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BRADENTON, Fla. - John Russell sent a message to his Pittsburgh Pirates at the end of last season: Show up to spring training in top physical condition.

The pitchers and catchers certainly got the manager's point. The battery men held their first spring training workout Saturday at Pirate City and Russell, general manager Neal Huntington and new pitching coach Joe Kerrigan were impressed by the shape of the 34 players who participated.

The bosses were all generous in heaping praise on strength and conditioning coach Frank Velasquez, who spent a large part of the offseason having anything but an "off" season. Velasquez traveled to the homes of many of the players to check on the status of their winter workouts and also came to Bradenton to oversee a conditioning camp in December and the annual minicamp for pitchers in January.

"Everyone is in great shape," Russell said. "You can just see it in the way they work out. They aren't getting tired. They're recovering quickly after they do their running. There's a noticeable difference in the overall condition of our players compared to last spring.

"It's exciting to see guys in this kind of shape. We really emphasized it and they took it to heart."

Almost every year in spring training, at least one or two players show up out of shape and are required to do extra conditioning drills. That won't be the case with the pitchers and catchers, and the Pirates are optimistic conditioning won't be a problem when the infielders and outfielders report Monday.

"Frank Velasquez deserves a lot of credit because he developed a plan for everyone to be in the best condition possible," Huntington said. "I think a lot of our players saw the kind of seasons Paul Maholm, Ryan Doumit and Nate McLouth had last year after they reported to spring training in great shape and realize what a difference it can make."

Kerrigan was not only pleased with the condition of the pitchers, but also the state of their pitching mechanics. Eighteen pitchers threw off the mound Saturday and the other nine will do so today.

"Every spring, you have a couple of projects, a couple of situations where you have to basically re-do a pitcher's mechanics, but I don't see that here," Kerrigan. "That really puts us ahead of the game."

The Pirates, as a whole, were glad to be back to work.

"One day in the books," said Doumit, the switch-hitting catcher. "It's good to started. You always have that anticipation for the first official day of spring training."

jperrotto@piratesreport.com

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