USATSI_9928734_168381442_lowres

Team Canada WBC Notebook

In Thursday’s game against the Dominican Republic, there was but a single Canadian player who stood out from the pack and had legitimately impressive performance. That player was pitcher Andrew Albers, who threw two shutout innings in relief, giving up just a solitary hit and needing just 28 pitches to get through the incredibly stacked Dominican […]

USATSI_9924681_168381442_lowres

Takeaways from Team Canada vs. Toronto Blue Jays

I just have a few thoughts after watching Team Canada’s exhibition vs. the Blue Jays Tuesday afternoon, as well as the first few days of action in the Tokyo and Seoul. Canada Roster Changes Canada has officially announced three changes to their roster. First, Blue Jays farmhand Mike Reeves has replaced Rangers prospect Kellin Deglan […]

USATSI_9913659_168381442_lowres

Russell Martin on the Art of Pitch Calling: A Masters in Communication

“If you believe your catcher is intelligent and you know that he has considerable experience, it is a good thing to leave the game almost entirely in his hands.” – Bob Feller DUNEDIN – Catcher defense is an interesting thing. When trying to evaluate it, most of the talk has shifted towards pitch framing (or […]

USATSI_9355196_168381442_lowres

John Gibbons Is a Modern Day Bobby Cox

Last Canada Day, John Gibbons was ejected for arguing a called strike with home plate umpire Vic Carapazza. It was his sixth ejection of the season, which wouldn’t be all that remarkable except for the fact that the season wasn’t even halfway over. John Gibbons has been ejected once every 13 games this season for […]

USATSI_9901971_168381442_lowres

Dalton Pompey on Choosing to Play in the WBC

DUNEDIN – It was a good day for Dalton Pompey. After battling illness for the first week of games, the switch-hitting 24 year old finally found his way into the lineup in Grapefruit League action. One walk, one nice catch at the fence, and one opposite field home run later, a solid first 2017 impression […]

USATSI_9889477_168381442_lowres

The 30th Percentile Blue Jays

In this space last week, I wrote about what Baseball Prospectus’ projection system PECOTA thinks would happen to the Toronto Blue Jays in 2017 if their players would hit their 90th percentile projections. That best case scenario looked like a 119-43 record, compared to the 81-81 record the normal PECOTA projected for the 2017 Blue Jays. Today, I […]