Today was one of the more interesting ones I've seen in two years of spring training. When I opened the morning, I thought the minor league teams were going to be hosting the Phillies' minor leaguers. Because of the massive rain the night before, however, those games were called off in favor of a pair of simulated games.

Now, when I heard that, I mistakenly assumed it would be another set of intrasquad games, like I'd seen the previous two afternoons. Not so. This was a full on simulated game, with very few players even around to take part.

Here are a few of the minor leaguers I noticed:

- Hector Noesi
- Dan Brewer
- Brandon Laird
- Jorge Vazquez
- Corban Joseph
- Shaeffer Hall
- Jesus Montero
- Myron Leslie
- Yeicok Calderon

There were more, but I was busy watching the seemingly endless parade of major leaguers who showed up to get work in. Among them, as detailed earlier, were Curtis Granderson, Mariano Rivera, Chris Dickerson, David Robertson, Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan, Phil Hughes and Gustavo Molina.

Granderson and Dickerson took at-bats on both fields depending on whether they wanted to face a right-hander (Hughes) or a left-hander (Hall). It was the first time I'd seen one of these, and it was quite a spectacle.

CHAT TOMORROW: For the first time this trip, I'll be hosting a live chat tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. That should give me plenty of time to get back from Bradenton and get my stories turned in and video uploaded. We can talk about anything related to minor league spring training, the construction of the Thunder roster, or anything else your heart desires.

You can reach me at jnorris@trentonian.com, or on twitter at @jnorris427. Also be sure to check out this link for all of my content this week.