Stephen Drew: 'Not As Far Along As You Would Hope'

There was mixed news today on the Stephen Drew recovery front. Drew played in an extended spring training game over the weekend and came out of it with some stiffness in his ankle. But after a recovery day, he took ground balls on Monday and according to Kirk Gibson, looked "phenomenal".

"You could go out there and watch him and go, 'wow, he's close to playing' but the problem is, once he goes, he works hard and then sits down and then it's a different thing. We can go out and run him really hard and then have him do ground balls and he's not very good," Gibby explained.

It's hard for him to go in the field, sit and rest of cool down for 20 minutes and then get back up and do it again. That, of course, is how a baseball game works.

"Medically, that point will come. He's not there yet. He's just not as far along as you would hope he would be, but he is doing quite well."

Video of Drew taking BP:

Other Pregame Notes:

- Gibby was happy with the way the team handled the weather in Colorado. He said the team had good energy and played hard.

- Reliever Takashi Saito threw 13 pitches on Monday. The arm is fine, the worry is about his mobility coming off the calf strain. They might "run him" soon. Gibby didn't have any more definitive timeline on him. "We have to make sure we get him prepared for what he's going to get in to."

- Gibby is pleased with the performance so far from Bryan Shaw. He's mixing in breaking pitches with his cutter that Gibson said has been described as similar to Mariano Rivera. "He's got great stuff and he's got a fearless attitude."

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