Don Wakamatsu is squatting by the batting cage on a sun-drenched practice field. It is the closest he comes to sitting down during the outdoor part of his workday.
But during this full-bore batting practice session, in which pitchers are battling to get batters out and catchers are calling pitches, Wakamatsu is indeed at work, aiming a flip camera at the man behind the plate. Later, he will call the catcher into his office and review the video on his laptop computer, “to help him see what I see.”
Wakamatsu, the Jays’ new bench coach, is a former catcher. So are farm director Doug Davis and minor-league manager Sal Fasano. Joining the panel of experts this spring is veteran catcher Jose Molina.
Combined, those four faculty members have caught 4,060 professional games over 58 seasons. They constitute a living library for their 2011 class, which includes eight catchers who have made minor-league all-star teams.
Morrow, Molina remain a tough combo for Jays
After pitching two hitless innings with four strikeouts and a walk during Friday’s intrasquad game, Toronto Blue Jays starter Brandon Morrow said he felt as strong as he did at the end of last season.
Morrow said he slowed down his delivery slightly after catcher Jose Molina tipped him off during a live batting-practice session earlier in the week.
“It’s great having Jose back,” he said. “He’s able to just tell me right away.”
Zach Stewart off to a promising start
As a high-school pitcher, Zach Stewart admired fellow Texan Nolan Ryan. The kids he pitched against might have thought he was Nolan Ryan.
Behold his progression: on Thursday afternoon, Stewart worked two innings against big-league batters, retiring four on ground balls and two — Jose Bautista and Adam Lind — on strikeouts.
Yes, pitchers always outpace hitters early in spring training. Yes, it was only an intra-squad game, the first of two before the Toronto Blue Jays start exhibition play on Saturday. Yes, you could say it all meant nothing.
But Bruce Walton thinks it means something. The Jays’ pitching coach will not bet against Stewart winning a spot in the opening-day rotation. If he goes to the minors, he probably will not stay long.
“He’s got such a quick arm,” Walton said. “It’s explosive. He can sink and slide the ball. He’s very interesting, and he is one determined young man to establish himself not only in the Blue Jay organization but at the major-league level. He just looks like he knows what’s going on.”
Jays’ Morrow looks to hit new heights in 2011
“Fastball location is (the) No. 1 (priority) for me right now, really just (finding) that game I was in towards the end of last season, and that’s what I felt like today,” said Morrow, who had two perfect innings in Friday’s intra-squad game, the final tune-up before Saturday’s spring training opener against Detroit.
Morrow’s feel-good performance was a confidence builder for him, and a milestone for the club as they continue building Morrow into a quality major-league starter.
Repeating last season’s positive feelings is the goal this spring, considering that a year ago both the club and player were frustrated with Morrow falling behind in counts, getting beaten by walks and a general feeling of inconsistency.
Jays pitching coach Bruce Walton changed Morrow’s arm slot, and the move helped change Morrow into a bona fide strike-thrower, and a pitcher that could harness the immense, untapped potential that the Jays saw when they acquired him from Seattle.
Jays in search of Knecht big thing
Jays need Butter to soften Lind’s hands
It was just a routine bouncer off the bat of rookie Eric Thames late in the first intrasquad game of the spring. New first baseman Adam Lind tentatively went to one knee to make the play. The ball came up a little, but Lind knocked it down, kept it in front of him and made the flip to Joel Carreno covering.
At this point in the defensive conversion of Lind, the former outfielder/DH, it’s not a job, it’s an adventure. If the Jays are going to succeed, the defence must come through and right now the Lind experiment is the biggest trickle-down issue on the minds of management.
“I think it’s important,” GM Alex Anthopoulos said. “But there are people that point to the Giants last year and say, ‘Well, you know what, you don’t have to have a great defensive team and still do it.’ It depends on the makeup of your (pitching) staff — if you have a strikeout staff or a flyball staff, a groundout staff, things like that. We don’t have a bunch of proven Gold Glove talent all over the infield and outfield. We think our defence is going to be solid and there’s a chance for improvement.”
“Aaron Hill and I talked to him the first day out here on the back field,” future major league coach and current Jays infielder John McDonald confided. “Aaron and I will go talk to him mid-drill. He’s played first base but he hasn’t played a lot of first base at the major league level, which is different because the game is quicker. He’s going to have to make adjustments all year. Edwin (Encarnacion) switching over (from third base is) going to have to make adjustments too. Edwin’s been on the corner for a very long time, so I think he’s going to adapt a little bit quicker.”
Project Lind critical to Jays' success
Spring training is a time for testing theories, and Adam Lind is about to test two of them.
One theory says he can become an adequate everyday first baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays. The other says his hitting will benefit from his new duties on defence.
At first base, Lind is starting virtually from scratch. At the plate, he is trying to restore the lustre that he lost last year while serving as a designated hitter for 122 of his 150 games.
"I just feel so much more valuable to the team right now, even though we haven't even played a game yet," he said after a day that included practising rundowns and digging throws out of the dirt during infield drills.
A year ago this time, his focus was almost exclusively on hitting. He was nominally an outfielder, but to no one's surprise, he wound up playing only 16 games in left field.
Then again, with Cito Gaston managing the Jays, Lind knew he was not going to dislodge Lyle Overbay from first base, even though he expected to get a shot this year after Overbay left as a free agent.
"We know how Cito treats those situations, which is fine -- you know, give his veteran guys the best chance that they can to make as much money as they can because they were all free agents," Lind said. "And the way I was hitting last year, and the way Lyle did, I don't know if I deserved to take Lyle's spot, even for a few days."
Fan dream job up for grabs
How would you like to spend six months in the heart of New York City lying on the couch and watching baseball from sun up to sun down?
You'll be surrounded by televisions that will broadcast every Major League Baseball contest this season. Your accommodations will be taken care of; you'll be a media darling at various MLB functions; and you'll talk baseball with fans from around the world.
Sound too good to be true? Well, it isn't.
Major League Baseball is conducting a casting call for the ultimate baseball fan's dream job. The winner of this contest will move to NYC and star in something similar to a reality TV series that will air on MLB.com.
The lucky recipient of the "job" will watch every regular-season and post-season game and be required to share opinions on players, teams and daily events from the comfort of MLB-selected accommodations.
There is a catch: You must be literate, and the thoughts and opinions you're required to share via Twitter or other social-media outlet must be somewhat intelligent.
Blue Jays spring training games draw lots of Canadians to Dunedin
For me, the downside of Canadian winters isn’t traipsing through snowy sidewalks, or bundling up to keep warm in sub-zero temperatures. Nope. What wears me down is the lack of major-league baseball.
Truth is, when the world series wraps up in late fall, a tinge of sadness takes over. Being an armchair manager is an enjoyable gig for me, and frankly, I don’t like parting ways with that seasonal role.
To get that baseball fix sooner, we booked a “Spring Training” vacation in sunny Florida. No convincing was required as my husband and two young sons also enjoy the game. We are big-time Blue Jays fans, but also like catching games at other ballparks.
Bautista, Lind flip-flop in batting order
Blue Jays manager John Farrell unveiled a different lineup for the team's second intrasquad game on Friday afternoon at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium.
One day after batting Jose Bautista and Adam Lind in the Nos. 3 and 4 spots, respectively, Farrell opted to have the infielders switch positions.
That allowed the club to follow speedster Rajai Davis and shortstop Yunel Escobar with a left-handed bat at the top of the order. Lind responded with an opposite-field double in his first at-bat, and that lineup scenario is something Farrell plans to monitor throughout the Grapefruit League season.
"If we have the ability to break up a string of righties with that situation, it's something we'll take a look at," Farrell said. "The biggest key [for Lind] is driving the ball to left-center like he did. Regardless if it's an intrasquad game or a regular-season game, staying on the ball the other way I think is important for his swing execution and being a consistent, productive hitter."
Farrell would like to settle on a permanent batting order prior to the start of the regular season. He expects to have one lineup to match up against right-handed pitching and another for left-handers, but he would like to avoid making lots of changes throughout the year.
Toronto ready to open Grapefruit slate
The Blue Jays' Grapefruit League season officially gets under way Saturday afternoon, when the club plays host to the Tigers at 1:05 ET.
Toronto manager John Farrell said he expects to use his regular lineup, and he plans to allow each player to receive two at-bats before handing the reins over to some of the club's top prospects.
For the Blue Jays, the game will represent a welcome change from the past two weeks, which included mostly drills and intrasquad matchups.
Left-hander Brett Cecil will get the start and is expected to throw two innings. The 24-year-old is looking to build on a successful 2010 campaign, during which he recorded a team-high 15 wins while posting a 4.22 ERA.
The game will also mark the unofficial debut of some of the Blue Jays' new position players to the everyday lineup. Rajai Davis is expected to begin the Grapefruit League opener as the club's leadoff hitter. Last season in Oakland, the 30-year-old hit .284 with 50 stolen bases, and he is expected to provide an element of speed the club hasn't had since Shannon Stewart in the late 1990s.
Also making their debut with Toronto will be outfielders Juan Rivera and Corey Patterson. Rivera is excited to open the regular season after a disappointing 2010 campaign with the Angels. The 32-year-old managed to hit .252 with a .721 OPS, but he is just one year removed from 25 home runs and 88 RBIs with Los Angeles.
Morrow learning how to pitch – and that's scary
When a guy with the deadly weapons Brandon Morrow possesses starts to understand the difference between throwing and pitching, it’s really not a fair fight any more.
The rest of the American League can blame it on Shaun Marcum.
In his first full year as a starting pitcher, Morrow had a front-row seat to watch Marcum baffle hitters with his arsenal of trickery that tended to make his 88-mph fastball look like 98 after throwing a curve and a change that could be timed by a sun dial.
“Having Marcum around last year was huge for me, watching him compete with the stuff he has and how he gets guys out,” said Morrow after working two quick shutout innings in an intersquad game Friday.
“For me it was ‘Wow, he’s doing that with his 88 and 86 and with what he’s doing with the baseball.’ Watching that I learned that it doesn’t necessarily have to be 96. It’s where you throw it and how you compete and your deception, which pitches you’re throwing, mixing it up. Having Marcum as an example and having Jose (Molina) behind the plate was probably the biggest difference for me as a pitcher.”
“Everybody likes to strike people out and I happen to be pretty good at it,” said Morrow. “If I get the batter in a hole, I’m going to try to punch him out.
“But if the situation dictates it — guy on first — I’m looking for that early groundball. It saves you a lot of pitches. There are situations where you’re trying to get a ground ball and get a double play.”
“It became very clear that there was a more controlled effort level,” said Farrell. “You think back two years when he was a one-inning guy with Seattle, he would flash 98 to 100 at times. Now he’s a more complete pitcher, showing more feel, throwing his breaking ball for strikes, sinking the ball more.
Monday matchup pits Doc vs. Drabek
By pure happenstance, when the Blue Jays go to Clearwater on Monday to play the Phillies, the two starting pitchers will be Kyle Drabek and some plug named Halladay.
The two central figures in the trade made during the winter following the 2009 season have not faced each other previously but this pre-season matchup, albeit probably no more than two innings for each pitcher, could be a prelude to a regular-season matchup when Roy Halladay and the Phils come to Toronto for an interleague series on the Canada Day weekend this season.
Farrell tinkering with Jays batting order
With Vernon Wells gone to the L.A. Angels, the Jays are going to take a look at a variety of combinations before they settle on which people will hit in the middle of the order.
“We’ll take a look at some things as we go through camp. We’ll talk to Jose (Bautista) and Adam (Lind) as we go through it but if we have a chance to break up a string of righties, it’s something we’ll take a look at,” said manager John Farrell.
For his part, Lind isn’t concerned where he hits in the lineup. If he’s going to bat cleanup, he’s game for that.
“Whatever works,” he said. “It sounds good. Someone’s got to hit there. Obviously, we don’t have a veteran presence like Vernon in there but wherever they ask me to hit I’ll just give it my best.”
“The biggest thing was seeing Adam drive the ball to left centre like he did,” said Farrell. “Regardless if it’s an intersquad game or a regular season game, staying on the ball away is important for his swing execution and being a consistently productive hitter.”
Nothing is written in stone at this point. In fact, nothing is even written in sand. The Jays will use the entire spring to tinker to find a lineup that works. Of the nine players projected as starters, only Lind and Travis Snider are lefthanded bats.
“We’re just trying to make sure Jose has the right amount of protection behind him,” said Farrell, “but also not stacking too many righties and becoming susceptible to (pitching) matchups in the latter part of the game.”
A lot of these articles are from yesterday or the day before, just wanted to catch up a little bit. Some may have already been posted too.
Don't forget today's game is on the radio. Check out http://www.fan590.com/onair/more.jsp?content=20080229_113927_7232
