First Full Squad Day

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Full Squad

In some ways, today was the first day of spring with the entire squad (minus Gustavo Molina and Juan Uribe) in camp.

It was a busy day, with physicals completed this morning, a team meeting with Kenny Williams and Ozzie Guillen at 9 am and a workout from 10 am to about 12:30 pm.

Afterward, Paul Konerko and Ozzie sat down and talked with the media.

Ozzie

Once again Ozzie had the team laughing during his speech.   He made important points — this team has the talent to win, we need to prove ourselves, you need to respect each other and become a team — and he also made some humorous comments that need to stay in the clubhouse.  Ozzie spoke to the media some about what he said, so you can check that out on our website later today.

One point Ozzie stressed was that he doesn’t want contract status to become a distraction.

"I don’t want people caught up in that every day," he said.  "Konerko is a good example.  He played through his contract year and you didn’t hear a lot about it."

Paul Konerko echoed his manager.

"I went through it in 2005," Konerko said.  "It’s hard but once the season starts, it’s uncomfortable talking about yourself and not the team.  In Mark, Tadahito and JD, I don’t think we have players like that, who want to be distractions from what the team is trying to do."

Ozzie was pretty pointed when he talked about last postseason.

"Watching the playoffs from the couch was hard.  Expecting to make the playoffs and not, that hurt.  It hurt a lot."

Daily Schedule

While it changes slightly each day, tomorrow’s schedule looks like this (in response to Mark Liptak’s question about how much we work on fundamentals during the spring … "We" meaning players, not PR guys).

7 am … clubhouse opens

8:15 … clubhouse opens to media

8:30-9 … Early work by position, catchers batting practice

9:15-9:20 am … Meet in uniform on Field 4

9:20-9:50 … stretch

9:50-10 … Throwing program, broken down by position

10-10:20 … Defensive work by position

10:20-10:35 … Fundamentals (PFP) … outfielders hit in cages

10:35-10:40 … water break

10:40-11:40 … Batting practice on six fields (Coaches BP) … Baserunning (bunt, man on second, no outs)

10:40-11:40 … Live BP (pitchers throwing) … baserunning, sliding

11:40 … Conditioning

Practice ends around 12:40 with some players staying until late in the afternoon working out

Intrasquad

Is scheduled for Feb. 26 on the back fields (open to fans) … start time probably mid to late morning.