Carl Crawford was left feeling upbeat after seeing live pitching for the first time at Camelback Ranch on Monday.
“Everything felt good,” he said after seeing about 30 pitches. “I’ve just got to get my timing down.”
Crawford’s timing appeared to be OK for the most part. There were some swings-and-misses, some foul tips, and also some hard-hit line drives.
“I’m a slasher,” he said. “My thing is to try to hit line drives. I’m not going to hit too many home runs. I have to get on top of the ball, try to hit nice line drives.”
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he threw BP to Crawford after the live pitching session.
There’s no exact timetable in place for Crawford and Matt Kemp to appear in a Cactus League game, other than that “we’re hoping around (March) first,” Mattingly said.
In the meantime, Crawford will continue to prepare against live pitching.
“We aren’t really moving fast,” he said. “I’ll probably be in that routine for a few days. We’ll see how that goes then come up with something else.”
Just try to have a good at-bat, make sure I’m seeing the ball, get ready, seeing the ball on time — treat it like a real at-bat.
Right now I’m not really limited to any swings. “About 30” pitches.