TORONTO – Toronto Blue Jays hitting coach Brook Jacoby and hitting coach Eric Owens put a handful of players, including the slumping Russell Martin and Dalton Pompey, through an extra-round of work on the field Wednesday.
Apart from the usual drills, Jacoby and Owens threw flips from up the baseline that forced the hitters to stay inside the ball and take it to the opposite field, and employed a breaking ball machine in order to help their players better time off-speed pitches.
"We’re hitting off the fastball all the time, we’re always getting ready to hit the fastball," explained Jacoby. "Now when the breaking ball comes it’s kind of a delay with your hands, where your hands don’t rush in for a fastball. It’s kind of a booty out swing. So you get into the position, you recognize breaking ball, now you hold your hands back and let your hands travel."
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Josh Donaldson stood in for the breaking ball machine work – rocking several balls all around the field – while Justin Smoak, Danny Valencia and Steve Tolleson also took part in the flip exercise and the remainder of the hour-long session.
"We’re forcing their contact point deep so they’ve got to work it the other way," Jacoby said of the flips. "The one from the front, we were in off the plate, they had to pull it or keep it fair. Pretty typical drills."
MARTIN RESTS: Russell Martin, off to a 1-for-23 start to the season, got the day off Wednesday to let Dioner Navarro catch Mark Buehrle on the mound.
Manager John Gibbons said Martin will be behind the plate for Aaron Sanchez on Thursday and R.A. Dickey on Saturday, meaning he was going to be off either Wednesday or Friday.
The day off allowed him to spend extra time doing drill work, and perhaps to also cement some gains made in the cage.
"I think at times he gets a little jumpy," said hitting coach Brook Jacoby. "You know, he’s got a lot going on, everybody is pulling at him from different sides, so it’s nice he got a good day’s work today. We’ll keep after it."
This situation isn’t new for Martin upon joining a new team. He went 2-for-31 in his first 10 games with Pittsburgh Pirates in 2013, but then went 21-for-53 over his next 14 contests, finishing the season at .226/.327/.377 with 15 homers and 55 RBIs.
"He had a full day of work, an hour, he said it was a good day’s work, he felt good when he left," said Jacoby. "It’s a positive situation for him."
LINEUP SWITCH: Dalton Pompey, in a 2-for-16 stretch entering Wednesday’s play, was moved down to eighth in the Blue Jays lineup with Josh Donaldson pushed up to the two-hole.
"When Pomp is at his best, he’ll use that whole field," said manager John Gibbons. "I see him getting out around balls a lot, he’s missing his pitch because he’s getting out around it instead of inside it enough. It sounds simple, it’s not that simple. He needs to go back to making those adjustments, and he will."
BUCKING CONVENTION: Conventional wisdom says your heavy hitters bat in the middle of the lineup and your closer only pitches in the final inning, but John Gibbons is showing a willingness to consider newer takes on both matters.
In pushing Josh Donaldson up to the two-hole, he’s taking the potential of an extra at-bat for his all-star slugger instead of saving him down low for potential RBI opportunities. And in Tuesday’s 3-2 loss, he used Miguel Castro in the eighth inning instead of the ninth spot because it was the higher leverage situation.
"As far as hitting a guy in the second spot, I like it if a guy gets another chance to get an at-bat," said Gibbons. "It’s the American League, you don’t worry about that pitcher hitting ninth, so it’s different. As far as the closer, we don’t have Mariano Rivera sitting out there, those guys who have done it year after year after year. Castro’s saved a couple of games for us, but he’s versatile right now. It just made common sense to me (Tuesday) night with the way things were setting up. A couple guys who hit (Brett) Cecil were sitting there, and eighth or ninth inning, really, what’s the damn difference, you know?
"It was actually the tougher part of the order to face, and if he gets through that, we’re tied or get the lead, Cecil still has tough outs down there, but it’s not the meat of the order. I didn’t have to think too long on that one."
Gibbons explained that if the Blue Jays had an established closer his approach might be different. But his outlook on whether or not to save his best reliever changed in 2012 when he managed at double-A San Antonio and had Tim Worrell, the longtime set-up man, as his pitching coach.
"He said, ‘Keep an eye on the eighth inning,’" recalled Gibbons. "He’d tell the story of him and Billy Wagner and Worrell would have to go in the eighth inning and it was the tougher inning, and he said Wagner used to laugh at him, you know? He’d go in there and carve them up most of the time, and Wagner would get the easier inning. So I started watching a little bit for the eighth inning, too, and I’ll be damned. Of course it’s minor-league baseball, but the way that lineup rolls over, a lot of the times you get that. Until guys establish roles here and we definitely commit to who does what, go with what you feel is your best chance."
MOVING TIME: The Blue Jays are moving into a new complex in the Dominican Republic later this month, leaving San Pedro de Macoris for Boca Chica to be closer to the city of Santo Domingo and other teams.