National Post (National Edition)
Much in camp still toss-up
Jays continue to sort puzzle in spring training
Toronto Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo, always glad to chat about his two teenage kids, shared a conversation he had with his 11-year-old son Alex the other day.
The update from his offseason home centred around one of Alex’s buddies back in Tucson congratulating him on his father’s first Grapefruit League victory last week.
“Alex looked at him and said, ‘It’s just spring training,’” Montoyo recalled with a laugh. “And he’s right.”
Right on indeed, especially during the early portions of the exhibition schedule when starting pitchers have yet to be stretched out, veteran hitters are still shaking the rust of their stroke and the back half of games are dominated by young prospects, many of whom will be dispatched to minor-league camps in a week or so.
The Jays had their first official off day of camp on Monday and from players to coaches and Montoyo (who planned a mini shopping spree) all were ready to take advantage of the break.
The off day arrived 19 days after pitchers and catchers reported and 19 days until the team breaks camp here and heads to Montreal for its final two exhibition games.
That means there’s plenty of inconsequential baseball yet to be played and plenty more to be accomplished before this new-look team opens at home on March 28 vs. the Detroit Tigers. The players continue to get to know the revamped coaching staff, overhauled from the John Gibbons era, while said coaches work to plant their own seeds of credibility.
Sporting a 2-6-1 record and one rainout so far, the Jays are tied with the Marlins for the fewest wins in spring training, but we’re with Alex Montoyo on that stuff.
With that in mind, our observations from the first half of the Florida portion of the program and what we expect from the remainder of the Jays time here in the Sunshine State.
We’re told over and over again that it’s a certainty Vlad Guerrero Jr. will begin the season in triple-a Buffalo, but before then there remains plenty of opportunities for him to leave an imprint on the big-league team where he belongs.
Guerrero, who will celebrate his 20th birthday next Wednesday, stops just about everyone in their tracks when he comes to the plate. Teammates, coaching staff and all manner of onlookers are invariably impressed.
“Just how even-keeled he is,” Montoyo said when asked what has struck him most about the top-ranked prospect in baseball. “Wherever he goes, people are asking him if he’s playing or not.
“What a great kid he is and that’s good news for us. He just wants to play. He loves the game.”
Guerrero is expected to get plenty of game action through the remainder of camp as he continues to work on his defensive play at third.
Guerrero’s readiness at the plate is already sublime, the latest evidence of such his one-handed double off the wall in Dunedin Stadium. Power yes, but precision as well.
While his on-field progress will be the focus, the issue of Guerrero’s major league start time is one that won’t be going away. The earliest we can expect to see him with the Jays is mid-april as the team looks to protect one more year of control.
That subject will be a topic of discussion when Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark visits Dunedin in two weeks. The MLBPA is firm in its stance that the Jays are holding Guerrero back to manipulate his service time.
And only a cynic would suggest that the Jays bio update over the weekend of Guerrero’s weight from 200 pounds to 250 will be a card to be played in those discussions.
ROTATION ROUNDABOUT
Montoyo and the coaching staff are justifiably enthused about the youth movement that’s taken over the club and with the task of unlocking the potential from the deep pool of talent.
There will be growing pains among that bunch, of course, and the best way short-term way to ease some of that burden is to have a reliable starting rotation.
The good news is, the Jays have the makings of a five-man crew that could be competitive. The dodgier view is that it’s possible the team could start the season with all five starters coming off of injuries.
Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez had hand issues while off-season acquisitions Clayton Richard (knee) and Matt Shoemaker (forearm) are also looking for a recovery bounceback.
And then there’s veteran Clay Buchholz, whom the Jays came to contract terms with late last week and could join the team in a day or two pending his physical. Buchholz could be used out of the bullpen or in the rotation depending on how he performs and how he’s recovered from arm issues.
If Buchholz isn’t bound for the rotation, left-hander Ryan Borucki remains the front-runner for the fifth spot.
OUT IN LEFT FIELD
For his bat alone, the Jays would like to have Teoscar Hernandez a regular in left field, especially if he can flash the form he has at times in his year and change with the team.
Billy Mckinney, on the other hand, offers leadoff hitter potential, especially now that second baseman Devon Travis is banged up yet again. So between these two, we have one of the more interesting battles of camp.
The ongoing issue with Hernandez, however, is his wobbly defence, something the Jays tried to address in the off-season.
Both Montoyo and firstbase coach Mark Budzinski visited Hernandez in the Dominican, where he played winter ball.
“So far he’s looking pretty good in the outfield, so for sure that has helped a lot,” said Montoyo, who pointed out that Hernandez saw some time in centre field in the Dominican.
The coaches have been working on Hernandez’s positioning and how he moves back when tracking balls.
BO KNOWS
Though h e w o n’ t be with the team this year, Bo Bichette is leaving an impression almost daily that will be tough to shake for the big-league staff, especially if he follows it up at tripleA Buffalo.
With 11 at-bats in seven games so far, Bichette has been both busy and effective, belting out four hits, including a homer, for a .364 batting average.
He’s also been smooth and swift at shortstop, evidence of the hard work he put in last season in New Hampshire paying off.
Bichette, who is slotted 10th in the MLB Pipeline list of prospects, has certainly grabbed the attention of Montoyo and others thus far. ❚ NOTES: It has been an energetic and innovative camp run by major league coach Shelley Duncan, under the close watch of Montoyo. Drills are fast-paced and fresh with an emphasis on reducing wasted and standaround time ... Disgruntled Jays fans let their voices be heard on Sunday when a raffle offering a Troy Tulowitzki signed baseball was up for grabs. Boos greeted the winning ticket announcement.
The Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night, which takes some doing. The Suns are aggressively bad, and came into the game with a league-leading 51 losses, against just 12 wins.
Phoenix is one of several NBA teams openly trying to lose, and the Lakers, meanwhile, need wins desperately if they are going to climb back into the playoff picture.
Nothing soothes a struggling team like a visit to an arena where the home team is actively in tank mode.
So, of course, the Suns were up by 17 heading into the fourth quarter, and hung on to win. As the Lakers tried to rally late, LeBron James clanked two free throws, misses that effectively sealed the loss for his team. Lebron said weeks ago that he was flipping his personal playoff switch early. Perhaps the wiring needs some work.
James, 34, having been to the NBA Finals for eight consecutive years with two different franchises, is now seriously in danger of being out of the post-season for the first time since he was 20 years old.
Though it was widely assumed that James’ return from a lengthy injury absence would be enough to spark the Lakers back to their good early-season form, they have gone the other way, and were 4.5 games back of the San Antonio Spurs, the current eight seed, entering Monday n i g h t ’s games. The Spurs hold the tiebreaker, too, so that is essentially a five-game hole for the LeBrons. That is daunting. If the Spurs can just manage a 9-9 finish, the Lakers would need to go 15-4 to overtake them. Considering they are on a 3-8 run: Yikes.
A playoffs without LeBron would be weird enough on its own. He has been the most valuable player in the NBA since his arrival, even if not always its Most Valuable Player. As a measure of his impact, consider the Cleveland Cavaliers, who he took to four straight Finals and are now 16-48 since he left. Even as he was on increasingly sketchy teams in Cleveland, he proved over and over that, when fully engaged in the playoffs, he was exceedingly hard to beat.
And yet, the impact of his missing the post-season will not just be felt in the spring. It’s also worth considering how much Lebron’s firstyear disaster in Los Angeles will affect the free-agency rodeo of the coming summer.
The machinations of the pending off-season have been a parallel storyline to what has happened on the NBA’S courts this season, and sometimes it has been the dominant story. As the New