Here are some of the highlights (including some baseball and non-baseball talk):

Q: Are you ahead of where you thought you’d be?
A: I feel good, where I am right now. I mean, I don’t know what everybody else’s expectations were for me to be at this point, but I feel good. Not exactly where I want to be yet, there is still a lot of strengthening that needs to take place, change of direction and working on those kinds of things, but I feel all right.

Q: Realistic to be back in May?
A: We’ll see. Ask me in May. I’m not going to put a time limit on it. I’m going to listen to my body and see where we are.

Q: What did you do for those two months you were immobile?
A: Watch a lot of TV. A lot of TV. Lots of (Real) Housewives shows and sporting events.

Q: When did the doctors say you would feel like yourself again?
A: From what I’ve heard as far as the strength-strength, you’re probably not going to really get full strength maybe around All-St Break. Nobody has really said a whole, whole lot about that kind of stuff. But I feel good. The full strength-strength won’t come for a while.

Q: Concern it’s on your back leg and might affect you at the plate?
A: Not really. Hitting wise it’s not even a thought. I don’t think about it. I think it’s just the other stuff: the push-off, explosion, change of direction stuff.

Q: How tough is it to have made the last out of the season each of the previous two years?
A: It sucks. I’m not going to lie. It sucks. And I know how it looks to everybody, like having the season come down and you’re than guy. But I try to look at it positive like, the last two seasons I got out, I figure I’m about due. I’d love to be in that situation again. There’s going to be those time when you come through and there’s going to be those times when you don’t come through.

Q: Who’s your favorite housewife?
A: It depends on which show you’re talking about. There are so many housewives it’s ridiculous.

Q: Are you hooked on the shows?
A: I’m into it a little bit. I’m not going to lie. It’s a little intriguing. There is a little judgment in this room, I can feel it, but that’s all right.

Placido Polanco

“I’ve been taking ground balls, hitting, running,” he said. “I think I’m good to go.”

Polanco had offseason sports hernia surgeries to repair two abdominal tears. He said he is confident he can remain healthy the entire season.

“You can’t think, ‘Oh, I’m going to get hurt,’” he said. “I got fixed. I did a good rehab. So, we’ll see. I think I’m going to stay healthy.”

He said he is not limited in any way entering camp.

He also said the injuries affected him last season. He said he wasn’t in pain as much as he felt weak. He said it affected him everywhere on the field.

“When you have a tear in the abdominal, you know it’s there,” he said. “When you’re hurt in that area, you know how much you use it. Sometimes you take it for granted. When you hurt your elbow, you can’t move. You use your abdominal for everything. And when I had surgery, I really noticed it. Every time I coughed, every time I laughed, it hurt. It’s a small muscle, but you really use it.”

The story immediately blew up into a tall tale (yarn?) about how Halladay, motoring in a boat at high speeds down the Amazon, saw a man being attacked by an anaconda, put a bowie knife into his mouth, dove into the river, killed the anaconda with one motion and carried the man to safety.

Of course, it didn’t happen like that.

“I was not wrestling snakes. I was nowhere near snakes,” Halladay said. “We were just driving back. We were fishing all day. We were on the boat driving back, and we happened to see a guy sitting on the shoreline without clothes. We couldn’t talk to him. The guys had to talk to him. They were speaking Portuguese. He had been attacked by a snake and escaped, but it had ripped the engine off his boat and left all his stuff out in the middle of the river. So we picked up his stuff, picked him up and drove him back to his tribe, I guess you would call it.”

So how did the man make it from the boat where he was attacked to the shoreline without any clothes?

“He had nets underwater because he was diving for aquarium fish. When he was diving for the fish the snake bit him on the backside and started wrapping him and when he was getting away from it, it pulled the shorts off him. So he swam to the banks and I guess the next closest thing for the snake to grab was the boat engine.”

Halladay said he would not have jumped into the water to save the man, had they come across him during the attack.

“I might have saved the boat,” he said. “I wouldn’t go near that thing. I’m not a big fan of snakes.”

“I guess they have native trees down there. The bark is a little potent when you smoke it. I think he had been partaking in that, too. It was interesting. Definitely an interesting situation.”

Shane Victorino.

It seems 100 percent of the attention has been on Cole Hamels, but the Phillies’ All-Star centerfielder could walk following the 2012 season, too. Victorino arrived in camp today to a red carpet, director’s chair and lights in front of his locker following last night’s appearance on Hawaii 5-0. (Photo courtesy of Jimmy Rollins.) That’s all fun and games, but here’s some of what Victorino said about his potential free agency.

“You definitely think about it, but you’ve just got to stay focused on what’s ahead of you,” he said. “It’s a big year for all of us, not just because of free agency. Getting back to where we need to be is very important. There are a lot of expectations. I don’t want to use the word disappointment, but last year ended so quick. We want to keep this team as long as we can, but there’s a certain point when all that stuff starts coming into play.”

Victorino said there haven’t been any contract negotiations yet, but he said he plans on it.

“I don’t plan on going anywhere else,” he said.

Victorino said he would “like to stay focused on the season and not worry about that kind of stuff, but you never know what’s going to happen. I never put a time frame on anything, but I just want to stay focused on playing the season out and seeing what happens. We’ll go from there. But I don’t think you should put a time frame on it. But is it going to be a distraction if you’re talking about it during the year? Yeah, I think sometimes it does.”

So, much like Hamels, Victorino said he wants to stay in Philly and has no timetable to reach an extension …

Here are a few highlights:

Q: Are you setting a deadline to reach an extension?
A: No. No, I don’t have any deadline. I think the only deadline that is set is by Major Leauge Baseball with (exclusive negotiating rights) five days after the World Series.

Q: So nothing needs to be settled by Opening Day or anything?
A: No, no, no. I’m just going out and getting ready for this year. that’s my main focus. It’s to get as strong as possible throughout spring training and go into the season and try to help this team win. That’s everything I’ve always been able to focus on, especially since we haven’t been back to the World Series in a couple of years, that’s kind of the main focus that I’m going to put every ounce of energy going toward.

Q: In your heart, do you want to be a Phillie for a long time?
A: I was very fortunate enough to be drafted to an organization that is trying to win and obviously has won. Every day, every year we seem to get some top players. So that kind of shows the value and the direction the team wants to go. I’ve just been very fortunate to be a part of it. And it’s also something where I don’t know any better, I live in Philadelphia. I’ve been here for I guess 10 years now, so that’s been something that’s been kind of nice, kind of something I’ve been focused on. It’s a great organization to play for and I’d love to be a part of it.

Q: Are Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee good comparisons for you in terms of your next contract?
A: Those are two guys that are two of the best pitchers in major league baseball and for a substantial amount of years. I think being able to finally given sort of that stage where you feel you know everything but you don’t, I’ve been able to get stronger and a lot more intelligent baseball-wise, that, its just taking the next step to do what those two have done, which is to go out there and repeat, have successful years and stay healthy. That’s ultimately the big picture, to stay healthy, go out, play and help your team. That’s kind of where I’m at right now, to go out there and do it. And if I’m able to do it then things will obviously take care of itself.

Q: Phillies have done a good job of retaining their core players. Does that make you confident things will work out?
A: Ever since I’ve been here they’ve been able to do a really good job of keeping the guys that they draft, especially the guys that they like. I just hope I’m one of those guys that they like.

Q: How do you feel about free agency? Excited? Intrigued?
A: Truly I’ve just never even thought about it. I’ve been so focused on trying to get healthy and because of the way the season ended last year and not being able to go to the World Series and win it with the expectations, I’ve been more fired up about that.

Q: Are you willing to take less to stay here?
A: The only way to answer that is I don’t know any better. All I ultimately want to do is play for a winning team, and the Phillies want to be a winning team. That’s ultimately the best way I can describe what I want to do is I want to play for a winner, and the Phillies want to win. They have two great pitchers that are here. What better way to get mentored by the best of the best? You can’t ask for anything more. To compete at a level where you’re playing with the best players, it ups your game even more and I’ve been able to learn from that and take it into my game.”

Q: How do you weigh potential health issues in your contract negotiations?
A: Baseball if you do it really well you can make a ton of money, but ultimately I play this game because I love to do it and I want to be the best at it. If you’re able to do that, the money obviously comes. But I’m a pretty conservative guy, and money’s not the ultimate answer to anything. It’s really about going out and enjoying where you are, your teammates and the city and I seem to really enjoy Philadelphia.

Q: Given fact you’ve have some nagging injuries over the years, do you view signing later as a risk at all?
A: No, just for the fact that when you do get injured, and I’ve been injured a few times … I guess, yeah, the weird nagging injuries that you don’t really expect, I really haven’t had the serious surgeries. I know how to overcome them. I know how to rehab. I know how to get through them. They’re not going to mentally take me down. I know how to come back and be just as strong or as capable as I always was.

Are they negotiating currently?
I know they’re supposed to. (laughs) That’s all I can say. I know they’re supposed to.

We know Jonathan Papelbon‘s alter ego “Cinco Ocho” is based on the No. 58 on the back of his jersey.

But when he came to Philadelphia he knew Antonio Bastardo had the number. No big deal. Papelbon and Bastardo have the same agents, so Bastardo had no problem handing his number to the Phillies’ new closer. (Papelbon gave Bastardo a Rolex for the effort.) Of course, then Bastardo needed a new number. Phillies director of team travel and clubhouse services Frank Coppenbarger gave Bastardo a few options, and Bastardo finally settled on No. 37.

Now, Justin De Fratus wore No. 37 the final couple weeks of the 2011 season. But that’s not enough service time to keep it, so he handed the number to Bastardo. Not that he minded. Because when Coppenbarger started to rattle off a few numbers for De Fratus, he blurted out, “How about 79?”

“Are you serious?” Coppenbarger said.

“Yeah,” De Fratus replied. “I wore it in the (Arizona) Fall League (in 2010).”

Coppenbarger said he had no problem with that. In fact, he liked it because De Fratus will never have to worry about any player asking him for his number ever again. But he also made sure De Fratus really wanted it. Coppenbarger said, “Hey, if you pick this you’ve got to stick with it. If your teammates start giving you a hard time you can’t start switching around.” De Fratus said he wanted it.

So he’s got it.

And that’s how Papelbon got 58, Bastardo got 37 and De Fratus got 79.

“I wore it in the Fall League and I had a good Fall League,” De Fratus said. “So why not?”

*

From Sunday in Clearwater:

• Kyle Kendrick signs a two-year contract.
• Updates on Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jose Contreras and more.
• It was a little more key in Clearwater than it was a year ago.

Greetings from Clearwater.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know I have an unhealthy obsession with players’ intro music. And no intro music is bigger than a closer’s intro music. So after Jonathan Papelbon‘s news conference ended this afternoon and after he finished a couple TV interviews, I asked him if he had chosen his song. Papelbon had the Dropkick Murphys I’m Shipping Up to Boston while he closed for the Red Sox, but that won’t work in Philadelphia for obvious reasons.

So?

“I’ve got one,” he said.

And?

“I cannot share it,” he said. “That stuff is top secret, man.”

Papelbon said it’s a hard rock song, one he planned to use in Boston before he got asked to use I’m Shipping Up to Boston.

“That’s about as much as I can give you,” he said.

He said it’s not Philly related like I’m Shipping Up to Boston is Boston related. But then there really aren’t any popular Philly-type songs like that, are there? The Rocky theme song is played so much it just wouldn’t work. I mentioned Eye of the Tiger, which is kind of Philly related, and Papelbon said, “I feel like that might be a little bit too corny.”

So I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Phillies single game tickets, including the On-Deck Series on April 2-3, go on sale tomorrow beginning at 8:30 a.m.

All single game orders will be limited to eight tickets per game.

Note: Opening Day vs. the Miami Marlins (April 9) and the Boston Red Sox series (May 18-20) are available through an online ticket opportunity at phillies.com. In addition, starting tomorrow at phillies.com, Opening Day will be available for purchase through a six-game pack and the May 18 game against Boston through a three-game pack.

How to Purchase Tickets

• Online, 24 hours a day, at www.phillies.com.
• Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.by calling 215-463-1000.
• Tomorrow: In person at the Phillies West Ticket Windows at Citizens Bank Park, starting at 8:30 a.m.
• After tomorrow:  In person at the First Base Gate ticket windows at Citizens Bank Park, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

According to CBS, Victorino stars as a business executive on a company retreat. Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno also appears in the episode as a Hawaiian history buff. The episode centers around the murder of a man dressed as a Hawaiian NaKoa warrior.

The Phillies have been well represented the last couple years on television. Ryan Howard has appeared on HBO’s Entourage and FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Chase Utley appeared in the same episode of It’s Always Sunny. The Phanatic just appeared in a recent episode of NBC’s 30 Rock.

Jimmy Rollins said last year he did voice work for an episode of FOX’s The Cleveland Show, although an airdate is unknown.

*

The theme song to Hawaii Five-O is great. But where’s the love for Magnum, P.I?

2012: $11 million
2013: $11 million
2014: $11 million
2015: Club option for $8 million. If not exercised, Rollins has a player option for $5 million.

The club option automatically vests for $11 million if Rollins has 600 plate appearances in 2014; or if he has 1,100 plate appearances in 2013-14 and (1) he is not the disabled list at the end of the 2014 season OR (2) if he is on the disabled list at the end of 2014, a mutually agreed upon doctor deems him available for the Opening Day 2015 roster. His salary increases by $1 million if he wins the MVP in the immediately preceding season ($500,000 if he finishes second or third). Other bonuses: $50,000 for All Star; $1 million for MVP ($500,000-2nd or 3rd; $250,000-4th or 5th); $100,000 for World Series MVP; $50,000 for League Championship Series MVP; $50,000 for Gold Glove; $50,000 for Silver Slugger.