Phillies' infielders hard at work

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Impressed by the boldness and skill of his infielders, Sam Perlozzo is experimenting with a nickname for the group.

"I have a whole thing where I call them the Phearless Phour, with a ph," said Perlozzo, the Phillies' third-base coach who also oversees infield defense. "They don't back down off of any play, so I call them the Phearless Phour."

The designation was news to Jimmy Rollins, who chuckled when informed of it yesterday.

"Phearless Phour?" the shortstop said. "Oh, no. That's good. I hadn't heard that."

Now in his second year with the team, Perlozzo is impressed by the defensive aggressiveness he sees from Rollins, first baseman Ryan Howard, and second baseman Chase Utley. And he likes what he has seen so far from Placido Polanco. Hence the nickname.

"If there's a play they have a chance to make, they go for it," Perlozzo said. "They don't back down or take the easy way out."

But even with a talented and confident infield, the coach has been busy since January. Perlozzo's primary job has been to help Placido Polanco in returning to third base after playing second for four seasons in Detroit. Perlozzo also is helping his returning infielders - already widely viewed by scouts and statisticians as top defensive players - identify areas needing improvement.

Here is a look at what the, er, Phearless Phillies' infield is working on in camp:

Perlozzo's work with Howard led to improvement last season in the first baseman's primary weakness: throwing to second base. As the coach explained it last week, Howard is too tall to make the throw consistently without sending it into the outfield. Last year, Howard began to drop down before making the throw, which led to greater accuracy.

"He's a real big guy, and he knows that he can't stay straight up and throw overhand," Perlozzo said. "We established that last year. So now he gets down into a three-quarter slot and the ball comes out pretty good for him. He likes it; he feels good about himself when he makes good throws. He's way ahead of where he was when he started last year."

For the second consecutive year, Howard contacted Perlozzo in January, and the two worked at Bright House Field five times before spring training.

"It's something we made strides on last year, and now we want to take it to another level," Perlozzo said. "You're always looking for more consistency. When we started with him, it was like he hadn't forgotten anything, so he's in a good place to build on that."

Noting Howard's improvement last season and not wishing to complicate the effort, Perlozzo was reluctant to suggest many other changes. Now, with the throwing better, the first baseman is working on footwork intended to improve his range fielding ground balls.

"We've got a little footwork thing, hitting the ground on time," Perlozzo said. "That's what gives him the range. When you get lazy and flat-footed, that's when you don't get a good start."

Essentially, Howard is aiming to lift the back of his feet by the time the pitch crosses home plate, rather than planting them on the ground. That will allow him to react to ground balls more quickly and give him a better chance to field them.

As with last season, the primary goal for the Phils' second baseman is to improve his double-play turns. In the past, Utley has tended to receive the throw from Rollins, step back, then throw to first - not ideal for a player whose arm is his primary weakness.

"We're going to continue to work on Chase's double-play turns, which I thought got better last year," Perlozzo said. "His power throws to first were better. This year, we're trying to square him up a little more and maybe come [in front of] the bag and force the throw forward and not go backward as much."

That forward motion across the base will add momentum to Utley's throws, the second baseman said.

"That's something that we're working on, and Sam does a good job of seeing what you're doing wrong and explaining how to fix it in a logical way," Utley said.

The shortstop asks that his coaches not only tell him what to do but also explain why he should do it. So his sessions with Perlozzo are often discussions of infield theory, and his spring training work is as much intellectual as physical. Confident in his speed and range, Rollins has a goal to enhance what he calls "baseball intelligence."

"When I talk to Sammy, it's more about philosophy," Rollins said. "Catching the ball and throwing the ball, either you can do it or you can't. So we talk about positioning, when to play a guy this way or that way. That philosophy stuff is all I care about. Year after year, you still have to ask yourself those questions: Why am I going to do this as opposed to that? That allows me to understand the underlying reasons behind a play."

Rollins and Perlozzo often discuss positioning against individual batters, studying hitting charts and debating approaches.

"Let's say there's a lefthanded guy up, a slap hitter who likes to shoot the ball between me and the third baseman," Rollins said. "Early in the game, I might take that away from him by playing toward third."

But if there was a runner on first later in the game, Rollins continued, he probably would move closer to second base. That positioning would concede the single to left but prevent a hit up the middle that could advance the runner to third.

"You give something up - the single - to prevent the chance of something worse from happening - the runner going from first to third," Rollins said. "Those are the kinds of philosophical things I want to talk about."

Rollins also uses Perlozzo as a deciding vote when he is unsure whether to pay attention to the scouting report or an insight.

"Sometimes you have to go against the hitting chart," he said. "You have to see what the pitcher is doing, or what the hitter looks like between pitches. If I don't know what I want to do, I'll look in at Sam, like, 'What do you think?' "

Other than engaging in those conversations, Perlozzo sees his job with Rollins as occasionally reminding the shortstop to be in position and have his feet ready when the pitch crosses home plate.

"Jimmy, he's just a guy where you say, 'Careful you don't lay back on the ball too much,' " Perlozzo said. "I might say it to him, but he's capable of doing those kinds of things. Sometimes it's just game situations, just keeping him on his toes, and then he's great."

Polanco, who signed a three-year contract and returned to the Phillies this winter, has not played third base since 2005. But Polanco's athleticism makes Perlozzo confident that transition will be successful. Playing third base is primarily about reacting.

"I hope he gets a lot of action down there this spring," Perlozzo said. "It's more the repetition of seeing the ball come at you from that distance that he needs, so we try to simulate games by doing the drop-ball drill where someone actually flips the ball to the fungo guy and he swings at it and hits it. It's more realistic, like when a guy swings a bat.

"The biggest difference from second base is you don't know what pitch is being thrown when you're at third. You don't know if it's an off-speed pitch or a fastball. You don't see where the catcher sets up, so you can't really cheat as much. You can kind of guess based on the count, but that's not the same. Overall, though, I don't see him having a problem with it. He's such a good athlete and has first-step quickness that he won't have a whole lot of trouble."

Because they cannot see the pitches, third basemen must rely more on knowledge of hitters' tendencies. Polanco spent the last four seasons in the American League, so he and Perlozzo will spend extra time studying lineups.

"That will be part of my job early in the season," Perlozzo said. "I'm going to be able to help him on guys who will pull the ball, guys who will hit the ball the other way, guys who will surprise bunt, things like that. That will be my job, to give him as much information as I can, so that he doesn't get surprised."

Perlozzo and Polanco conceded that Polanco's throwing arm is likely not as strong as that of Pedro Feliz, the outgoing third baseman known for superlative throwing ability.

"I will probably play more shallow most of the time," Polanco said, explaining how he will compensate.

Utley has watched Polanco in infield drills this month, and believes that the transition will be smooth.

"Third base is more of a reaction position, and he's such a good infielder that he catches everything," Utley said. "So far, he's making it look easy."