CLEARWATER, Fla. -- As talk of sign stealing continues to dominate daily discussion in the clubhouse, Phillies manager Joe Girardi suggested that as players have become more clever at reading signs, teams have to continue to be smarter in how they protect their information.
“It’s complicated in a lot of manners, and guarding your signs is really difficult today because of all the cameras and everything that you can see,” Girardi said. “You have to be really clever. It’s hard.”
A short video, about 25 seconds of a 7-minute clip, surfaced around the internet Thursday that gave the impression that Girardi was part of a sign-stealing system while he was with the Yankees.
However, the full clip was Girardi describing how he caught on to a system of another team trying to steal the Yankees’ signs.
“If people listen to the whole video you can put two and two together and know what I’m talking about,” Girardi said. “We caught them. The system was our system that caught the other group. If you listen to the whole video, we caught the other team. It was coming from upstairs, to someone in the dugout and relayed one way or another.
“I laughed, because people are cutting it up [the video] and trying to make it look like it was me [cheating].”
Sticking with the program
Top prospect Spencer Howard spoke a day after throwing his first bullpen session since he tweaked his knee doing a jumping exercise earlier in the month.
Howard threw 27 pitches in Wednesday’s session.
“I felt good. It was the first one after a week and a half maybe,” Howard said. “So it was more just making sure everything felt healthy and getting my timing and checkpoints down.”
Howard will throw another bullpen on Saturday. The Phillies still haven’t disclosed their plans on how they will use Howard in games this spring. Girardi said that he wants to go slow with Howard and not waste too many of his innings during Spring Training.
The 23-year-old right-hander said he is happy with the program the team has set for him.
“They’ve been up front with me about that and I think that makes it easier because I’m not in the dark about what’s going on,” Howard said. “I appreciate that from them, and it’s made it to where I can just focus on what I need to do in my program.”
Howard, the No. 2 prospect in the Phillies organization, remains a popular face during his early days in camp. His picture is still on a large mural at Spectrum Stadium, where he pitched for Class A Clearwater for a part of last year.
He said it’s made for a surreal camp experience, but one he’s enjoyed.
“It’s been super cool, everybody seems really welcoming of new guys,” Howard added. “Which is good, and it makes it easier for us to do our work and get everything done.”
As good as Howard’s future might be on the mound with the Phillies, don’t expect him to be leading the winning team in Thursday’s planned team golf outing.
“My golf game is terrible,” he said.
Updates
• Girardi said he will have the full list of pitchers for Saturday’s Grapefruit League opener against the Tigers available late Thursday evening or Friday. Right-hander Nick Pivetta will be getting the start against the Tigers’ Jordan Zimmermann.
• Catcher Andrew Knapp is catching a bullpen session Friday, but he is still not ready to resume swinging after suffering a rib cage injury last week.
“He’s catching a bullpen tomorrow,” Girardi said. “He’s doing drills, he’s playing light catch. He’s going to do some more rotational stuff this weekend. The fact that he’s doing more rotational stuff is good.”
• Outfielder Matt Szczur has been held out for the last couple of days with a hamstring issue.