Here's my number, so call me maybe

My title has nothing to do with baseball or anything relevant. Thanks to Jesse Litsch this song has been stuck in my head and I have been jamming out to it all night. Thank goodness my roommate can't hear me repeating this song over and over again through my headphones. You guys are in for a treat because I will share the song so that you too can enjoy or have it stuck in your HEAD. Any who, week three is now complete and the weeks are starting to fly by so hopefully it won't be long before I start my season. If you read my last post I left off on Monday hoping I didn't have to travel to Bradenton and I didn't! But I did have to stay back and watch a scrimmage game between us and team Canada Jr. Dozens of scouts showed up to watch Canada's finest young stars. There was definitely some talent on that team. Majority of the kids should project into good players.

Wednesday was my start day so I was pretty excited to have the opportunity to pitch and show the coaches what I had been working on. My curveball and slider are slowly but surely becoming good pitches. I'm so close! I was scheduled to pitch three innings at home against the Yankees again. I was feeling pretty good in the bullpen, curve and slider were tight and had good movement. Of course I wasn't facing anybody so it is kind of easy to pitch and look good. First inning was kind of shaky. First guy lead off with a double. Next batter walk then base hit. Bases loaded no outs, pretty good situation to be in. I calmed down a little and threw a good sinker low and the batter grounded into a double play 4-6-3. Second baseman fielded it, flipped it to shortstop for force out, then threw out runner at first. Two outs, one run has scored so I have avoided the big inning. I still had one runner at third, but he did not score. Batter grounded out to second on a curveball. My offense had my back though scoring four runs giving me the lead. If you are a big baseball follower, one has to know that it is vital to have shut down innings after your offense scores runs for the pitcher. That's just what I did. Three up three down. My best inning I had thrown all extended spring training. First guy struck out, second guy flied out to center, and lastly a strike out looking. The third inning didn't go as good as the second but it wasn't as bad as the first. I got two quick outs then some runners got on but I got out of another jam with a groundball out.

It wasn't the worst outing in the world, but it was an opportunity to take the positives and negatives and get better. I need to slow down when I'm pitching. So my bullpen on Saturday I will have to work on my curve and not being so quick to the plate. Thursday and Friday went by pretty fast. Thursday I was the bat boy when we traveled to the Yankees. Friday I stayed back and was on foul ball duty. My bullpen on Saturday was very productive. I worked out of the stretch to fix not being so quick to the plate. My curve was brutal in the beginning until I eventually found it so I am almost there, having more than two pitches I can throw well and for strikes! I also worked on balance point and getting some power when I'm out of windup. So I worked on that with CY, one of the pitching coaches. I had a pretty productive day. After my bullpen I had a good workout and run, and then watched the rest of the Phillies game because the team was home. That night we went out to dinner for George Carroll's birthday. It was a fun night hanging out with friends and just getting our minds off baseball.

Today was no different from any other Sunday in Dunedin. It is a day of relaxing and catching up on sleep. I laid in bed until four in the afternoon. I had leftover Steak & Shake so I had that for my breakfast/lunch. I decided I had to get up and do something plus I had to pick up something for dinner. I walked over to the mall that's across the street to get something from the food court. I got sidetracked though, I needed new sunglasses since my last pair are now swimming with the fishes in the Atlantic Ocean. I shopped around and found a pair of Ray Bans I enjoyed. As I was making my way to the food court I got distracted again by the Vans store, so I got some new shoes.

Finaly I was starving so I ended up in the food court and got a smoothie and sandwich for my dinner. So this concludes another week in extended spring training. Hopefully my next outing goes well. I pitch Tuesday against the Pirates: three innings again. Thank you for taking the time to read about my week and I am sorry if you clicked on that song and its in your head. If you didn't click it......... Click Me

Our greatest glory is not never falling, but rising every time we fall.

Welcome To The Grind

Week two is now over but its just the beginning of the daily grind that is called extended spring training. Monday was a pretty uneventful day because I was staying back while the players whom were playing that day traveled to the Pirates. Don't tell management but these are my favorite days. Staying back and getting my work done avoiding the long bus ride. I'm probably putting a jinx on myself because we are traveling to the Pirates tomorrow, but I digress. Monday was a easy day. I showed up early to the complex around seven to run workout and eat. It was two days before my appearance so my workout was a light lower body. Stretched is usually around 9:30 a.m. where we stretch, run agility, throw, previous game meetings, team defense, batting practice, and finally conditioning. That is pretty much the everyday schedule. The only thing that changes is my workouts, bullpen days, and conditioning.

Tuesday was a busy day for me. Of course I had the usual schedule of practice. However, we were home that day against the Pirates so I watched the game. The way our game(s) schedule works is that when we play home, the next game will be away against the same team and vice verse. Though we only play three teams: Yankees, Phillies, and Pirates. So you can kind of see why its called a grind. Things can get repetitious at times but I'm here to improve my game and work on my curve ball and slider, which has improved drastically. So back to why Tuesday was a big day. Kristina (@missflorida11) had invited me to Mr. and Miss USF in Tampa. We were leaving immediately after the Pirates game was over. She picked me up from the complex and we drove to USF to meet up with her friends who had competed against her or were still competing for Miss Florida. The winner of Miss USF would be able to compete in the 2012 Miss Florida in St Petersburg on July 8. There were some good contestants but there could only be one winner. The winners name was Bionqua  and she sang, "my heart will go on," and it was legit. It was probably why she won the event. After the event was over Kristina, her friend and I went to Applebees for dinner because it was the only thing open so late. After dinner we all called it a night and I went back to Dunedin because I had practice bright and early in the morning and then away game against the Yankees at one.

Kristina and I at University of South Florida

Nothing really happened Wednesday because that is just the life I life right now so I'm going to fast forward to my two innings on Thursday against the Yankees. This was the most chill day we had because of a wildfire on the Florida/Georgia border. We got "smoked" out of practice that morning and our home game against the Yankees. There was a lot of smoke outside, so much I could hardly breathe just cleaning my shoes outside the clubhouse. We couldn't play at home so we traveled to Tampa. I was not scheduled to start. I was third in line and I would get my two innings of work, condition and I was done for the day. When it was my turn to start warming up I headed down to the bullpen. I stretched and started light tossing until our guy went out for his last inning. I headed out to the mound for the bottom of the fourth (we were still home though we were in Tampa). The first batter laid a bunt down the third base line so I quickly ran over, caught the ball on its second bounce then planted and fired to first base getting the runner by a step. One pitch one out, so far so good. The second batter I was ahead right away with a zero balls two strike count. Despite being ahead I then threw four balls in a row walking the batter. Now I am in the stretch for the first time in 2012. Ball one, ball two. Damn I think to myself as I quickly fall behind.

Next pitch was a fastball for a strike on outside corner. I got the batter to ground out on a sinker down and in, but it was only a fielders choice as the batter was safe at first. However, the runner would quickly head back to dugout because I picked him off. For all you non baseball lingo people, getting picked off means the pitcher throws the ball to the base being occupied but the runner can not get back in time and is tagged out. My second and final inning went well. I got two ground outs and a fly out. My final line was 2 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, and 0 strikeouts. That was pretty much the right up of my week. Friday I ran and practiced. Saturday I threw a bullpen. I did however get assigned ball boy for the Phillies game Friday so that was pretty exciting! My next appearance is Wednesday in which I will pitch three innings. I will probably write next on Sunday to give my weekly update so stay tuned! Sorry I can't right everyday. There is only so much I can write and a lot of the same thing happens everyday so I wouldn't want to bore you. I will try and get some baseball pictures or some uniform pictures up if I can. Can't really carry your phone outside to a game.

First week is in the books

It was a ghost town today in Dunedin, FL because it was Easter and everything was closed down, which made it very difficult to feed myself! So I ventured over to a local store and got some pizza rolls and a French bread pizza for my lunch and snack. I found out later that indeed some restaurants were open, so for dinner I had a BBQ chicken salad from a place called BJ's. So needless to say my diet was broken on this much needed day off. But my eating habits or day off are of not really important to this blog. The last time I posted it was the first day of Extended Spring Training for me and over 30 others. Three days have passed since then and I've finally settled in.

My last post was Wednesday night so I figured I'd let a couple days go by in order to have more things to write about, hence adding a little suspense for the readers. Are you full of suspense yet? Thursday was the first full day of practice with the rest of the Spring Training guys. There are exactly 104 people in Extended Spring Training right now which is not a small number. Kind of tells you there is a lot of depth with Blue Jays, making the road to the show a lot harder. But no one said it was going to be easy. Thursday's practice was short and sweet. We split up between position players and pitchers, then those pitchers and position players were split up into three more groups: blue, red, and grey. I'm in the blue group so when we separate after stretching, we stay on field one after we throw to work on bunt plays, pick-offs, and pitcher fielder practice (PFP). Once we were done with that, the blue group position players come over to hit batting practice which means the most thrilling part of the day occurs..... shagging. Pitchers who are throwing, always throw after the first group so that catchers can hit in the first group and pitchers will be done around same time as BP.

Friday was another exciting day for me because I got to throw a bullpen and I would be seeing Kristina later. Same thing happened as the previous day though. What people don't understand is that baseball is a repetitive sport and having a routine is key. So Friday we stretched, threw, talked about bunt defense, hit, and after the first group I headed over to the bullpen to polish up on my curve and slider. I had a pretty good bullpen, fastball had good tilt and came out of my hand fairly well. I'm still struggling with curveball and slider but they look a lot better than last year. The slider didn't exist and the curveball now has tighter spin but I need to get on top more and be more consistent with it. After the bullpen all the pitchers did gassers for conditioning which was difficult for me. I had just thrown a bullpen so I was a little tired, but I was also dizzy from the heat.

After the running was over I got a pretty sweet surprise in my locker. There hanging on the side was a number 20 jersey with my last name on the back which was awesome. So I wore it for a little bit then took a cold shower to cool off from the day. Later on I went on a date with above mentioned Kristina, and saw American Reunion which was hilarious. We then walked over to BJ's and split a pizza.

Jersey waiting for me in locker

Saturday was the longest day so far. At first it was kind of chilly until the game started. We did the same thing as the previous two days which is no surprise but after conditioning there was a simulated game for some of the pitchers facing live hitters. I got lucky because coach put me on the radar gun duty, which is probably slightly better than bat boy duty. The game was going by fairly quickly until the fourth inning then went downhill from there but luckily we only played six and a half innings. I mean I'm not complaining or anything, it was just a long hot day.

That was pretty much how the past three days went. A lot of stretching, throwing, PFP work, batting practice, bullpens, and conditioning. I also started my workouts which is exciting because I hadn't worked out all week and I'm ready to get back at it. Well my first time facing live batters and our first games against another team are Monday so I will have something other than PFP and BP to talk about. Stay tuned.

 

Jose Bautista during Spring Training

Fresh Meat

Today was the first day back in Blue Jay camp and was it a long day. I was in the second group of physicals, so I had to be up and ready downstairs at 6:45 in the morning. Blood tests were first thing and I was ready to get mine over with because I hadn't eaten since six the previous night, plus I do not like getting blood tests. Once it was my turn I quietly asked if I could lie down and get my blood drawn to avoid the embarrassment of passing out in front of everyone, but I did not pass out luckily. Finally after I got through all my physicals I got to pick up my brand new Blue Jays gear which is a lot better than last years all black gear, it gets hot in the Florida sun. Our welcome back meeting happened around 11:15 and first practice was at 11:45.

I was pretty excited to finally get back on the field with the team, and I later found out I was going to be throwing a bullpen as well. The stretching was probably the worst part of the day. It was very hot and I made the brilliant decision to wear long sleeves. First we stretched normally followed by some calisthenics, then ending with agility drills. The pitchers and position players split up after that; pitchers throwing on field one and position players doing infield/outfield followed by batting practice. Once the pitchers were all done throwing, we were divided into two groups to shag batting practice. Batting practice, the most important time of the day for pitchers coaches always joke about.

After the first group of BP was over all pitchers that were throwing bullpens headed over to the main bullpens in between field two and three. I threw a 25 pitch bullpen throwing only fastballs and change-ups. I felt pretty good going in and out with the fastball while locating down with the change-up. Batting practice ended shortly after bullpens were over so the position players and pitchers got together on the turf field to go over some bunt plays. Once the bunt plays were reviewed we were dismissed to lunch and we were done for the day. So today's events consumed not even seven hours, but when the day was over I was worn out. As soon as I got back to the hotel I made a phone call to talk about my first day, but when that phone call ended I passed out and slept for three hours. I woke up, got some dinner, and did some laundry. So overall an exciting, exhausting day for the first day back from the off-season. Until next time.... As Adlin Sinclair said, "dream big, laugh often, and reach for the stars."

Is it the season yet?

Finally, the 2012 baseball season is finally here. There is nothing really to say about my off-season besides it was much needed. I was very fortunate to sign with the Blue Jays at the end of my college season. It was definitely a journey throughout the season traveling five times between three different teams. It was a long season for me and after 200 innings for the year, my arm and body needed a break. The bad thing about the season is that I put on a couple lbs. When I came home I was walking around the house with my shirt off and the first thing my mother told me was that I had gotten chubby.

I knew that next day I had to get to work. I came into mini-camp weighing 208 pounds.....I left at 218 and it wasn't the good kind of weight gain. The strength trainers gave me some goals to come back around 205 pounds but most importantly to cut down the body fat percentage. I'm not going to go into detail into all of my workouts because it was the same thing basically each week. Mondays were lower body and yoga. Tuesday was upper and a fitness class called Les Mills body pump/flow. Body pump was a low weight high intensity class and body flow was a mixture of yoga and Pilates. Wednesdays were off days but I would do yoga on these days. Thursdays were lower body again with the Les Mills classes. Fridays were upper body. Of course the main important part was running because I didn't want to be chubby anymore so before working out I would run long distance anywhere from two-five miles. After my workout I would do intervals on the treadmill with a jacket on to sweat a little.

I did not touch or let alone throw a baseball until January 1st. However, I did go on my first vacation I think ever in my life. It was a very random how it all came about. One of my best friends started dating the 2011 Miss America and he had invited a group of friends to accompany him to Las Vegas. Well you know how the story goes..... What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. It was a lot of fun though hanging out with friends with nothing to worry about. Once I got back from Vegas it was time to start throwing again. I had two goals in off-season: improve my curveball and make it more consistent; also to develop a slider. I worked on my curveball and slider everyday in flat grounds and throw bullpens at least twice a week. As the off-season started winding down I felt great. I was weighing between 200-205 pounds and my curveball improved a lot and I finally had a slider. I was feeling great and I am excited for extended spring training to start. I am currently trying to fall asleep because tomorrow is physicals and our first full workout. I'm also excited to get new blue jays gear and equipment. We will have to wait and see how the day goes but until then..... As Salon Sinclair said, "dream big, laugh often, and reach for the stars."