CLEARWATER, Fla. --
“I feel like, in two weeks, one of those pitches I fouled off in the first at-bat, I’ll hit hard somewhere,” Turner said. “He struck me out, but I liked the first six pitches. That last one was up, but the battle was there. The approach is coming. It’s getting there.”\n\nTurner has three hits in his past six at-bats, as well as three walks and two sacrifice flies -- and just one strikeout.\n\nHe started the spring hitless in his first 15 at-bats, with three walks and seven strikeouts in that span.
“I think Trea’s moving in the right direction right now,” Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long said recently. “I think he’s starting to feel more comfortable with his decision-making, and then being aggressive as well. Probably caught in between, just a little bit, because he came \\[to camp\\] trying to back the ball up, trying to use the other field. And I think he got to the point where it was almost too much. Now, he’s starting to get the feel again.\n\n“He said, 'You know, three or four days before we start \\[the season\\], if I’m feeling good, I’m happy with it.' He’s not really concerned about his Spring Training average or \\[number of\\] hits. He just wants to start feeling more comfortable in the box with what he’s doing.”\n\nTurner concurred.\n\n“I feel like there’s a little bit of a false flag when you start out \\[the spring\\] really hot, at least for me,” Turner said. “I feel like the pitching changes a little bit. Guys start to throw different pitches. Sometimes, early in camp, they’re working on stuff. Toward the end, they start trying to do certain things. I feel like we’re so overmatched early on if a guy is coming out 95-100 \\[mph\\] and we haven’t seen a live pitch.\n\n“So, I feel like that success early on can be a false flag. When you get toward the end of camp and you start struggling, I think that’s kind of a bad thing, so I like the opposite. I like ‘struggling’ for a little while and locking it in later on. I like where I’m at.”\n\n**Wheeler's slider/cutter** \n
Statcast said Wheeler threw 301 cutters last season. He estimates that 50-60 were actually sliders.\n\nWheeler has focused this spring on bringing back a harder slider, which can be different than his sweeper.\n\n“We were trying to bring it back more last year,” he said. “I still throw it in the bullpen \\[sessions\\], but I’ve been trying to perfect it. It’s been working. I was trying to bring it back in the middle-to-end of last year, and so far this spring. It just opens up another pitch, getting something going down and in to lefties. That’s kind of the biggest thing.”\n\nThe Phillies have not made an official announcement, but Wheeler is lined up to start Opening Day on March 27 in Washington.
**Strahm resumes throwing** \n