TORONTO — The funny thing about an intrasquad game is that every event is both good and bad for the same team. For instance, Rowdy Tellez is off to a hot start with three home runs through the club’s first two games. That’s a good sign for Toronto’s offence. But three pitchers the Blue Jays will be relying upon to get outs during the regular season gave them up. That’s not so great.
So, within the Blue Jays’ clubhouse, how do they digest this zero-sum game? What can be taken away from it? Aside from Tellez’s right to throw out a little banter at his teammates’ expense, of course.
“Oh yeah, a little bit. All in good fun,” Tellez says. “But I think it makes everybody better. When I get out against pitchers, I want to know how they got me out. I ask those questions. And vice versa. When you put a good swing on they want to know, ‘How did it look out of my hand? What was the reason? How did you stay on that?’
“I’m bettering them and they’re bettering me because they’re telling me what I’m doing wrong and I’m helping them when they don’t execute their pitches. It’s just everybody being a good teammate.”
That camaraderie is being demonstrated in a few ways this week, as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. crosses the diamond to pick up first base and, one assumes, eat into Tellez’s playing time. There will be a steep learning curve for Guerrero Jr. as he picks up a position he’s never played before, making the help of those with experience there — like Tellez — crucial to his progress.
There’s footwork to practice, situations to learn and reads to make. Tellez can and will help guide Guerrero Jr. through that. But he’ll be doing so in service of a teammate playing his position.
One imagines that would be a little awkward. But Tellez says it’s quite the contrary.
“I don’t think it changes anything in the way of our team. I think having him over there is as beneficial as him at third — I think we just want as many bats as we can have in the lineup,” Tellez said. “Him being right-handed, me being left-handed — it kind of plays into that platoon situation. But I think having all of us in the lineup is going to be beneficial. We’re just here to win.”
That said, it’s pretty unlikely that the Blue Jays would run a strict platoon at first base, as Guerrero Jr.’s bat needs to be in the lineup as often as possible. That creates an interesting dilemma, as one presumes manager Charlie Montoyo would want to keep his designated hitter spot open more often than not in order to exploit matchups or get some players a day off their feet.
Conventional wisdom might suggest you’d regularly sit Tellez against left-handed pitching, but he demonstrated in a small, 126-plate appearance sample last season that he isn’t necessarily overmatched against southpaws. Tellez hit .270/.317/.513 in that exposure to lefties, putting up a 113 OPS+.
Still, 15 of his 21 homers last season came against right-handed pitching and his 2018 minor-league splits — .839 OPS vs. right-handers, .659 OPS vs. lefties — look more like what you’d expect from a hitter of his profile. But that shouldn’t take away from the results he produced last season.
Tellez says that recent success came from a slight approach tweak, as he began honing in on locations rather than hunting particular pitches. That’s similar to the adjustment Justin Smoak made prior to his late-career breakout in 2017.
“It’s about not getting myself out and chasing, but hunting a location and waiting for it to end up there,” Tellez said. “I know in 2017 I struggled with it. In 2018, when I got called up, I struggled with left-on-left. But I focused hard on it the past offseason and now I really just want to let it play out.”
Which brings us back to the question of how often Tellez will play with Guerrero Jr. now a first baseman. Probably not as much as he’d like.
But Montoyo is famous for utilizing every player on his roster as frequently as possible, seldom letting players have too many consecutive days off. Tellez will be in the lineup. And if he keeps hitting the way he has early in camp, Montoyo won’t be able to take him out.
Of course, Tellez has always hit the ball hard when he makes contact — he was an 80th percentile exit velocity hitter in 2019 — which is a reliable way to find good results on balls in play. The problem has been the amount of contact, as Tellez swung-and-missed his way to a 31.3 per cent whiff rate in 2019.
It’s possible to be a productive big league hitter while missing pitches that often. Bryce Harper’s 2019 whiff rate was 34 per cent; Javy Baez’s was 35.7. But you generally have to pair it with a secondary attribute besides the hard-hit rate — Harper routinely contends for the league-lead in walks, while Baez is one of the game’s best at making adjustments in two-strike counts — to get away with it.
Tellez hasn’t been able to do that to this point in his career, but it’s important to remember the strides players can make well into their late 20’s if they keep working to improve. Smoak’s breakout in his age-30 season is a fitting example, as he went from a part-time platoon bat to an all-star thanks to some of the same approach adjustments Tellez has been working to make.
That’s how he spent the past few months while enduring MLB’s shutdown with his sister, Amy, at their father Greg’s house in Sacramento, Calif. They built a batting cage so the 25-year-old could work on his swing while conditioning continued at Tellez’s trainer’s house nearby, where he had access to all the equipment he could need.
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The results so far have been evident. Now it’s on Tellez to keep that production going, while helping Guerrero Jr. find his feet at first. If both those things happen, everyone wins. Including the team.
“He’s a great teammate to start with. So, he’s not too worried about certain things, playing time, any of that,” Tellez said of Guerrero Jr. “He just wants everybody to be happy, everybody to be at their best.
“It’s a different position. Different type of footwork around the bag, different type of things that you don’t do at third base. So, all I can say is he’s been tremendous. he’s working hard over there. And I’m happy that he’s putting in that kind of work and he’s asking the right questions.”
TORONTO – Reigning PWHL MVP and scoring champ Natalie Spooner will miss the start of the regular season for the Toronto Sceptres, general manager Gina Kingsbury announced Tuesday on the first day of training camp.
The 33-year-old Spooner had knee surgery on her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) after she was checked into the boards by Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal series on May 13.
She had a goal and an assist in three playoff games but did not finish the series. Toronto was up 2-1 in the semifinal at that time and eventually fell 3-2 in the series.
Spooner led the PWHL with 27 points in 24 games. Her 20 goals, including five game-winners, were nine more than the closest skater.
Kingsbury said there is no timeline, as the team wants the Toronto native at 100 per cent, but added that “she is doing really well” in her recovery.
The Sceptres open the PWHL season on Nov. 30 when they host the Boston Fleet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board declined Friday to confirm media reports that India has decided against playing any games in host Pakistan during next year’s Champions Trophy.
“My view is if there’s any problems, they (India) should tell us in writing,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore. “I’ll share that with the media as well as with the government as soon as I get such a letter.”
Indian media reported Friday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has communicated its concerns to all the Champions Trophy stakeholders, including the PCB, over the Feb. 19-March 9 tournament and would not play in arch-rival Pakistan.
The Times of India said that “Dubai is a strong candidate to host the fixtures involving the Men in Blue” for the 50-over tournament.
Such a solution would see Pakistan having to travel to a neutral venue to play India in a group match, with another potential meeting later in the tournament if both teams advanced from their group. The final is scheduled for March 9 in Pakistan with the specific venue not yet decided.
“Our stance is clear,” Naqvi said. “They need to give us in writing any objections they may have. Until now, no discussion of the hybrid model has happened, nor are we prepared to accept one.”
Political tensions have stopped bilateral cricket between the two nations since 2008 and they have competed in only multi-nation tournaments, including ICC World Cups.
“Cricket should be free of politics,” Naqvi said. “Any sport should not be entangled with politics. Our preparations for the Champions Trophy will continue unabated, and this will be a successful event.”
The PCB has already spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi which are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games. Naqvi hoped all the three stadiums will be ready over the next two months.
“Almost every country wants the Champions Trophy to be played here (in Pakistan),” Naqvi said. “I don’t think anyone should make this a political matter, and I don’t expect they will. I expect the tournament will be held at the home of the official hosts.”
Eight countries – Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan – are due to compete in the tournament, the schedule of which is yet to be announced by the International Cricket Council.
“Normally the ICC announces the schedule of any major tournament 100 days before the event, and I hope they will announce it very soon,” Naqvi said.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.
The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.
The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.
Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
