Newbie question here, does anyone know when pitchers and catchers typically report for minor league spring training?

Usually position players report 1st week in march pitchers catchers a little earlier...

JD,
Are you counting down the days until he leaves?
He should get a letter end of January when he is to report along with a questionaire whether he needs air transportation or not. All teams do things differently.
Don't worry they will let him know when he is expected to show up.

quote:

Originally posted by TPM:
JD,
Are you counting down the days until he leaves?

Naw, just trying to get a handle on things for planning purposes. (I was hoping to convert his room to a cigar lounge but jerseymom said no way! )

Some friends are going to be in the area attending the Big 10 - Big East Challenge sometime in February and wanted to know when he might be reporting.

Guess we will just have to wait for the letter.

Forget planning....those days are over! They some times have mini camps 2 or 3 wks in January...or ask a player to come to camp a week or 2 early..

If your visiting your son during the season your lucky if you can drive.... other wise book with Southwest because tickets are transferable,they don't charge for changes and if you have to cancel they will credit your account for 1 yr.

Know of a player who had tickets to fly home for a couple days during allstar break, except the club reassigned him a few days before the break and his tickets were useless and couldn't afford tickets on another airline on short notice.

son just got a letter a few day's ago. his team,reports march 12 for milb. the questionare looks to be bigger than before.

njbb

we found driving to be more ,controllable,if that's a word.than flying. even with the high fuel last summer it was also cheaper. southwest is the most user freindly, or was anyway.

good luck all.

I'd used a lot more vacation time if I drove to the west coast...

One day we sat through a game with parents whose player was not even there, he had been sent up the day before, they had a 4 day weekend planned and got about an hour in with their son.
Mine got called in mid febuary last year for a pitching mini camp, all teams do things differently.
Pack light, players don't really need much in the way of personal things, the most valuable of their possessions, PC, xbox, ipod and phone. At anytime they can be sent somewhere else, and have to pay airline fees for more than baggage allowed. What new players tend to forget, they have to travel with all of their equipment, practice clothes, shoes, bats, gloves etc and son was told this should all fit into one bag. The other bag all personal items.
Mine brings just about everything he owns that is near and dear to him being close to home, mom and dad can come get what he doesn't need if he gets shipped out. Also, if son has brought transportation with him, most likely mom and dad will be responsible to get it to the next detination. Be aware and willing to do that. Shipping cars/trucks is expensive.

Pitchers and Catchers is generally around Valentine's Day (I've always thought that was appropriate ). But P&C is for MLB.

For the most part, plan for early March (with the exceptions already noted).

The Pack Light can't be emphasized enough....though prepare to be ignored.....

Pitchers and Catchers report this year on Feb 12th. My son's report date is March 8th. He's already gone to FL on his own nickel and happy to get to some warmer weather where he can get some work in everyday to get ready for spring training.

Son reports 3/1/09 but he will go out a week or 2 early.

Mine's already out there working out with other players on the team. He loves to go out early and hang around with the players from other teams before the season starts.

For those of you that have mentioned going in early, how does that work? I assume when they go in early they would be reporting to the complex to work out.

Can they just make request/arrangements with their club to go in early or do they have to be invited?

JD,

If he reports early he may have to provide his own lodging/meals until the actual "report" date or perhaps not(been a few years since we dealt with minor league report dates) or perhaps stay with another player that he may have met in instrux. If he marches into the front desk at Pirate City early, they will not turn him away from the work out facilities and will steer him in a good direction.

Mine will be getting there on the 13th of Feb.

JD,
You can go early and "hang out". Sometimes that may mean getting in some work with the Big League team, shagging, or perhaps pitching or hitting in practice. My son has some friends who are already here, because they can't throw in the cold.

My suggestion as a first year player, ask his agent to make a call to the appropriate person (usually the spring training coordinator). It's usually on their own dime, but just may be he's called a bit earlier because he is a spring training newbie.

Mine is planning on arriving about 8-10 days earlier for pens before his 3/9 report date.

In the past son was "invited" to go out early so the team paid for his motel and food. This year he is on his own if he goes out early.
So he will be staying with a host family that he contacted though a local church.

I could see a teen ager feeling a bit lost his first spring training may be he would rather start off with the rest of the Rookies..till he gets the lay of the land

quote:

Originally posted by njbb:

I could see a teen ager feeling a bit lost his first spring training may be he would rather start off with the rest of the Rookies..till he gets the lay of the land

I do have to agree with the above.

Thanks OPP, TPM and NJBB. Q isn't looking to go early I was just curious how it worked.

We too are learning that scheduling anything in advance is not wise. JS got notice a couple weeks ago that they report March 5 but then he was called and told he need to report to a mini camp on Feb 28.

Unfortunately the player that was going to ride the 18 hours with him will not be attending the camp. Not sure I'm thrilled with him making an 18 hour solo drive but I guess he will split it up over a couple days.

jd

i'm not sure what your siuation is, my son went early last year. i drove with him, then got a 1 way ticket back. southwest has some cheap flights, at times.

we had 24 hr drive. i've done it alone.......with people.