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Blue Jays will need creativity with pitchers as workload jump looms – Sportsnet.ca

Published

4 years ago

February 19, 2021

TORONTO – Even without the strain of jumping from a shortened 60-game season back into the full 162-game grind, constructing a pitching staff along traditional lines has for years become increasingly difficult for major-league clubs.

Consider that from 1977 through 1994, the Toronto Blue Jays used less than 20 pitchers in all but one season, requiring only 13 arms for both the 1982 and 1984 seasons. From 1995 through 2010, they typically needed between 20 and 24 total pitchers, the 18 in 2005 and 19 in 2008 the sole anomalies. In the decade since 2011, they’ve averaged 31.7 pitchers a season, never using less than 27 and needing 29 to survive last year’s pandemic-shortened campaign.

The trajectories are similar across the majors.

There are a multitude of reasons for the spike – from increasing attrition to a diluted talent pool as the number of clubs increased to 30 – but there’s a fairly obvious observation to be drawn: Pitchers are no longer capable of covering innings the way they once did.

Despite that, and forgive the generalization, the discourse around pitching still tends to revolve around the customary five-man rotation, seven-man bullpen framework. Teams that carry eight or – gasp – nine relievers tend to draw disapproving glances, while the Tampa Bay Rays were often portrayed as heathens when they first employed an opener in 2018.

Rather than being asked about the trend lines and asking why someone hadn’t tried a different approach earlier, manager Kevin Cash and the club’s ever-creative front office instead drew scorn for their break from baseball orthodoxy.

This year, big-league clubs will need to be more creative than ever to cover the near tripling of year-over-year workload they all face.

Last season, a surge of pitching injuries was described as “MLB’s other pandemic problem” in this thoughtful piece by Ben Lindbergh on The Ringer, and the need to maintain health is certainly a prime reason for that. But there are strategic reasons to consider openers, piggy-back relievers, bulk arms, twice-through-the-order limits and situational leverage, as well.

Much as the circumstances of 2020 opened up space for creativity, 2021 may very well force some innovation.

As renowned organizational psychologist Adam Grant wrote in his new book Think Again: “Most of us take pride in our knowledge and expertise, and in staying true to our beliefs and opinions. That makes sense in a stable world, where we get rewarded for having convictions in our ideas. The problem is that we live in a rapidly changing world, where we need to spend as much time rethinking as we do thinking.”

To that end, it makes sense to consider the Blue Jays’ pitching staff not solely through the lens of a traditional rotation and bullpen, but more holistically in terms of out-getting groups.

Ideally, they establish a steady five-man starting staff fronted by ace Hyun-Jin Ryu and four of Robbie Ray, Nate Pearson, Steven Matz, Tanner Roark and Ross Stripling and roll them out in steady rotation. That would make life much easier on manager Charlie Montoyo, pitching coach Pete Walker and bullpen coach Matt Buschmann.

It’s also highly unlikely.

Since 2013 and 2014, his first two seasons in the majors, Ryu hasn’t posted consecutive years with triple-digit innings pitched, although he certainly may have last season had it been a normal one. Still, the drop from 182.2 innings in 2019 to 67 in 2020 makes counting on him for 180 precarious, even as he said through interpreter Jun Sung Park, “If I don’t have any issue with my body, I know I can maintain and play a full season without any problem, especially since I’ve never felt any tiredness, any kind of weakness when I’m healthy.”

The Blue Jays are banking on it.

Pearson has cracked 100 innings just once as a professional and after logging only 18 major-league frames last season, his workload will clearly need to be managed. Ray and Matz are both big-stuff projects whose consistency varies and might be better utilized in shorter bursts. Roark didn’t live up to his innings-eating track record last year and needs to regain the mile-and-a-half he lost on his fastball. Stripling pitched well as a starter in 2018 and ’19 but hit a bump last year with the Los Angeles Dodgers before he was traded.

Depending on performance and matchups, the best setup for the Blue Jays might be to pair Ray and Matz with Stripling and Tyler Chatwood, another swingman expected to open in the bullpen. More evenly distributing the work should, in theory, keep everyone in better health.

Expect them to be open to anything.

While in the past, judging health was largely done through asking a pitcher how his arm felt, teams now use an array of tools “that are evidence based and that are based on science to determine fatigue levels,” said general manager Ross Atkins. “If you really want to think about it in a simple way, the radar gun was one of the first versions of that.

“Now … you have technology with motion capture for photography that is attached to spin rates and velocity, where you can take some of your historic beliefs and philosophies and study them to determine, are we seeing and arm angle lower? Are we seeing a decreased effectiveness of a fastball? And there’s a subjective portion of that which is just as important as the objective portion, but it’s taking those two and matching them together to hopefully help you make better decisions.”

Atkins declined to get more specific, citing the risk of surrendering a competitive advantage, but the effective application of that information is essential.

In Think Again, Grant describes how in 1950, it took 50 years for medical knowledge to double, but by 1980 that was down to seven years, and in 2010, it was half that. Similarly, in 2011, people consumed five times as much information per day than they did 25 years earlier. “The accelerating pace of change means that we need to question our beliefs more readily than before,” he argues.

Baseball’s evolution over the past decade is similarly dizzying, and those who aren’t able to effectively leverage data in every realm of the game, from sports science to business modelling, are getting left behind.

Catcher Danny Jansen showed the kind of open-mindedness necessary in this day and age when asked if he expected the club’s pitching plans this summer to more resemble 2020 or a typical season.

“I think a little bit of both,” he replied. “Last year with the 60-game season, it’s like every game was a playoff game almost, such a high-leverage season that if you’re getting to like the fourth inning, you give it to your dogs in the ‘pen and they’re going to go to work for you.

“It’s a full season now, it changes a little bit with stretching pitchers out a little bit more. But still, the bullpen that we have, the ability to pass them the ball and to let them go to work, it’s always going to be there. So, if we’re in a tight spot, you’re able to do that because of the bullpen and the depth we have.”

Stripling (or whoever ends up outside the rotation) and Chatwood offer some options for length, as do Trent Thornton (good to go after elbow surgery last summer) and Julian Merryweather, who will be stretched out to start the spring but may very well find himself relieving again. Mid-to-late game leverage options include Ryan Borucki, David Phelps, Jordan Romano, Rafael Dolis, Kirby Yates and non-roster invitees A.J. Cole, Tim Mayza and Francisco Liriano.

Beyond them, are starters like Anthony Kay, Thomas Hatch, T.J. Zeuch and Jacob Waguespack, who could be employed in a variety of roles. Beyond them is an emerging group of arms like Alek Manoah, Simeon Woods Richardson and Eric Pardinho, who is set for regular work after recovering from Tommy John surgery.

While the Blue Jays did try to land Kevin Gausman with a multi-year deal before he accepted the qualifying offer from the San Francisco Giants, every pitcher they signed took a one-year deal.

In part, that was because “we feel very good about having opportunities for” that group of young arms, said Atkins, but it’s also because they believe in their depth, too.

The Blue Jays could have re-signed Taijuan Walker for something along the lines of the $20-million, two-year deal with a player option for a third season he agreed to with the New York Mets. They’d likely need to go further for Jake Odorizzi, who is interested in Toronto, but there appears to be no traction at the moment, the club content to bet on its group.

While putting Odorizzi or someone else in place behind Ryu and Pearson for beyond this season seems to make sense, the Blue Jays are looking at their off-season pitching adds another way.

“Ultimately,” said Atkins, “it’s a combination of this being one point in time for us to improve our organization and feeling good about the progress that we’ve made to date, knowing that we will have other opportunities (to acquire pitching) moving forward, in addition to being really excited about the group that’s here and the group of young pitchers that’s coming behind the already relatively established group of starting pitchers.”

That’s not a very customary way to look at a pitching staff, and the Blue Jays are counting on a handful of arms to emerge and play important roles from their group. They could have tried to buy more certainty over the winter but instead chose a different approach, showing an adaptability they’ll need more than ever in the months ahead.

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NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

Published

4 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

—

SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

—

FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

—

ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

1 day ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

2 days ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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