DUNEDIN, Florida - General manager Alex Anthopoulos believes the 2014 edition of
the Blue Jays will contend in the American League East.
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starting pitching. "We have the talent," said Anthopoulos. "Last offseason
because guys were hurt, we didnt have the bodies. We didnt have Hutchison or
Drabek. We knew we needed Romero to bounce back. Happ was coming off a foot
injury. We have a lot more bodies and a lot more depth. Beyond our front five
last year we were thin. We had Romero who scuffled as our sixth starter coming
out of camp. Beyond that, it was Ramon Ortiz and Chien Ming-Wang and we had to
sign five minor league free agent starters. We didnt need to do any of that this
offseason." One of the catchphrases of the offseason, and now here in Dunedin,
is "internal depth," a reference to the clubs young cadre of pitching prospects
beginning to bump their heads on the minor league ceiling. Its needed, too,
because Anthopoulos seemed to pour the final dose of cold water on upgrading his
rotation via an external option, most notably Ervin Santana, the last marquee
free agent pitcher on the market. "Wed like to do it but were not going to do it
at all costs," said Anthopoulos. "As we sit here today, I think its unlikely at
this point, were getting so late into spring training. Anthopoulos continued,
"Its a comparison, how much better are they than what you have." We have to make
that evaluation. Term and dollars are important. You like every player but at
certain years and dollars they dont make sense for us. If its just a draft or
something and youre just picking a player, then abilities are a separate thing
but theres obviously an acquisition cost to all of these guys." As for the
persistent chatter linking the Jays to Santana and other free agent starters
like Ubaldo Jimenez (signed with Baltimore) and Matt Garza (signed with
Milwaukee,) Anthopoulos suggested the reports were overblown. "To trades? Yes.
We got very close on some trades. Free agency-wise, I dont think we ever got
close at all." Fans, understandably, dont want to hear excuses for the misery of
2013. It was clear as early as April the club had flaws, not the least of which
were starting pitching that didnt match they hype and poor infield defense.
Still, health, or lack thereof, played a role. When J.A. Happ was hit in the
head with a line drive by Tampa Bays Desmond Jennings on May 7, he joined
Josh Johnson on the disabled list. R.A. Dickey already was pitching with an
injured muscle in his neck and Brandon Morrow was dealing with forearm pain,
which ultimately was diagnosed as an entrapped radial nerve that would end his
season weeks later. Only Mark Buehrle was healthy. Brett Lawrie went down with a
strained oblique suffered in a World Baseball Classic tune up game in early
March and missed opening day. Jose Reyes was lost to a severe ankle sprain on
April 12, which necessitated the expedited return of a rehabbing Lawrie. He
wasnt ready and would end up getting hurt again. Reyes was back by the time
Lawrie returned on July 13, but Lawrie played at second base that day and the
two wouldnt play the left side of the infield together until July 19.
Jose Bautista, Melky Cabrera and Colby Rasmus also missed significant time but
their injuries occurred once the Jays were out of the race. Anthopoulos had no
intention from diverting from the course set out with the major trades of last
offseason. He wants the players hes assembled from years past, most of whom
remain here, to get the job done. "We werent going to take away from the core of
this team," said Anthopoulos. "We made a change behind the plate; that was
important to us. Second base, we think theres obviously going to be turnover
there. A third of our lineup is probably going to be different from opening day
last year." DEALING WITH INJURIES Theres nothing the Blue Jays could do about
Jose Reyes and Brett Lawrie injuring their ankles sliding into second base.
Nothing could have been done to prevent Brandon Morrows nerve injury.
Anthopoulos puts a lot of the aches and pains that befell last years club in the
"freak injury" category. The club is concerned about the number of oblique
injuries its suffered, however. "Colby (Rasmus) missed about four to six weeks
and Rajai (Davis) missed two to three weeks," said Anthopoulos. "There are some
things that we tweaked there. Like I talked about at the end of last year, it
seems obliques are popping up a lot more or at least theyre being diagnosed a
lot more. It felt like for us, the last two years, we were getting a lot more
obliques so we reevaluated some of the strength and conditioning work that we
were doing and made some tweaks there." Brett Lawries missed time with an
oblique strain in each of the last two seasons. He added yoga to his offseason
workout regimen in an effort to loosen his core muscles. Brandon Morrow missed
almost three months of the 2012 season with an oblique strain. FILLING OUT THE
ROTATION Esmil Rogers and Todd Redmond appear to be the early favourites to land
the final starters job. Both are out of options, meaning they could be lost to
waivers if the Jays tried to send them to the minor leagues. They face stiff
competition from emerging youngsters like Drew Hutchison, Marcus Stroman and
Kyle Drabek, and could find themselves in the bullpen if they dont win a
starting job out of spring training. "We started before with an eight-man
bullpen," said Anthopoulos. "We could do that as well. If everyone is throwing
the ball that well and we dont want to expose anyone to waivers, or we dont want
to trade someone and not get full value, we could go to an eight-man bullpen."
HIGH PRAISE FOR GOINS Ryan Goins will have to earn the starting job at second
base this spring but his boss loves his defense. "Hes as good defensively, I
believe, as weve had here since Orlando Hudson was here," said Anthopoulos. "I
think hes that good a defender. Defensively, hes gold glove caliber. The
question will be the bat. Obviously weve got some competition for him and if he
does make this team we view him right now as the nine-hole hitter. I think with
Ryan, because the defense is so good, it allows him to not have to hit as much
because he can help us on the other side of the ball to such a great extent."
Maicer Izturis, Brent Morel, Chris Getz and Jonathan Diaz also are vying for the
second base job.
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Vikings are struggling both on and off the field.
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Superstar Baratas .Murray has played 20 matches in five weeks,
winning three titles to climb to fifth in the ATP Race.The two-time Grand Slam
champion also seeks to qualify for next months ATP World Tour Finals.Murray
said: I always wanted to qualify for it, but also I want to get back into the
top 8 players in the world and it makes a huge difference for seedings in the
major events.KELOWNA, B.C. - The Portland Winterhawks will play for the Ed
Chynoweth Cup for the fourth year in a row after defeating the Kelowna Rockets
7-3 on Friday in Western Hockey League playoff action. Brendan Leipsic had a
pair of goals for the Winterhawks, who took the best-of-seven Western Conference
final 4-1, while Taylor Leier scored once and set up two more. Chase De Leo,
Keegan Iverson, Dominic Turgeon and Mathew Dumba also scored for Portland and
Oliver Bjorkstrand tacked on three assists. Jesse Lees, Justin Kirklaand and
Tyson Baillie supplied the scoring for the Rockets, who won Game 1 before
dropping four straight.
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made 35 saves for the Winterhawks as Jordon Cooke turned away 34-of-41 shots in
defeat. Leipsics night came to an early end when he was assessed a five-minute
major and game misconduct for spearing at 16:27 of the third period. Portland
will face the winner of the Medicine Hat Tigers-Edmonton Oil Kings series.
Edmonton leads the series 3-1 with Game 5 scheduled for Saturday.
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