CLEARWATER, Fla. - Hector Mercado pushed his pitcher. Not hard, just enough to get him off the top of the mound, where 7-foot Kyle Young stood, the midday sun over his head blinding his pitching coach.
"So I can see his eyes," said Mercado, who is 6-3, explaining his nudge. "So my neck doesn't do this."
He jerked his head backward and he laughed. This was in the fourth inning of a minor league game at the Carpenter Complex on Tuesday, when, for the first time this spring, Young, a Phillies 19-year-old lefthanded prospect, had pitched himself into a pickle against a matured group of Braves farmhands.