Jays announce Charlie Montoyo as manager

[TheHurl]

Or someone who is more in synch with the High Performance team.

[Laika]

So I was listening to Shapiro the other day. I am now convinced Gibbons was asked to leave (fired), but they let him save face by saying he is not interested in a re-build etc.

 

Basically, Shapiro said, there was nothing wrong with the Clubhouse culture and team culture so to speak. However, if we want to win the AL East it has to be much better and a different mindset and that is what Montoyo brings. In plain English, Gibby was average, they think that Montoyo can be exceptional.

 

Gibby was fired, plain and simple.

 

Very common political move for a Fascist regime to do.

 

Look at all of the White House employees who have "resigned" under Trump!

[Spanky99]

Very common political move for a Fascist regime to do.

 

Look at all of the White House employees who have "resigned" under Trump!

 

lol

[glory]

https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-promoting-guillermo-martinez-new-hitting-coach/

 

Guillermo Martinez is the new hitting coach.

[P2F]

The Jays are really cleaning out their coaching staff spic and span. I wish they'd oust Pete Walker and at least move Rivera into a different role.

[glory]

Yeah not sure why Walker is staying. Not like the Jays have had a great deal of success developing pitchers since he's been here. I think he's signed through 2019 anyway so maybe they'll replace him next year.

[jays4life19]

Yeah not sure why Walker is staying. Not like the Jays have had a great deal of success developing pitchers since he's been here. I think he's signed through 2019 anyway so maybe they'll replace him next year.

 

Someone needs to be the token white guy on staff

[Ehjays]

Yeah not sure why Walker is staying. Not like the Jays have had a great deal of success developing pitchers since he's been here. I think he's signed through 2019 anyway so maybe they'll replace him next year.

 

When Happ resigned with us, he said it had a lot to do with being able to work with Walker again, so maybe that came into play as well.

[dineke]

Yeah not sure why Walker is staying. Not like the Jays have had a great deal of success developing pitchers since he's been here. I think he's signed through 2019 anyway so maybe they'll replace him next year.

 

The guy made Aaron Sanchez pitch 200 innings one season with a walk rate under 4 per 9. Give him a lifetime contract

[Terminator]

The guy made Aaron Sanchez pitch 200 innings one season with a walk rate under 4 per 9. Give him a lifetime contract

 

Yeah I see no problems with Walker. We've had a lot of success with guys who aren't necessarily household names. Happ, Estrada, Sanchez are guys that come to mind.

[Jimcanuck]

Just for the sake of discussion, anyone consider the jays to have had more than a fair share of clubhouse issues / friction during Gibby's 2nd tenure? There were certainly issues during his 1st tenure. Besides game management, there is personnel management, and was gibby lacking in that dept

[Terminator]

Just for the sake of discussion, anyone consider the jays to have had more than a fair share of clubhouse issues / friction during Gibby's 2nd tenure? There were certainly issues during his 1st tenure. Besides game management, there is personnel management, and was gibby lacking in that dept

 

What were the issues in the 2nd tenure? By all accounts the players all liked him I thought.

[Jimcanuck]

What were the issues in the 2nd tenure? By all accounts the players all liked him I thought.

 

Sure they liked him, he let them get away with s*** i am sure. So anyway, stroman antics, bautista constant bitching, pillar gay slur, jpa social media s***, yunel eye black (was this during gibby?). Probably a lot of other things reported i cant recall off the top of my head, and no doubt a lot more not reported. Just a thought that gibby may have been seen as too easy going, leading to issues and contributing to decision to replace

[Captain Adama]

Sure they liked him, he let them get away with s*** i am sure. So anyway, stroman antics, bautista constant bitching, pillar gay slur, jpa social media s***, yunel eye black (was this during gibby?). Probably a lot of other things reported i cant recall off the top of my head, and no doubt a lot more not reported. Just a thought that gibby may have been seen as too easy going, leading to issues and contributing to decision to replace

 

lol no

[Jimcanuck]

lol no

 

Sure, its just a random thought. I can see the jays front office wanting a firmer hand on the field with the youngsters coming up.

[glory]

Yeah I see no problems with Walker. We've had a lot of success with guys who aren't necessarily household names. Happ, Estrada, Sanchez are guys that come to mind.

 

Happ was fixed by Searage, and Sanchez has only had one good year in his entire pro career. Estrada is a point in Walker's favor.

 

Walker will be dealing with a bunch of young pitchers in '19 so maybe we will get a better idea this coming year.

[Terminator]

Happ was fixed by Searage, and Sanchez has only had one good year in his entire pro career. Estrada is a point in Walker's favor.

 

Walker will be dealing with a bunch of young pitchers in '19 so maybe we will get a better idea this coming year.

 

It's pretty hard to look at big league players and then assign their success/failure onto an assistant coach so it's hardly worth doing. But since we are getting into it anyway, Borucki was a guy I was pleasantly surprised with and even a guy like Gaviglio showed he could be serviceable.

[glory]

Happ was clearly fixed by Searage, but yes the others are purely speculative. I'll trust Shatkins here as if they wanted another pitching coach they would have gotten one, but I would have liked a change there.

 

Hopefully they move Rivera to first base coach and hire a third base coach who wouldn't send Kendrys Morales home from 2nd on a hard hit single to left.

[jays4life19]

By John Lott Nov 17, 2018 8

 

 

 

 

When the Blue Jays called Guillermo Martinez about the hitting coach’s job, he replied: ‘Really? Me?’ Yes, really.

 

Guillermo​ Martinez​ was only​ 26​ when​ he​ quit playing​ professional baseball and started​ coaching in​ the Blue Jays’ system. The culture​​ shift was abrupt.

 

“My first year, I still felt like a player,” he said. “I guess a lot of people still think I’m a player when I’m in spring training. I obviously look young enough.”

 

Yes, there may be a few double-takes when the Blue Jays convene for 2019 spring training. Indeed, Martinez could easily pass for a player. He is 34.

 

And now, to his surprise, he is the club’s hitting coach – and the youngest hitting coach in the major leagues.

 

Martinez is hardly the only one surprised at his new posting. Relatively few Jays’ fans had heard his name before Friday brought the news that he is part the club’s revamped coaching staff. No doubt his hiring raised a few eyebrows across the industry as well. Only three other big-league hitting coaches are under 40. Most are over 45.

 

When the Jays told him they were considering him to replace the fired Brook Jacoby, Martinez said his reaction was: “Really? Me?”

 

The club has not yet officially announced that Martinez has been promoted to the big-league staff from minor-league hitting co-ordinator. But new manager Charlie Montoyo, who first met Martinez less than two weeks ago in Arizona, was happy to share his scouting report.

 

“What stands out to me is his ability to connect with different types of players,” Montoyo said in a telephone interview. “I was calling our position players and every time I told them who the hitting coach was going to be, they got really excited.

 

“Guillermo is so humble. His people skills allow him to interact with all of the different players and with the coaches. He’s passionate about using his knowledge to help players become better hitters. I’m really excited about him. He’s just a great kid.”

 

A great kid.

 

That sounds like the way veteran coaches talk about callow prospects. And in a way, Guillermo Martinez is indeed a prospect.

 

But in the past year, he put himself on the coaching fast track, impressing the deep thinkers in the front office and, in a matter of days, the new manager as well. Montoyo said he and Martinez talk on the phone almost daily, discussing their hopes and dreams and plans for spring training.

 

Martinez gets rave reviews for the way he connects with young hitters. He embraces modern metrics and translates them well to his trainees. Born in Nicaragua and raised in Miami, he speaks all three essential languages – English, Spanish and baseball. He is young, which meshes with the trend of the Blue Jays’ reconstituted roster. He has worked with many of the club’s up-and-comers, from Danny Jansen to Vlad Guerrero Jr.

 

“Those guys that got to the big leagues this year, I was (coaching) in rookie ball with them,” he said. “We’re all going to the big leagues together. It’s awesome.”

 

Oh yes, and he also has a World Series ring.

 

Early in November, Martinez visited the Arizona Fall League to work with Jays’ prospects Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio and Santiago Espinal, who were all playing for the Surprise Saguaros. He had planned to head home to Nashville on Sunday, Nov. 4, but player development director Gil Kim asked him to stay a few extra days to continue his work. No problem, Martinez said.

 

He later realized that Kim wanted him to hang around long enough to meet Montoyo, who drove north from his Tuscon home on Nov. 6 and spent the day with Kim and Martinez. Their get-acquainted conversations started with a 90-minute breakfast and continued in the shade of the grandstand during the Saguaros’ game against the Salt River Rafters.

 

Montoyo had heard about “the kid” beforehand from Kim and general manager Ross Atkins.

 

“But then talking to him, I thought, ‘This guy’s just great,’” the manager said. “He’s so open-minded and creative with his plans.”

 

By the end of the day, Martinez said, the conversation had turned to a possible promotion.

 

“I wasn’t sure of exactly the role,” Martinez said over the phone from Nashville, where he teaches hitting to local kids in the off-season. “There were some other clubs that were interested in me, but I really wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Honestly, Charlie and I didn’t even talk that much about hitting. We just talked about my family and where I’m from and what I do in the off-season, stuff like that.”

 

The job offer came together quickly.

 

“I didn’t expect it at all,” he said. “I didn’t expect that they would call me and tell me that my name was actually in the mix.”

 

In part, Martinez sailed through this audition because he had established his bona fides during a more taxing test a year earlier. Then he proved his worth with his work across Toronto’s minor-league system in 2018.

 

After Martinez wrapped up his playing career in independent ball in 2011, the Jays gave him a part-time job as a minor-league instructor in 2012. Two years later, the Cubs hired him away as their high-A hitting coach, a post he held for four years.

 

“The Cubs treated me very well,” he said. “They put me with some very good players. I was part of an organization that won the World Series. I also got a ring, and that was awesome.”

 

But his goal remained relatively modest. He wasn’t thinking about the big leagues. What he really wanted to do was work as a minor-league hitting co-ordinator. He liked the idea of roving the system, connecting with hitters at every level and helping them climb the ladder.

 

A year ago, that very job opened up in Toronto.

 

“From personal experience as a player, I felt like I could impact players in a positive way,” he said. “So when Gil Kim called me, I went in for interviews. It was a very, very long process. Gil, (vice-president) Ben Cherington, (field co-ordinator) Eric Wedge and (player-development co-ordinator) Joe Sclafani took a chance on me and I’m really grateful they did.”

 

Last spring in Dunedin, Fla., Martinez began his new assignment – in what was then his dream job – easing into hitting instruction while players tried to figure out whether he was a player or coach. At the start, it was a nerve-racking time.

 

“Spring training was crazy for me,” he recalled with a chuckle. “I didn’t have any experience as a co-ordinator. I was pretending to be mentally under control, but it was chaos going on in my head. Everyone said, ‘You’re so calm.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, you don’t understand what I’m going through right now.’”

 

He got over it. Indeed, Martinez does display a calm, confident air. But he also comes across as a candid sort whose confidence allows him to acknowledge vulnerability as well.

 

Chaos in his head? Yes, he expects a little of that next spring too.

 

Assuming they’re still around, three of his hitters – Kendrys Morales, Russell Martin and Troy Tulowitzki – will be older than he is.

 

“I’m not worried about that,” Montoyo said. “Guillermo connects with everybody.”

 

Martinez was just short of three years old when his father brought the family from Nicaragua to the U.S. to seek a better life. “We were not in the best situation when I was in Nicaragua,” he said.

 

The situation was better in Miami, and then when he went to the University of South Alabama, from whence the Marlins drafted him in the 15th round in 2006. He lasted three seasons in the Marlins’ system, and three more in indy ball before retiring to coaching.

 

Coaching came naturally, even for one so young. Martinez says he does not proffer a one-size-fits-all coaching philosophy. He is more about creating a positive culture – a key reference point in the Mark Shapiro-Ross Atkins ethos – and looking for ways to coax hitters into that ambit.

 

“My biggest goal as a hitting coach is to try to get guys to want to come to work – to create an environment where these guys are happy and they enjoy hitting, where they want to come and learn and work hard,” he said. “The learning takes care of itself if someone wants to come and work and not feel like it’s work.”

 

But his own work is cut out for him. He inherits a woeful offence. Among the 30 MLB teams, the Jays ranked 22ndin on-base percentage and 19thin batting average. They posted baseball’s ninth-highest strikeout percentage and they were middle-of-the-pack in runs scored.

 

Like Montoyo and the rest of his staff, Martinez will undoubtedly enjoy an extended honeymoon period. Short-term expectations are low. The consensus says the Jays are in for at least two hard years as they bring along the kids while seeking to shed the albatross contracts of Martin, Tulowitzki and Morales and back-fill with cheap help while waiting for the right moment to cast for bigger free-agent fish.

 

Meanwhile, as those realities begin to hit home, Montoyo, Martinez & Co. will try to sustain their own feel-good stories while pushing for patience in the fan base.

 

And the feel-good stories do resonate: Montoyo, 53, a big-league skipper at last after managing for 18 years in the minors, and Martinez, 34, a potential prodigy of a hitting coach.

 

Martinez has clearly built a fond following among his minor-league pupils.

 

“I’ve called a few of them already just to give them the news, and they’re all excited,” he said. “It’s awesome to hear that.”

 

And come the afternoon of March 28, Martinez will line up on the third-base line before a capacity crowd at the Rogers Centre and soak up a vibe he could not have imagined a few weeks ago.

 

“I’m very excited,” he said. “I’m pretty sure Opening Day is when it really hits me.”

 

Post script: At the moment, the Jays still have at least one coaching vacancy to fill: first-base coach, after firing Tim Leiper. They’ve replaced bench coach DeMarlo Hale with Dave Hudgens and Jacoby with Martinez. Pitching coach Pete Walker, bullpen coach Dane Johnson and third-base coach Luis Rivera are expected to return.

 

Or maybe not. Asked if more moves are coming, beyond replacing Leiper, Montoyo replied: “There could be, yes. We’re still working that out.”

[o2cui2i]

FFS - this is all I can think of. I love this movie. If nothing else, we'll be able to use lot's of Princess Bride memes...

 

 

[Boxcar]

 

Good god man, can you pick a meme that makes sense next time?

[THANOS]

Blue Jays fire bullpen coach Dane Johnson, hire Matt Buschmann.

 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-fire-bullpen-coach-dane-johnson-hire-matt-buschmann/

 

I thought Johnson and Walker were safe? I guess I assumed too soon.

[Carlos Danger]

Blue Jays fire bullpen coach Dane Johnson, hire Matt Buschmann.

 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-fire-bullpen-coach-dane-johnson-hire-matt-buschmann/

 

I thought Johnson and Walker were safe? I guess I assumed too soon.

 

Good. First thing I thought when they originally stated they were safe, was: I recall a number of games where IMO it appeared the reliever was not ready when he came in and I think the BP coach has some responsibility in telling Gibby honestly if the guy is ready or not and making sure the guy is.

[TheHurl]

Good god man, can you pick a meme that makes sense next time?

 

O2 posts for the first time in like 2 years and Boxy is his first reply. So fitting.

[Spanky99]

O2 posts for the first time in like 2 years and Boxy is his first reply. So fitting.

 

lol... what an *******!!!

[polar bear]

So I was listening to Shapiro the other day. I am now convinced Gibbons was asked to leave (fired), but they let him save face by saying he is not interested in a re-build etc.

 

Basically, Shapiro said, there was nothing wrong with the Clubhouse culture and team culture so to speak. However, if we want to win the AL East it has to be much better and a different mindset and that is what Montoyo brings. In plain English, Gibby was average, they think that Montoyo can be exceptional.

 

Gibby was fired, plain and simple.

 

I don't agree.

[Spanky99]

So I was listening to Shapiro the other day. I am now convinced Gibbons was asked to leave (fired), but they let him save face by saying he is not interested in a re-build etc.

 

Basically, Shapiro said, there was nothing wrong with the Clubhouse culture and team culture so to speak. However, if we want to win the AL East it has to be much better and a different mindset and that is what Montoyo brings. In plain English, Gibby was average, they think that Montoyo can be exceptional.

 

Gibby was fired, plain and simple.

 

When did he say this? Link bro, I need a link?

[Carlos Danger]

When did he say this? Link bro, I need a link?

 

Stand-by for my Google foo and I will post.

 

My foo is strong!

 

http://pmd.fan590.com/podcasts/the_lede/lede_20181114_105051--Episode-21-Mark-Shapiro-Managing-Blue-Jays-Culture-Change.mp3

[Spanky99]

Stand-by for my Google foo and I will post.

 

Thanks bro, like holy f***, OMG.... I need a link, bro?

[Carlos Danger]

I don't agree.

 

Listen from the 14-15 min mark of the link I posted. I think he says it in the 16 mins mark. I am in the Corporate world, I can translate his PC speak. Not a rousing support of the culture and legacy Gibby left. If he feels that way, there is no way Gibby stays.