ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Wish I could tell you Jose Reyes landing on the DL with left hamstring tightness and Jonathan Diaz having his contract selected from triple-A Buffalo was simply an April Fool’s joke, but sorry folks, it’s all very real. This is my take and the background you need on the 9-2 opening day loss to the Rays.
Also, there are updates on Dustin McGowan and Casey Janssen in the Blue Jays notebook.
A main talking point Tuesday will surely be why Reyes played five innings in each of the two exhibition games over the weekend in Montreal, given the hamstring issues he had the previous week. Here are some of his comments from last night:
On what he was feeling beforehand: “I just tried to play through it. I was having some problems with the hammy and when I hit the ball to centre field I saw the guy dive for the ball. I thought the ball was going to drop and bounce away from him. I tried to run a little bit faster between home plate and first base and kind of felt my hammy there. I had to slow down and get out of the game because I don’t want it to get any worse.”
Was there pain in Montreal? “It was good enough to play but I didn’t really test my leg running anywhere there. I didn’t get on base, I didn’t do anything. I just tried to play through the little soreness there in my hamstring but when you deal with that you have to be careful.”
On what the hamstring felt like after the game: “We’re going to know (Tuesday). It feels OK walking around but we’re going to have better details when I get an MRI, hopefully it doesn’t get any worse, if it gets any worse it’s going to be disappointing not just for me but for the whole team. I worked so hard this off-season just to get ready for spring training, play for a full year, and now I have to deal with this thing, it’s no fun at all. I want to be on the field but it’s one of those things, injuries happen, it’s part of the game and I have to deal with it.”
Was he still hurt in Montreal? “It wasn’t 100 per cent at all, when I was hitting in the box I was obviously thinking about running. I said in my mind, base hit, fly ball – I don’t know how I’m going to run fast. Today, I felt a little better today and when I tried to put a little speed … something is not right.”
Why play in Montreal at all? “I thought I could play through it. Sometimes you’re not 100 per cent and you feel like you can play, but that wasn’t the case.”
Another talking point will be why Diaz and not Munenori Kawasaki. Two points here: one, Diaz is a much better defender and given that Kawasaki isn’t going to rack up the hits, go with the guy who’s going to take some hits away. Two: Diaz is another right-handed bat, and with two more elite lefties upcoming in Matt Moore on Wednesday and CC Sabathia on Sunday, that’s going to be useful. Manager John Gibbons says the team’s preference is to keep Ryan Goins at second instead of shifting him back to short, so it looks like Diaz will share time at least with Maicer Izturis.
On a different note, the Blue Jays got their first taste of the new replay system and coaching assistant Sal Butera, the man responsible for monitoring video to determine whether or not Gibbons should challenge a play, was plenty busy. The Blue Jays didn’t challenge any plays – neither did the Rays – but my early takeaway is that managers will come out on every close play to stall for time while replays are reviewed in the clubhouse.
I spoke with Butera afterwards about his experience.
How did you find working the system? “It’s finding the camera angles and figuring out which one is going where. There’s a delay, you can make the screens bigger or smaller. It’s a lot more involved than I ever thought it was going to be. From that standpoint you’ve really got to stay on top of every pitch.” (Note that teams get uniform camera feeds and equipment, but the shot lists vary from city to city, and opening day was each club’s first time using the new terminals. There was a training session for teams during spring training).
How many screens are you looking at? “There are three TVs, one TV has six feeds on it, one screen has eight feeds on it and then one big one. And you control all of them with a toggle switch. You can bring the picture up, back.”
How much time would you guess you needed to make a call on challenge or no challenge? “It varies. On the play at home (when Desmond Jennings narrowly avoided Josh Thole’s tag in the fifth), I hit the overhead camera while the play was actually happening, so it zeroed right in and I just slowed it down and that was an easy one.”
Were you tempted on any of the reviews? “No. I was pretty clear on all of them, quite frankly.”
It seems like the manager will have to come out on every close play to buy time for the guy in the clubhouse to review the play.
Do you worry about the game slowing down? “No. I think once we get used to the whole thing, there will be no difference. I think it might even be faster, because you’ll take the argument right out of the scenario. The manager (will pop out) just to slow it down a little bit, position himself so he can see the dugout and make his call.”
You moved over from scouting to this new role. Are you enjoying the change? “It’s different. I’m on the field the whole time before the game, doing all my other things, so it’s interesting to say the least, it really is. You have to focus in on every pitch the entire game.”
