Estrada stitches together solution
Righty finds the handle on small adjustments that might pay off big
DUNEDIN, FLA.— Marco Estrada needs to get a grip. Specifically, his cutter grip. Which is why the right-hander — ballast in Toronto’s pitching rotation — is all the time feeling the ball in spring training, on and off the mound, out in the field, squeezing without looking, digging for it out of his glove, groping for just the right touch of the stitches. Like baseball braille.
“Sometimes I just stand out there and I go through my grips, just try to find it every time.’’
This is a story better told with show-and-tell, as Estrada did for reporters on Thursday, after throwing five innings of two-hit ball — and nine strikeouts – against a hodgepodge Phillies lineup at the Blue Jays minor league complex, whilst the grown-up team made its longhaul bus trip to Fort Myers. Digital demonstration. “Honestly, the hardest thing for me is just to find the grip. Once I find it and feel comfortable with it, I feel like I can make a good pitch with it. Sometimes I want it to go right to left, especially to a lefty, I want it to get in on his hands. Whereas a righty, I want it to go down.”
The changeup maestro has had a cutter in his repertoire since 2015. But he’s got bigger plans for it in 2018. That’s mostly what Estrada has been working on in Florida, apart from building up arm stamina.
A teensy adjustment on the placement of two fingers, he explains.
“It’s almost nothing.’’ Yet it could be everything.
‘”I want the one where I’m on top of it, where I feel the seams.’’
That off-centre release makes the ball break slightly — faster than a slider, with more motion than a fastball.
“It gives me another pitch. I’m not looking to really strike anyone out with it. I just want them to see a different look. So that I could get some swing-andmisses or even a broken bat because I got it into a lefty. That’s what I want. I don’t want it to spin up there and do nothing.’’
Not to be mistaken — and definitely not to be replacing — his modest fastball, which looks a lot faster mixed in with the changeup. “I locate my fastball down and away, down and in, I elevate it up and in, up and away. That’s a completely different pitch. The cutter’s just to give hitters something else to think about.’’
While Estrada was throwing 63 pitches on one field, a whole bunch of Blue Jays minor leaguers were massing around another field, ogling Nate Pearson, the 21-year-old fireballer making his first start.
GM Ross Atkins has likened Pearson, their Florida-born first-round draft pick (28th) in 2017, to Bartolo Colon for his stuff. Though at a strapping sixfoot-six, 230 pounds (dropped 15 over the winter), with all that heat, Pearson brings to mind Noah Syndergaard — the ace who got away.
In two innings of work Thursday, Pearson twice hit 100 miles per hour and twice hit 99. Then busted out a curveball that practically boomeranged for a strikeout.
It was to drool for. CASUALTY UPDATE: Sidelined with a strained calf muscle since March 4, Steve Pearce returned to the lineup for Toronto’s 7-5 loss to Boston, going 1for-3 with an RBI double and a walk at designated hitter. Randal Grichuk remains day-today with a rib-cage issue that followed close on the heels of a sprained left wrist suffered three weeks ago on a diving play.
“It kind of was super-tight and just got more and more tight. Felt it on different activities. That’s when I went and told them. We were able to catch it before it got too bad.’’
Adding: “We figured it would be best to treat it, manage it, instead of playing through it — take a few days and be on the safe side.”
Grichuk is expected to take over in right field, vacated by Jose Bautista. SEE YA: The Jays optioned right-hander Taylor Guerrieri, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Dwight Smith Jr. Pitchers Andrew Case, Jose Fernandez, Chris Rowley and Justin Shafer were re-assigned. CRAMPING HIS STYLE: Josh Donaldson has had it up to here with all the social media hysteria about the weekend calf cramp that resulted from dehydration. “It’s getting ridiculous. It’s a non-issue. No calf issue. I had a cramp in my calf. I had acupuncture. It was sore the next day. Took it easy. Ready to go.”
Eye-roll over John Gibbons speculating about it with reporters.
“Gibby should just stop talking.”
But said with a grin.