PHOENIX \u2014 A crowd formed Thursday for what was effectively Blake Snell\u2019s first day of spring training. The Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander threw a bullpen session that served as an important checkpoint. So a who\u2019s who of Dodgers personnel stood behind him and watched as Snell threw 15 fastballs at less than maximum effort to test the state of his bothersome left shoulder.<\/p>\n
Between pitches, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman glanced over to pitching coach Mark Prior, who also consulted with manager Dave Roberts. When Snell\u2019s session ended, the pitcher chatted with a trainer before going over to Chris Archer, a special assistant in Dodgers camp whom Snell once called a teammate with the Tampa Bay Rays.<\/p>\n
Consider it a box checked. Snell completed the session without discomfort. Advised to taper off his velocity, Snell obliged \u2014 he sat at around 87 to 88 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt effortless, easy, could command the ball,\u201d Snell said. \u201cSo happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While an offseason scan showed just inflammation, Snell felt discomfort when throwing at the start of this spring training.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery throw kind of hurt,\u201d Snell said. \u201cIt was just, every throw, I could feel my shoulder like, \u2018Ah, it\u2019ll get better, it\u2019ll get better,\u2019 but it was just cranky. I couldn\u2019t get it going. And I thought I was doing everything I needed to do, which I believe I was. Ultimately, I feel better (now).\u201d<\/p>\n
Snell has taken things slow this spring. The Dodgers can afford to be patient. At almost every other camp, Snell\u2019s timeline would consume plenty of oxygen. The Dodgers are a team without Snell for two months a year ago and wound up winning the World Series with a playoff boost from the two-time Cy Young winner. Snell\u2019s greatest value comes in October.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still need him to pitch,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cAnd he understands that. But yeah, we do have the luxury of trying to err on the side of caution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Snell has learned how to manage his body better. He\u2019s leaned on advice from veterans he respects regarding how to diagnose what he\u2019s feeling. That group has included Archer and the recently retired Clayton Kershaw.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still feel really in control of everything I\u2019m doing, but definitely learning, asking a lot more questions, and trying to figure out, when I do get older, just what comes to the forefront of everything,\u201d Snell said.<\/p>\n
Snell indicated he\u2019s willing to push up his timeline. He alluded to the end of April \u2014 six weeks from now, enough for a full standard spring buildup \u2014 as a potential loose goal to pitch in games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019d be sick,\u201d Snell said. \u201cYeah, I want to pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dodgers remain adamant that Shohei Ohtani will be ready to pitch at the start of the season, despite the World Baseball Classic interrupting that timeline. That\u2019s what made Thursday\u2019s workout an encouraging sight: Ohtani took the mound for four live simulated innings, seemingly keeping him in line with the rest of his rotation mates regarding build-up.<\/p>\n
Justin Wrobleski didn\u2019t go into his outing Sunday at Hohokam Stadium trying to lean heavily on his cutter. Yet, Dalton Rushing kept pushing the button on his PitchCom. Wrobleski threw nine of them over three innings against right-handed hitters. It induced three swings-and-misses.<\/p>\n
Wrobleski didn\u2019t need the cutter much last summer in his transition to a relief role. However, if he plans to remain a starter, the pitch will need to be a valuable weapon to handle right-handed hitters multiple times throughout a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of brought it back last year in spring training,\u201d Wrobleski said. \u201cJust didn\u2019t have to throw it a bunch out of the bullpen. \u2026 It just opens up a lot, especially now that I have more confidence in the changeup.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dodgers are stretching Wrobleski out to start spring, as a matter of retaining some starting pitching depth. He\u2019s performed this spring, as he hasn\u2019t allowed a run or walk in six innings while maintaining some of the aggressiveness in the zone that wowed Dodgers officials in his relief role.<\/p>\n
He appears to be on the outside looking in for the Dodgers\u2019 Opening Day rotation, but he\u2019s done his part to keep his name next to players like Emmet Sheehan and River Ryan.<\/p>\n
\u201c(He needs to) just keep doing what he\u2019s doing,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cObviously, there\u2019s a performance part of it for guys. There\u2019s a build-up part of it. Right now, he\u2019s checked both of those boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zach Ehrhard has yet to make his big-league debut, but he\u2019s had plenty of exposure to Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n
After all, he had Hall of Famer Wade Boggs as a volunteer assistant when he was at Paul R. Wharton High School in Tampa, Fla.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really cool,\u201d Ehrhard said. \u201cHe\u2019s a great guy and really helpful. Wade Boggs is a Hall of Famer. That\u2019s crazy in itself, but he didn\u2019t act like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ehrhard is new in Dodgers camp this spring, coming to the organization with James Tibbs III in the deal that sent Dustin May to the Boston Red Sox at last year\u2019s trade deadline. The move separated Ehrhard from his brother, Drew, who had been his teammate at Double-A Portland.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very emotional,\u201d Ehrhard said. \u201cIt was a tough one, because just getting to play with him was such a dream. But afterwards, all my teammates that were there in Portland with me were very supportive and just let me know this was a good thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Tibbs, the former first-round pick, got much of the headlines, Ehrhard might be just as close to breaking through to the big leagues. The Dodgers have worked with him to explore new mental cues as he alters his hand position, which has led to solid results, including an .857 OPS after the trade. He was 11-for-41 (.306) this spring, entering play Thursday.<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 A crowd formed Thursday for what was effectively Blake Snell\u2019s first day of spring training. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-219885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}