Strom tries to get feel for staff with early spring looks

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- The first three days of camp have allowed first-year pitching coach Brent Strom to finally get a look at the pitchers he's been watching on video all offseason. Strom has done an extensive amount of homework, watching video and studying analytical information.

"My first three days here have been to basically let my eyes tell me what I thought I might see with the numbers and the analytics," Strom said. "It's more of seeing if it's matching up for me. One group of pitchers has thrown once and one group has thrown twice, and we've all been very pleased. We have five guys that I haven't seen due to small setbacks and stuff like that, but overall, I'm very pleased with what I'm seeing."

The pitchers are going through daily fielding drills, which Strom says is as important as anything else they do.

"The biggest thing for me is when we do our drills and things like that is that they're going about it in the right way, trying to each day get a little bit better," Strom said. "Whether it's getting signs, covering first base, fielding bunts, all these different things are important in the overall scheme of things."

Strom wants his pitchers to set a foundation in the first few days of camp and then the pace will be increased as they become more proficient and get their feet under them a little bit.

"One thing I'm trying to reiterate with these guys is you learn by failure," he said. "If you never get outside of your comfort zone and your box, you never get any better. So we have some things planned with certain guys this spring we'll attempt to have them do that are a little out of character for them that you haven't seen in the past. Hopefully, they'll be able to learn from those, whether they're successful with it or even if they fail."