Prospect Biddle living a dream in Phillies camp

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Is this real life?

Top Phillies prospect Jesse Biddle threw live batting practice Tuesday morning at Carpenter Complex to Jimmy Rollins, Bobby Abreu and Ben Revere. Biddle was born and raised in Philadelphia, so growing up he watched plenty of Rollins and Abreu.

"It's really surreal, but my first four pitches to Bobby Abreu were high and outside -- probably because I was unable to separate the two," Biddle said. "That's the stuff I need to get over. It's fun to think about it as some kind of dream, but it's not a dream anymore. This is real life."

Roy Halladay, who is in camp as a guest instructor, introduced himself to Biddle early in the day. Afterward they spoke for at least 30 minutes in front of Biddle's locker.

"He was talking about some of the young pitchers having a meeting with him and being able to sit down and talk to him and ask questions," Biddle said. "Yeah, there are a lot of things you want to learn from a guy like that. He's a Hall of Famer, All-Star, he's unbelievable."

Biddle will open the season with Triple-A Lehigh Valley, but the average big league team last season used 10 starting pitchers, so it is not out of the question Biddle gets a call if he performs well with the IronPigs.

"I just kind of want to soak it all in," he said. "I know I won't be here the whole time, so while I'm here it's nice to kind of take what I'm learning here and apply it to my season."