Phillies Notes: Phillies' Brown takes his cuts against Halladay

CLEARWATER, Fla. - After he took a swing against Roy Halladay and stepped out of the batting cage, Domonic Brown found Raul Ibanez. He had a question.

"I was like, 'Can we swing, or what?' " Brown said. "Because I was the only guy swinging. I kind of felt bad. But I just wanted to swing. That's all."

During the first day of live batting practice against their own pitchers, most hitters will "track" the ball, as Phillies manager Charlie Manuel describes it. It's baseball lingo for watching the movement of the pitch and taking it. But Manuel said he'd give his hitters the green light if they wanted it.

In a group that included Ibanez, Chase Utley and Ross Gload, the rookie Brown was the only one who swung away. Three times.

"I was just trying to get in there and see a few pitches and try to hit a long ball off him," the outfielder said. "But it was nasty. Pretty nasty."

Brown fouled off two pitches from Halladay and whiffed on another. And all along, Halladay was telling the batters which pitch was coming.

Halladay said the batting practice was a good chance to work both sides of the plate with his pitches - especially throwing inside to hitters.

"The earlier, the better," Halladay said of throwing inside. "That's something I try to do as much as I can. I think if you can do it against your own teammates - when you, obviously, don't want to hit anybody - if you can do it comfortably, it's usually a good sign."

Former Phillie and Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt said he doesn't think he has ever seen anyone with as good an arm at his position as Pedro Feliz.

But he doesn't see Feliz's replacement, Placido Polanco, having a tough time succeeding at third base.

"He's a great defensive player," Schmidt said. "He's a great second baseman. He has a great mind for the game. He may not have the arm Feliz has, but he has all the other attributes Feliz has."

Schmidt will spend the next week in camp as a guest instructor.

Brad Lidge threw his second bullpen session of the spring yesterday, increasing his pitch total to 30. He said he did not throw any sliders, but will throw the pitch on flat ground in the next few days. . . . Schmidt, who has been outspoken in the past about steroid use in baseball, spoke about Mark McGwire's public apology. "He stated that his use of steroids didn't help his power output," he said. "He may believe that, and it may be true. But I don't think it was what the public really wanted to hear."