renuszm
02-16-2003, 11:36 PM
http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/tor/news/tor_news.jsp?ymd=20030215&content_id=200433&vkey=news_tor&fext=.jsp
Blue Jays report to Dunedin
By Spencer Fordin / MLB.com
The wait is finally over. Baseball begins in earnest today for the Toronto Blue Jays, as pitchers and catchers report to the team's Spring Training home in Dunedin. Several players were already there, but today is the mandatory reporting date -- tomorrow, the team will stage its first official workouts. The rest of the team is due on Thursday, the day before the first full-squad workout.
A scant five weeks later, the Blue Jays will kick off the season at SkyDome against the Yankees. A lot will happen in between those two dates, as the team prepares for the long haul of the regular season.
Toronto is blessed with a roster without many holes, so there won't be too jarring decisions. Manager Carlos Tosca will have to sort out the back end of his starting rotation, pick through several candidates for a few bullpen slots, and select a few players for the end of his bench. Besides that, the task will be to sharpen the fundamentals of his returning core, many of whom are entering their first or second Spring Training as full-time players.
"It's no different than any other Spring Training for any other manager," said Tosca, who will be running his first Spring Training as a big-league manager. "There's certain fundamentals: cutoffs and relays, pop-fly priority, rundowns and pickoffs, first-and-third defense. You try to make sure that you hit on all those, make sure that they're running the way you want them to run. Hopefully by the time the season starts, you're ready to handle those situations."
Tosca has circled 85 wins as a viable goal for his team, which would represent a seven-game improvement over last season. The manager has also gone on record as saying that he thinks it will take 100 wins to make the playoffs, but that doesn't mean he's given up on the season. Tosca said that the Blue Jays still are one step away from serious contention, and they hope to bridge that gap in 2003.
Three projected regulars -- Chris Woodward, Orlando Hudson and Josh Phelps -- haven't played a full season in the big leagues. Another three -- Eric Hinske, Vernon Wells and Frank Catalanotto -- have played just one apiece. If nothing else, the baby Blue Jays will be young and enthusiastic in 2003. All six of those players are 28 or younger, with Catalanotto serving as the elder statesman. The Cat, slated to play right field, is the most experienced out of this bunch. He has played in 100 games or more three times, but he's only gotten more than 400 at-bats on one occasion.
"It's going to be very competitive in Spring Training," Tosca said recently. "We've moved forward, and rightfully so. That's what teams that are close to contending do."
Tosca, who has mentioned that he dislikes off-days during the baseball season, should love his team's Spring Training schedule. The Blue Jays are slated for 28 games in a 29-day span, with the only day off coming on March 18. Unlike many other teams, the Jays won't have to take too many long road trips. Twenty-two of the team's games are in the same general area, the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Dunedin sector. Only five trips are longer than an hour away, which means that the team should be rested and ready by the time the regular season rolls around.
They should also know exactly what to expect from their division opponents -- roughly one-third of the team's Spring Training games are against AL East foes. After opening the Spring Training slate against Tampa Bay on the first day of March, the Jays will play the Devil Rays five more times. They'll also play the Yankees three times and the Red Sox twice. Baltimore, the only team missing from that list, won't see the Blue Jays until the middle of June. Meanwhile, when the season starts in earnest, the other three division rivals will play Toronto a combined total of 16 times in April alone.
Tosca's team ended last season on a bit of a rampage, winning their final seven games. Looking at the larger picture, the Jays finished the second half of the season with the best record of any AL team that failed to make the playoffs.
Toronto's burden will be to carry that momentum into this season, and the schedule makes that a difficult proposition. The Jays play their first 20 games against Boston, Minnesota and New York, three of the best teams in the American League. The slate softens a little bit at the end of the month, with eight games against Tampa Bay, Kansas City and Minnesota. Tosca said that if his team can jump out of the gates quickly, the rest of the season will fall into line. But then, after saying that, he cautioned that you can't put too much emphasis on any one segment of the schedule.
"It's an important month," he said. "But if we have a bad month, we still have to play the other five. They're not going to cancel the schedule."
And so it begins, another arduous baseball season, another celebration of spring and summer. Saturday represents the first day of that celebration -- the Blue Jays hope it will last until late October.
Blue Jays report to Dunedin
By Spencer Fordin / MLB.com
The wait is finally over. Baseball begins in earnest today for the Toronto Blue Jays, as pitchers and catchers report to the team's Spring Training home in Dunedin. Several players were already there, but today is the mandatory reporting date -- tomorrow, the team will stage its first official workouts. The rest of the team is due on Thursday, the day before the first full-squad workout.
A scant five weeks later, the Blue Jays will kick off the season at SkyDome against the Yankees. A lot will happen in between those two dates, as the team prepares for the long haul of the regular season.
Toronto is blessed with a roster without many holes, so there won't be too jarring decisions. Manager Carlos Tosca will have to sort out the back end of his starting rotation, pick through several candidates for a few bullpen slots, and select a few players for the end of his bench. Besides that, the task will be to sharpen the fundamentals of his returning core, many of whom are entering their first or second Spring Training as full-time players.
"It's no different than any other Spring Training for any other manager," said Tosca, who will be running his first Spring Training as a big-league manager. "There's certain fundamentals: cutoffs and relays, pop-fly priority, rundowns and pickoffs, first-and-third defense. You try to make sure that you hit on all those, make sure that they're running the way you want them to run. Hopefully by the time the season starts, you're ready to handle those situations."
Tosca has circled 85 wins as a viable goal for his team, which would represent a seven-game improvement over last season. The manager has also gone on record as saying that he thinks it will take 100 wins to make the playoffs, but that doesn't mean he's given up on the season. Tosca said that the Blue Jays still are one step away from serious contention, and they hope to bridge that gap in 2003.
Three projected regulars -- Chris Woodward, Orlando Hudson and Josh Phelps -- haven't played a full season in the big leagues. Another three -- Eric Hinske, Vernon Wells and Frank Catalanotto -- have played just one apiece. If nothing else, the baby Blue Jays will be young and enthusiastic in 2003. All six of those players are 28 or younger, with Catalanotto serving as the elder statesman. The Cat, slated to play right field, is the most experienced out of this bunch. He has played in 100 games or more three times, but he's only gotten more than 400 at-bats on one occasion.
"It's going to be very competitive in Spring Training," Tosca said recently. "We've moved forward, and rightfully so. That's what teams that are close to contending do."
Tosca, who has mentioned that he dislikes off-days during the baseball season, should love his team's Spring Training schedule. The Blue Jays are slated for 28 games in a 29-day span, with the only day off coming on March 18. Unlike many other teams, the Jays won't have to take too many long road trips. Twenty-two of the team's games are in the same general area, the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Dunedin sector. Only five trips are longer than an hour away, which means that the team should be rested and ready by the time the regular season rolls around.
They should also know exactly what to expect from their division opponents -- roughly one-third of the team's Spring Training games are against AL East foes. After opening the Spring Training slate against Tampa Bay on the first day of March, the Jays will play the Devil Rays five more times. They'll also play the Yankees three times and the Red Sox twice. Baltimore, the only team missing from that list, won't see the Blue Jays until the middle of June. Meanwhile, when the season starts in earnest, the other three division rivals will play Toronto a combined total of 16 times in April alone.
Tosca's team ended last season on a bit of a rampage, winning their final seven games. Looking at the larger picture, the Jays finished the second half of the season with the best record of any AL team that failed to make the playoffs.
Toronto's burden will be to carry that momentum into this season, and the schedule makes that a difficult proposition. The Jays play their first 20 games against Boston, Minnesota and New York, three of the best teams in the American League. The slate softens a little bit at the end of the month, with eight games against Tampa Bay, Kansas City and Minnesota. Tosca said that if his team can jump out of the gates quickly, the rest of the season will fall into line. But then, after saying that, he cautioned that you can't put too much emphasis on any one segment of the schedule.
"It's an important month," he said. "But if we have a bad month, we still have to play the other five. They're not going to cancel the schedule."
And so it begins, another arduous baseball season, another celebration of spring and summer. Saturday represents the first day of that celebration -- the Blue Jays hope it will last until late October.