Richard Griffin had a feature on Adam Lind at the Toronto Star over the weekend, focusing mostly on the transition from the approach preached by Cito Gaston to the one preferred by John Farrell and Alex Anthopoulos.
I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry money quote:
“Just to show the staff that I’m trying to have long at-bats. Coming from the Cito Gaston era, where it’s like, ‘What’re you doing?’ if you have 10-pitch at-bats, to this staff,” Lind said. “The expression that they’ve used with me is ‘controlled aggression.’ “
That’s our Cito!
Aaaand, that’s really all I’ve got. Though, I supposed, since we’re talking about it anyway, I should note that there were few more interesting, and less gloat-worthy, tidbits in the piece. For example:
- Dwayne Murphy, the holdover hitting coach from Gaston’s staff– with a .356 OBP– who Griffin suggests has changed his lesson plan as the organization’s philosophy has shifted.
- Griffin says that “Lind needs to respond to his critics, many of them within the organization,” and tells us that the Jays are contemplating only having him hit cleanup against right-handed pitching.
- “We might also have the ability against a tough left-hander if that’s a day that we have Adam on the bench, to be able to pinch-hit him late in the game,” John Farrell adds. “We’re certainly not running from him by any means, but we have a lot more flexibility.”
- Lind has finally now started to come around with the bat, it seems, with Griffin focusing on a ten-pitch at-bat that resulted in a home run, and Lind preferring the walk he took Saturday on a back leg slider.
- “When he swings at balls inside the strike zone, he’s a very dangerous hitter,” says John Farrell, getting a bit FanGraphs-y.
As much as I was all for dumping on him last week, Lind is certainly not hopeless. It’ll be interesting to see how the club handles him over the course of the season. Maybe not fun, per se, but interesting…
Pic of Cito art via @Score_Tomlinson
