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	<title>Toronto &#187; Chris Sherwin</title>
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		<title>How Bad Umpiring and Mental Mistakes Cost the Blue Jays</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/04/13/how-bad-umpiring-and-mental-mistakes-cost-the-blue-jays/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/04/13/how-bad-umpiring-and-mental-mistakes-cost-the-blue-jays/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Apr 2016 15:18:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Chris Sherwin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aaron Sanchez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Game Reaction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mistakes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Umpiring]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=1437</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are some games in a 162 games season that stick out more than others. Tuesday night’s game featuring the Jays and Yankees is a perfect example of one of these games. This might surprise you given the multitude of late-game losses suffered in the early goings, of the 2016 season, but yesterday sticks out. [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There are some games in a 162 games season that stick out more than others. Tuesday night’s game featuring the Jays and Yankees is a perfect example of one of these games. This might surprise you given the multitude of late-game losses suffered in the early goings, of the 2016 season, but yesterday sticks out.</p>
<p>One run losses can be downright excruciating for players and fans alike, but it&#8217;s the mistakes often shine much brighter in these types of games. Tonight was no different. If you were to browse the box score of this game and take a look at the second inning, you&#8217;ll see two walks, a throwing error, a run, and that’s about it. However, there was much more to this inning than a failed pickoff at second base.</p>
<p>One of the more obvious narratives around this game was the inconsistent strike zone of home plate umpire, James Hoye. All night his calls seems like they were pulled from a Magic Eight Ball, with both team&#8217;s players visibly upset. In the second inning, it helped spark a Yankees rally the eventually led to their first run of the game.</p>
<p>As mentioned above, Sanchez walked two batters in the inning. The first of these was the leadoff hitter, Brian McCann. Sanchez&#8217; first pitch was a fastball high and away for ball one. Then he dropped this pitch.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/04/SanchezCurveBM041216.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1420" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/04/SanchezCurveBM041216.gif" alt="SanchezCurveBM041216" width="475" height="262" /></a></p>
<p>Ball Two?!</p>
<p>I honestly have no idea how Hoye missed this pitch. It ended up right in front of him and he is staring right at it. Did he blink? Was there sand in his eye? We&#8217;ll never know, but instead of a 1-1 count, McCann found himself up 2-0. Sanchez was able to battle back to 2-2, but lost in the end by walking McCann.</p>
<p>After Sanchez induced a soft groundout from Calros Beltran, on which McCann moved up to second, Hoye once again left his impact on an plate appearance. Sanchez fell behind 3-1 to Headley, then threw this pitch:</p>
<p style="text-align: center">
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/04/SanchezTexWalk.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1421" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/04/SanchezTexWalk.gif" alt="SanchezTexWalk" width="475" height="263" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center">
<p>This is a bit more defensible, as Sanchez really missed his spot, but once again the pitch ended up right in front of the home plate umpire. What probably should have been strike two was instead ball four.</p>
<p>This is where the confusion kicked in for most fans, and I would imagine the coaching staff as well. With runners now on first and second and one out, Starlin Castro stepped into the batters box. However, before even throwing a pitch, Sanchez whirled and fired to second in an attempt to pick off McCann. He threw the ball into center field instead, and the runners were each able to move up 90 feet.</p>
<p>Any little leaguer could tell you how silly this play was, yet it happened in a major league game. McCann is not a running threat. <a href="http://bluejaysnation.com/2016/4/13/aaron-sanchez-passes-a-big-test-against-the-yankees-even-if-he-doesn-t-believe-it" target="_blank">In an interview with John Lott</a>, Sanchez admitted to being rattled by the missed strike calls, so perhaps temptation got the best of him in that situation. McCann was flat footed and far off second and Tulo came flying to the bag, so Sanchez reacted. It obviously didn&#8217;t work.</p>
<p>The reason this was so crazy is that Sanchez isn&#8217;t just a groundball pitcher. He is an <em>extreme</em> groundball pitcher. Over the last two seasons, there are only three qualified starters with a groundball rate of 60+ percent. Sanchez doesn&#8217;t qualify (doesn&#8217;t have enough innings), but his career groundball rate is 61.7 percent. And the hitter, Castro, has a career groundball to flyball rate of 1.62. So a groundball pitcher, a groundball hitter, and a double play is needed. That seems like a pretty good situation for the Blue Jays.</p>
<p>However, after the throwing error, the double play was removed. This is how the plate appearance ended:</p>
<p style="text-align: center">
<p style="text-align: center"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.bluejaysplus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/GBScoreRUnYanksJays041216.gif" alt="" width="475" height="259" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center">
<p>Instead of an inning-ending double play to keep the score tied at 0-0, this ended up being an RBI groundout and the Blue Jays found themselves trailing. To Sanchez’s credit, he was able to minimize the damage and get out of the inning with another ground ball, but this was extremely disheartening.</p>
<p>Obviously there is more to a loss than a single inning. The Jays had three hits all game, and left seven men on base. Still, they lost by one run and the Yankees never should have scored the first one. It&#8217;s easier to handle a team simply blowing a game because they didn&#8217;t have it on that particular day. That is just the nature of sports. Some days you will be at your best, and some days you won&#8217;t. But mental mistakes and the umpires affecting the game behind the plate just leave a lingering, sour taste.</p>
<p>This is still only the second week of very long season, so there is all the time in the world to recover, but the umpires need to be better, and the Blue Jays need to be smarter.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>Under the Hood: Under Appreciated Blue Jays Hitting Mechanics</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/17/under-the-hood-under-appreciated-blue-jays-hitting-mechanics/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/17/under-the-hood-under-appreciated-blue-jays-hitting-mechanics/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Mar 2016 12:59:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Chris Sherwin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Under the Hood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jose Bautista]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Josh Donaldson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kevin Pillar]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=430</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As Jays fans, we can be forgiven if we’re a little spoiled when it comes to the offensive side of the ball. There are All-Star caliber players from top to bottom in this lineup, thrilling fans by crushing home runs almost daily. I’m especially lucky, as I get to examine some of the best hitting [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As Jays fans, we can be forgiven if we’re a little spoiled when it comes to the offensive side of the ball. There are All-Star caliber players from top to bottom in this lineup, thrilling fans by crushing home runs almost daily. I’m especially lucky, as I get to examine some of the best hitting mechanics in the game on a nightly basis. There are subtleties in the approach of some Jays hitters that I love to analyze.</p>
<p>In a minute, I’m going to breakdown arguably the two best hitters on this roster and point out some unappreciated qualities these two share. But before we get, let’s first examine the troubles that are created by a lot of the traditional swing cues. You will often hear Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler rambling on about timing and keeping the weight back when discussing Jays hitters. These are common phrases tossed around by professionals who don’t seem to actually know what they mean. Hitters are taught from a young age to get the front foot down as quickly as possible and to “stay back” with their hands and weight. This technique is supposed to help a hitter stay balanced and create a shorter swing. Unfortunately, it is also heavily flawed; this movement will put the hitter in a number of constricting positions during the swing. As a result, a number of timing flaws are created:</p>
<ol>
<li>Hitters overthink staying inside the ball and end up pushing their hands through the zone towards the pitcher.</li>
<li>The hitters bat speed is non-existent until the hands are too far into the zone.</li>
<li>Because the hands are being pushed and no bat speed is created, contact is made too far out in front, and the hitter needs to make a swing commitment much earlier than desired.</li>
</ol>
<p>This is where we get back to those two elite hitters, Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson. When dissecting their swings, you can see them rebelling against these old school hitting methods. To illustrate my point, I’m going to break down how JD and Bautista take pitches.</p>
<p>I know, that sounds boring. Who cares about a batter taking a pitch, right? Well, how a player takes a pitch can demonstrate everything you need to know about their hitting mechanics. Even when they end up watching the ball go by, these two are ready to swing at every pitch. Now, I’m not talking about over-aggressive Kevin Pillar or Bret Lawrie, both of whom are ready to swing like a maniac the second the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand. This is something different, and where Donaldson and Bautista continue to push the boundaries and crush hitting myths.</p>
<p>It’s a common misconception that good hitters “decide” to swing. What should be happening is that the batter is mentally checked into swinging. Then once their swings are initiated, and they don’t like what they see during the pitch recognition sequence, the brain yells, “stop!” At that point, the hitter should be able to hold up. This is how an elite hitter is prepared to swing every time.</p>
<p>Let’s take a look at how Bautista and Donaldson take a pitch</p>
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<p>One of the first things that stand out is that their swing path is accelerated despite not committing to a full hack. Pay close attention to how far back their barrels are. Instead of throwing the bathead out, they creating more time to make a decision. There are some other important cues we can take away from these GIFs:</p>
<ol>
<li>Rather than creating the bat speed too late and through the zone, these hitters are generating it far before the hands even approach the zone. This is truly an impressive trait I find in elite hitters. Despite all the lessons we learn as young hitters, these athletes are creating bat speed despite not swinging at the pitch.</li>
<li>With the slow-motion take, you can see just how much force is moving forward with the lower body, while the hands stay back rather than being pushed or thrown out towards the pitcher.</li>
<li>It is clear that the entire swing is in motion and ready to go before they recognize it’s not their pitch and they throw on the brakes.</li>
</ol>
<p>You might be asking why are these traits so important. I think most of the baseball community can all agree that line drives and deep fly balls are what hitters should be hoping for. Instead of initiating bat speed at contact and grounding out, they are creating the bat speed during the loading stage. This aids with the proper swing plane. During the loading stage you will notice the back elbow moving downward. As a result, the swing plane is set before they even rotate at the hips. Combine all these factors and you have a player who’s able to adjust to off-speed and breaking pitches, creates the proper swing plane, has a short swing. As Jays fans are treated to on a nightly basis, the results after contact are monster bombs and screaming line drives.</p>
<p>These are the building blocks of what makes them such great hitters. These two are also helping younger generations break the mold of old-school coaching and helping kids every get better hitting mechanics and approach. Not only are they mesmerizing fans, they are changing the way we look at hitting as a whole. Yep, we’re spoiled.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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