MudSnakes
10-05-2004, 06:00 PM
The Jays made several announcements yesterday, pertaining to their coaching staff:
Source: toronto.bluejays.mlb.com (http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/tor/news/tor_news.jsp?ymd=20041004&content_id=882886&vkey=news_tor&fext=.jsp)
TORONTO -- The Blue Jays welcomed Ernie Whitt and Brad Arnsberg to the staff on Monday, when they also confirmed John Gibbons as the full-time manager. Mike Barnett, Bruce Walton and Brian Butterfield will be back in their original capacities -- hitting coach, bullpen coach and third-base coach, respectively.
The only thing missing is a first-base coach, and Toronto plans to add that later in the week. Whitt is poised to serve as a bench coach, and Arnsberg steps in as the new pitching coach. Both played in the big leagues, though Whitt has never served as a Major League coach. He's spent the past few seasons as a roving catching instructor, but he's ready for a change.
"When you go to cities like Pulaski and Charleston -- just to name a few of the big cities I've traveled to over the last seven years -- yeah, I've earned it," he said with a smile. "There's no question about it. It will be nice to go and stay in some five-star hotels in New York and Boston and Los Angeles. I'm looking forward to it."
Of course, Whitt was kidding. The big leagues aren't all about road trips and room service. They also symbolize the highest level of competition, a destination for anyone with a background like the former backstop's.
He played 12 years as a Blue Jay, bridging the gap from expansion to respectability. He also recently went through the Olympic experience, managing Canada's national team to a fourth-place finish in the Athens Games. Now, back on North American soil, he's glad to be back in the Majors.
"I thought it would happen a few years after I got back into the game as an instructor in the minor leagues. I really thought the progression would take place and I'd be involved," he said. "But it never came about and I kind of fell in love with doing my job down there. I enjoyed going to the ballpark and working wiith the catchers, working with the hitters. I never really viewed it as a job: I viewed it as having fun with the kids, and I'm looking at this the same way."
Arnsberg has coached most of Toronto's current pitchers, so he won't have to wear a name tag in Spring Training. The former first-round draft pick has two stints as a big league pitching coach on his resume, though his last one ended in controversy.
When he was dismissed from Florida, he was accused of riding his pitchers too hard and causing A.J. Burnett's elbow injury. Now that he's removed from the situation, he doesn't mind clearing the air.
"I know from my time in Florida, when A.J. Burnett blew out, there was a lot of fuss being thrown around," said Arnsberg, whose pitching career was derailed by injury. "That kid was like a son to me and I treated him like my own son. I have two sons, and I wouldn't have done anything differently with them.
"This kid was throwing up 98 mph in the eighth and ninth inning. What would've ever made me think of shutting this kid's arm down at 114 pitches, going into a three-hit ninth inning?"
Arnsberg didn't just have Tommy John surgery -- he hurt himself in a game when he was pitching in relief for Tommy John. He understands the routine injuries from pitching and he knows the heartbreak of a career-ending ailment, much like his predecessor, Gil Patterson.
"What happened to Burnett happens to a lot of arms," explained Arneberg. "It happened to me. I had a Tommy John surgery and that's why I became a pitching coach, to save arms and to do this the right way.
He also knows how to manage stress on any given arm. For the workhorses, there's nothing wrong with regularly accumulating high pitch-counts, he said, as long as you compensate elsewhere.
"When guys go out there and throw 115-120 pitches, that next outing, we always monitor them differently. Some guys actually gain in that next four-to-five day period," said Arnsberg. "If they still have solid stuff after six or seven innings and you think you can put him out there for another, I don't have any problem with that. Next time, his downtime and his bullpen time, you start tapering down to try to even out the workload.
"I've always said they're like throughbreds, and we keep entering throughbreds in races every week, week after week. They're not going to wait three or four weeks. We keep putting them out, but always with surveillance and always with the kid's best interests at heart. These guys are built to go out there and they condition their bodies to go out there."
With Roy Halladay, Miguel Batista, Ted Lilly and Dave Bush, Toronto has a few horses. The key is timing their jumps, and that's where Arnsberg excels. He said he'll live and die with every pitch, and they can always count on him watching their backs.
"It's kind of an emotional game. I get so upset at situations -- not visibily, but I'm a nailbiter and people laugh at me for it," he said. "I will back them and I will fight for them, but it comes down to executing their own game plans. They've gotta get the bull by the horns."
Spencer Fordin is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Source: toronto.bluejays.mlb.com (http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/tor/news/tor_news.jsp?ymd=20041004&content_id=882886&vkey=news_tor&fext=.jsp)
TORONTO -- The Blue Jays welcomed Ernie Whitt and Brad Arnsberg to the staff on Monday, when they also confirmed John Gibbons as the full-time manager. Mike Barnett, Bruce Walton and Brian Butterfield will be back in their original capacities -- hitting coach, bullpen coach and third-base coach, respectively.
The only thing missing is a first-base coach, and Toronto plans to add that later in the week. Whitt is poised to serve as a bench coach, and Arnsberg steps in as the new pitching coach. Both played in the big leagues, though Whitt has never served as a Major League coach. He's spent the past few seasons as a roving catching instructor, but he's ready for a change.
"When you go to cities like Pulaski and Charleston -- just to name a few of the big cities I've traveled to over the last seven years -- yeah, I've earned it," he said with a smile. "There's no question about it. It will be nice to go and stay in some five-star hotels in New York and Boston and Los Angeles. I'm looking forward to it."
Of course, Whitt was kidding. The big leagues aren't all about road trips and room service. They also symbolize the highest level of competition, a destination for anyone with a background like the former backstop's.
He played 12 years as a Blue Jay, bridging the gap from expansion to respectability. He also recently went through the Olympic experience, managing Canada's national team to a fourth-place finish in the Athens Games. Now, back on North American soil, he's glad to be back in the Majors.
"I thought it would happen a few years after I got back into the game as an instructor in the minor leagues. I really thought the progression would take place and I'd be involved," he said. "But it never came about and I kind of fell in love with doing my job down there. I enjoyed going to the ballpark and working wiith the catchers, working with the hitters. I never really viewed it as a job: I viewed it as having fun with the kids, and I'm looking at this the same way."
Arnsberg has coached most of Toronto's current pitchers, so he won't have to wear a name tag in Spring Training. The former first-round draft pick has two stints as a big league pitching coach on his resume, though his last one ended in controversy.
When he was dismissed from Florida, he was accused of riding his pitchers too hard and causing A.J. Burnett's elbow injury. Now that he's removed from the situation, he doesn't mind clearing the air.
"I know from my time in Florida, when A.J. Burnett blew out, there was a lot of fuss being thrown around," said Arnsberg, whose pitching career was derailed by injury. "That kid was like a son to me and I treated him like my own son. I have two sons, and I wouldn't have done anything differently with them.
"This kid was throwing up 98 mph in the eighth and ninth inning. What would've ever made me think of shutting this kid's arm down at 114 pitches, going into a three-hit ninth inning?"
Arnsberg didn't just have Tommy John surgery -- he hurt himself in a game when he was pitching in relief for Tommy John. He understands the routine injuries from pitching and he knows the heartbreak of a career-ending ailment, much like his predecessor, Gil Patterson.
"What happened to Burnett happens to a lot of arms," explained Arneberg. "It happened to me. I had a Tommy John surgery and that's why I became a pitching coach, to save arms and to do this the right way.
He also knows how to manage stress on any given arm. For the workhorses, there's nothing wrong with regularly accumulating high pitch-counts, he said, as long as you compensate elsewhere.
"When guys go out there and throw 115-120 pitches, that next outing, we always monitor them differently. Some guys actually gain in that next four-to-five day period," said Arnsberg. "If they still have solid stuff after six or seven innings and you think you can put him out there for another, I don't have any problem with that. Next time, his downtime and his bullpen time, you start tapering down to try to even out the workload.
"I've always said they're like throughbreds, and we keep entering throughbreds in races every week, week after week. They're not going to wait three or four weeks. We keep putting them out, but always with surveillance and always with the kid's best interests at heart. These guys are built to go out there and they condition their bodies to go out there."
With Roy Halladay, Miguel Batista, Ted Lilly and Dave Bush, Toronto has a few horses. The key is timing their jumps, and that's where Arnsberg excels. He said he'll live and die with every pitch, and they can always count on him watching their backs.
"It's kind of an emotional game. I get so upset at situations -- not visibily, but I'm a nailbiter and people laugh at me for it," he said. "I will back them and I will fight for them, but it comes down to executing their own game plans. They've gotta get the bull by the horns."
Spencer Fordin is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.