Major League Baseball

Phillies' Rollins biding time till start of season

Published Mar. 25, 2010 10:05 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Jimmy Rollins is just biding his time until the start of the regular season.

The Philadelphia shortstop has brought his usual positive energy and zeal for the game during the Phillies' five weeks of spring training.

The Phillies' longest tenured player gives new ace Roy Halladay grief for his lack of hitting skills in one breath, he mockingly asks buddy and locker room neighbor J.C. Romero a question during an interview, and he sits in front of his locker and roots on the reserves that are playing on a nearby TV after he has already exited an exhibition game.

Rollins even showed off his patented predicting skills, calling Cody Ransom's shot before the non-roster player hit a late home run in a game last week.

With just under two weeks until Opening Day and still more than a week of exhibition games in Florida, spring training has officially reached what Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel once called ``the lackadaisical dead period.''

``Basically we just are finding a way to kill time,'' Rollins said. ``There comes to a point in the preseason of any sport where you're like, 'OK, we have to go through it.' You go out there and you want to execute. Results aren't what counts as much. No matter how good or bad I do today, nothing is going to count.''

But Rollins' point shouldn't be misunderstood. While major league players may hit an imaginary spring training wall each year in late March, they're also putting the final touches on the necessary preparation to be in tip-top shape once the calendar turns to April and the games count.

Although more concerned about feeling right and not necessarily on leading the exhibition season in hits, Rollins has fared quite well this month. The former MVP, who flirted with the Mendoza line through most of last summer, Rollins is tied with Ryan Howard for the team-high in hits this spring, with 16.

Rollins, a three-time All-Star and the reigning National League Gold Glove winner, is hitting .314 (16 for 51) in 17 games. He finished 1 for 3, with one of the Phillies' three hits, in an 8-0 loss to the Braves on Wednesday.

``Jimmy is close,'' Manuel said. ``He's getting there he's close.''

``(The ball) always jumps off my bat pretty well, that's not a problem,'' said Rollins, whose average dropped from .296 to .277 to .250 in the last three seasons. ``I feel all right. There are times I've gone up there (this spring) and I have an angle of the field down, like, 'This side of the field I feel really good on' if I get a good pitch I (take it there). You're trying to keep that (mindset) and then the pitcher is going to do the rest.''

Although the Phillies feature seven different former All-Stars in their lineup, including four players who hit 30 or more home runs last season in Howard, Chase Utley, Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth, Rollins has often been referred to inside the clubhouse as the most crucial component to making the team's potent offense produce.

The refrain, ``As he goes, we go,'' has been heard repeatedly in each of the last three seasons, which have each ended with the Phillies in the postseason.

The jovial Rollins, entering his 11th major league season, all with the Phillies, has been around spring training camps long enough to know how to balance staying loose with getting his bat and glove ready for the six months and beyond. In addition to working on different things at the plate with each passing spring training at-bat, Rollins experiments in the field, seeing how far he can take his range or if he can make a running throw on a particular play.

``There are going to be times during the season in a game where you are going to be in that situation, knowing that you can do it, or that you tried and you made a mistake, that helps you make the adjustment,'' Rollins said. ``But when the season starts, you make the play whichever way you make the play.''

Eventually, Rollins said, ``a switch gets flicked'' to officially transfer from exhibition to regular season mode.

``It starts Opening Day,'' Rollins said.

For the Phillies, that's April 5 at Washington.

``Here (at spring training) you're taking swings in your first at-bat, and then your second at-bat you come into the game and know you're playing two-thirds of the game,'' Rollins said. ``In two weeks, you say, 'I'm playing every day until the game is over.' Your concentration changes, your mental capacity to play this game (kicks in).

``Everything comes in time. Probably before the last four or five games (down here), Charlie will come in, have a speech and that kind of kicks you into gear. And you're like, 'He's right.'''

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball