handed.  He went to Colerain.  We chatted it up for a bit and then hopped on our flight to Phoenix with a lay over in Chi-town.

After hours of reading, Cribbage, and Angry Birds, I finally landed in Phoenix.  I got picked up by the van and was greeted by some familiar faces from last year.  After battling some rush house traffic we were dropped off at the familiar Hilton Garden Inn.  I checked in and found out my roommate was Nathan Driessen, the left handed, submarine pitcher from Australia that I played with last year in AZL.  Unfortunately for him, he was stranded in Honolulu for the time being.  I found out that we would not be allowed to eat or drink anything from after midnight because of drug testing the next morning (at 6 am).  Exhausted from traveling, I passed out.

Anyone who was familiar with my offseason workout schedule will know that waking up at 6 am here is no problem.  However, what is posing a minor problem is me trying to be able to get to bed late enough to where I don't wake up around 3-4 am.  Since we're only 2 hours behind EST, it's not as bad, but hopefully once that time change hits I'll be on regular MST.  Anyways, I rolled out of bed at 5:45 and went down and did the urine and blood tests followed by breakfast.

Afterwards, I hitched a ride to the field and unpacked my things.  I found out that I was assigned number 47.  Once my things were unpacked, I changed into my workout clothes and working toward the long checklist of tests.  If you didn't do anything during your offseason conditioning, they will know.  If you hated one particular lift and created an imbalance in your muscles and strength, they will know.  The amount of tests we did was ridiculous.  I started by getting my picture taken with all the Reds affiliate hats.  Later I got my height, weight, and body fat checked and found out that I was down 12 lbs from last year's peak.  That was surprising since I have been eating myself crazy for the last 2 weeks and only have seemed to have lost weight.  My vision came in at 20/15 in both eyes which was pleasing.  The thing I was anticipating was the consensus on my hip.  Once I got the orthopedic examination, they took one look at my hip and said there was some angular displacement which means my hips were angled forward a little bit.  I assured him that it could just be my oddly shaped body (thanks dad), but they insisted that I have really tight hip flexors and quads.  I knew my hip flexor was tight because it had been bothering me for some time now, but the quad did surprise me as I did a pretty extensive stretching program this offseason.  I was happy to hear that it wasn't anything major.

After the physicals, we had a quick meeting that was sort of an introduction to Spring Training, and we then went and stretched as a unit.  After stretch, we broke up into our parts with about 8-9 guys per group.  We then did a throwing program, and an endless amount of PFP's (pitcher's fielding practice).  Most of the fielding drills were nothing out of the ordinary, but one new thing for me was bunting.  Pitchers don't get to have the opportunity to hit until Double A, but they have everyone learn how to bunt regardless.  It's been a few years since I had a legitimate reason to have lumber in my hands but I'm doing my best to shake off the rust.  After bunting practice, I was slated to throw my first bullpen.  It was a pen where we only threw fastballs and change-ups, and at about 85% velocity.  Overall I felt pretty good and had good location.  I bounced my first change-up at about 40 feet but after that I was good.  Throwing that pen did a lot for my confidence because that is obviously one of the fundamental aspects of your livelihood as a pitcher and your offseason preparation.

After doing all the stations we were brought to the final station: conditioning.  We had the option to do the 2 mile conditioning test now or wait until after our next bullpen.  This two mile test is something that all the pitchers have been dreading It doesn't matter how much running you did in the offseason. Anything short of a marathon will mean that the 2 mile will be a difficult test with the dry desert heat.  My legs were cashed after a long day of physicals and drills but I wanted to get this 2 miler out of the way.  At the end of the run I clocked in a time of 13 minutes and 18 seconds.   I was a little disappointed with my time due to the amount of running I did to prepare,  but I eventually learned that it was a pretty good time so at the end of the day, I'm happy.

After the 2 mile run, pitches that threw a bullpen had to do arm care weights.  My mind was a little fuzzy from the run but I managed to get it finished.  The day was finally over.  I took the shuttle back to the hotel and passed out.