After 'extra snooze,' Thomson reminds club to filter out noise

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- As Phillies bench coach, Rob Thomson famously arrived at BayCare Ballpark before sunrise and before anybody else.

Thomson set the Phillies’ schedule every day. He wanted to get things done.

But Tuesday, when the Phillies held their first full-squad workout, Thomson arrived a little later.

What time exactly?

“Pretty early,” he said.

But what time?

“It was really early,” he said. “A little later than [as bench coach]. An extra snooze.”

It’s a different world this spring for Thomson and the Phillies. Thomson is now the manager after serving as the interim skipper for a good part of last season, which leaves him with more free time, so he is “just kind of walking around the clubhouse and talking to people, which is good. But I’m kind of lost at times.” The Phillies are defending National League champions. Expectations are the highest they have been in more than a decade. But Thomson said he spoke relatively little about the big picture Tuesday, when he addressed his team.

He is not a big believer that a Spring Training speech can spark a team to a World Series championship.

It is a long year.

“It’s a little bit early for that,” Thomson said. “I did tell them a little bit about what’s important -- it’s our own expectations, not somebody else’s expectations. Because to me, that’s just noise. You can’t control what other people’s expectations are. My expectations are you prepare, you compete, you're selfless and you have fun. You have to deal with [external expectations], but you can’t internalize it. Like anything else, just make sure you stay composed and understand that you’re staying within yourself and your own expectations.”

“It was mainly about health,” Thomson said about his address. “Just not getting too far ahead of themselves, staying under control, keeping your feet underneath you, ramping up naturally like you normally do. Just stay healthy. I always say there’s three parts of the season that really make me nervous: the first week of Spring Training, the first week of Spring Training games and the first week of regular-season games, because it’s just a different levelf intensity.”

Everybody is in camp other than Bryce Harper and Gregory Soto. Harper is recovering from Tommy John surgery in November. He is expected to arrive in the first or second week of March. Soto still has visa issues in the Dominican Republic, although he is throwing bullpen sessions at the team’s academy there.

The Phillies play their first Grapefruit League games on Saturday. They have a split squad, playing the Yankees at home and the Tigers in Lakeland, Fla. Left-hander Michael Plassmeyer will start one of those games.