The boys of summer made their annual winter pilgrimage to the Lehigh Valley Thursday night as the Phillies Winter Banquet came to the Sands Event Center in Bethlehem. Among the participants were general manager Ruben Amaro Jr., manager Ryne Sandberg, and Phillies players and former members of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Darin Ruf and David Buchanan.

For Sandberg, who is entering his second season at the helm of the Phillies, there is going to be a focus on an area of the game that has plagued the Phillies over the past few seasons offense.The Phillies have become a team heavy on strikeouts and light on getting key hits, which has helped to kill their chances of competing. The declining offense among veterans, along with the likelihood of some younger players making the roster in 2015 has led Sandberg to develop a different approach. The Hall of Famer basically wants to start over with his hitters, taking them back to the basics that helped them become the type of players that were supposed to be able to provide solid offense."We're going to really focus on the offensive side of the game," explained Sandberg. "Baseball has really gotten back to the point where I think hitting the baseball is the toughest thing in sports, and I think that's come from strong arms and fastballs that are 95-plus, which you see a lot these days, especially in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings."With the key being to attempt to cut down on strikeouts that have killed rallies for the Phillies, Sandberg is going to emphasize to his hitters the importance of hitting with two strikes. Not only will the major league club be getting more hands-on work hitting down in the count, but the emphasis will carry through the entire organization, stressing how players have to change their approach in order to do little things that will help the team's offense."We're stressing a philosophy as a group, not only at the major league level, but throughout the minor league organization, as far as putting the bat on the ball and cutting down on the strikeouts; that's one thing that really hurt us last year," Sandberg admitted. "With this approach, it will be about battling with two strikes and making an adjustment with two strikes to be able to put the ball in play and hopefully, advance runners and make things happen, along with just a lot more contact."Outfielder Ben Revere, who was also with the Phillies contingent at the Winter Banquet, said he's interested in anything that would help generate more offense for the club, hopefully, leading to more wins."That's the kind of game that I always try to play anyway, but it never hurts to get back to basics and have that reminder of how to do things the right way. There are a lot of people connected to this organization that we can all learn from and I'm looking forward to working with those guys," said Revere, referring to some of the instructors who will work with Phillies hitters this spring.Sandberg has gotten former manager Charlie Manuel and Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt to commit to working with the Phillies hitters in camp for the entire spring. Bench coach Larry Bowa, hitting coach Steve Henderson and assistant hitting coach John Mizerock will also be part of the team helping to work with hitters, as will Sandberg."I like being involved. I don't want to just sit back and watch these guys work, I want to be out there and be part of the solution to everything, I'm looking forward to helping some of these guys get back to being better hitters and doing things the right way," said Sandberg. "We don't always stress that enough and maybe that's something that baseball, in general, should get back to, is just doing things the tried and true way, with things that have worked in the game since it began.""First of all, I want to utilize the instructors that we're going to have in camp; Charlie Manuel is all in for the spring to help with hitting, Mike Schmidt is all in for the whole spring and along with Steve Henderson and John Mizerock, there's Larry Bowa, who has 2,000 hits in the big leagues and myself involved. It will be interesting, but it's back to the basics of hitting a baseball and keeping it simple."