The return of Brandon Morrow to the Toronto Blue Jays starting rotation means Jose Molina will no longer be the personal catcher for Jo-Jo Reyes.
Even though former manager Cito Gaston was never really fond of the idea, Molina ended up catching Morrow almost exclusively last year when the two seemed to connect.
With the Blue Jays looking to ease in rookie catcher J.P. Arencibia this season, new manager John Farrell decided to maintain that connection, plus the new one created when Molina hit it off with rookie right-hander Kyle Drabek.
Arencibia will now catch Reyes, Ricky Romero and Jesse Litsch.
Farrell warns those pairings "won’t hold true all the time," but isn’t opposed to the idea of personal catchers.
"Long before the personal catcher, I view it as a two-man position," he says. "That’s not to take away from abilities of one or the other, but I think when you can have a guy who’s back there maintaining his physical durability over the long run, it just so happens there’s rapport and different attributes that you like to connect personalities with. That doesn’t means it will stay that way or it’s etched in concrete."
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: The Toronto Blue Jays’ transition into a team that tries to make things happen on the basepaths seems to be part of a larger trend in baseball.
The Tampa Bay Rays have found success with a similar formula in recent years and as power numbers decline across the game, linked by some to the sterner rules governing steroid use, manager Joe Maddon sees more teams emulating that approach in the seasons to come.
"The Oakland Athletics are morphing into that team also," says Maddon. "For several years it was all about not making outs on the bases but I think what people were failing to understand is that the pressure you’re putting on everybody else’s brain when you (run). Even to the point where you get thrown out once in a while, it’s not to say every time you get on base you’re going to score if you don’t get thrown out, I think that’s the wrong assumption to be made there.
"I think the game’s reverting back right now. It’s like anything else, when you take balance away from what you’re doing and you start pigeon-holing yourself into one area or another you become easier to defend against."
ADVENTURES IN TRAVEL: The Tampa Bay Rays offence has been hurting without Evan Longoria in the lineup but on Thursday night the third baseman caused his team a different kind of pain.
Longoria, on the disabled list with a strained left oblique, caused a 45-minute delay when he left his passport at home and didn’t realize it until he was asked for it at the airport.
The time it took for a friend to race over to Longoria’s Tampa apartment to pick it up and drop it off meant the Rays didn’t get to Toronto until 4 a.m. Friday ahead of their series with the Blue Jays.
While his teammates forgave him, ace David Price made sure to publicly shame Longoria by spreading word of the incident via Twitter, while manager Joe Maddon promised that more penance will come.
"He probably owes all of us some kind of a meal at some point," says Maddon. "We’ll figure out something. There’s got to be some kind of due punishment. I’ll talk to the boys and see what they come up with."
FENWAY’S FEST: Boston’s Fenway Park will celebrate its 100th anniversary on April 20, 2012 and the Red Sox are inviting fans to join the planning process by sharing their ideas, suggestions and memorabilia for the event.
John W. Henry, principal owner of the club, promised an "unprecedented and historic celebration," in a statement last week and preparations are already underway.
Among the initial parts of the festivities unveiled were a website www.fenwaypark100.com and a brick program and seat sale.
Interested fans can purchase a brick – US$250 for a four-by-eight block or US$475 for an eight-by-eight block – and inscribe it with a personalized message for installation in the concourse area inside Gate B and Gate C.
Meanwhile, some authentic seats from the lower right field seating bowl and adjacent areas are also for sale. They’re red plastic with either red or blue metal frames.
