Dein erstes Forum » ouldnt be looking closely at Chris Sale

A very special welcome to Shot Selection if youve never read a post on this blog before. If you have, and I believe that there are over 40 pieces to choose from, then I say, Have you not had enough already?Today Ive decided to let you in on the dark arts of gaining access to a cricketer for what we are going to call a special shoot. Normally, for a special shoot you have to approach the media liaison officer and persuade her or him that it is in everyones interest that a photographer (me) should have five or six minutes with a particular cricketer, and that the subsequent photograph will take cricket to the next level (whatever that means). Normally this approach will get one of two responses. Either a positive one, which may be something like: Ill ask the cricketer and see what we can do, or No.I have had an instance where a cricketer agreed to a quick special shoot at Southampton during a one-day county match. No media liaison officer was involved in this case. The player wasnt due to bat till seven wickets had fallen, so he was ready to do a five-minute posing session there and then, as his team had just begun batting. I stupidly told him to let me set up my lights and that he should come over to the nets in about five or ten minutes. I kept sending messages to the dressing room saying that I was ready. Six hours later I gave up and packed up my gear and when I drove past the Worcestershire coach (a bus, not the human coach of the team) at a nearby McDonalds, I was tempted to go in and give this player a piece of my angry mind. I wont name the player as hes a nice guy and also comes from Wales. No point holding a grudge, is there? Or is there?I did a shoot for the Cricketer magazine in 2007 with heart-throb Mark Ramprakash at The Oval. I decided to put my camera on a tripod and take two different images of Mark that I would stitch together using Photoshop. As Mark was involved in the popular Saturday evening programme Strictly Come Dancing, I wanted to show his flamboyant side. I used a couple of flashes to make him stand out on a grey London day. I was very happy with the result, but Mark wasnt so chuffed when he saw it. England have a brand new media liaison officer who is very, very nice and more importantly, very helpful and accommodating. (Ill send a link for this blog to Danny, I think). I had a plan in 2015 to photograph the baby-faced Joe Root in the Lords Long Room, and he agreed to do it in September. Unfortunately Joe forgot his Test kit and the shoot had to be postponed.Anyway, last month the opportunity to do this shoot reared its lovely head again. Joe was chatting with journalists in the writing room at Lords and was due to join me in the Long Room for a few minutes of fun and photography. I took out a small insurance policy to make sure that he came to the Long Room by taking his bat and batting gloves with me. I neednt have bothered. Joe was quite happy to pose for five minutes in the famous room.I got some shots of him looking out the window and looking at the camera. Lastly I wanted a moody shot of a determined young man staring at the camera. I asked Joe to look at me as if he hated me and the shoot descended into laughter. He is just too nice for any of that stuff. I cant imagine why David Warner tried to batter him in Broad street all those years ago.Ramprakash: Canon Eos 1D MkII 125ASA F5.6 24-70 @32mm 1/400th; Root: Nikon D4 500ASA F5 70-200 @110mm 1/200th Vapormax Grossiste . Halladay signed a one-day contract with the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday that allowed the veteran right-hander to retire as a member of team with which he broke into the majors and spent the bulk of his distinguished 16-year career. Air Max 270 Femme Pas Cher .Y. -- Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo had little trouble picking up his first shutout of the season against a Buffalo Sabres team thats having trouble scoring goals. http://www.maxnikepascher.fr/ .J. -- Marshawn Lynch said Thursday it will be good to get back to football after the Seattle quiet talking running back wrapped up his final mandatory media session of Super Bowl week. Air Max 90 Essential Solde . Manuel was offered a position the day he was fired. He accepted earlier this week and the team made the announcement Friday. Nike Air Vapormax Pas Cher . Woodson said during a radio interview Thursday that the Knicks Carmelo Anthony doesnt get the same calls as other superstars. This isnt The Shutdown. (You can Google Stephen Strasburg for more details.) This isnt The Return of the Dark Knights MCL. (Terry Collins and Matt Harvey could fill you in on that rocking plot synopsis.)But in its own way, what we have here is another chapter in the same confusing story. The subject this time is Aaron Sanchez, 24-year-old shooting star for the surging Toronto Blue Jays. Now its him and his team facing the same array of impossible questions as his innings mount, his teammates set their sights on October and the trade deadline looms. Uh-oh!The good news: Sanchez leads the American League in ERA (at 2.72) in his dazzling, breakout season. The bad news: Hes one inning short of his career high, 133.1, set in 2014 during a season spent at Double-A, Triple-A and Toronto.What happens next is ... Uhhh, who the heck knows?The Blue Jays have talked since spring training about moving him to the bullpen at some point. So theyve known for months this crossroad was coming. What they didnt know was that they could be contemplating a move that no team has ever made.According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no starting pitcher with a sub-3.00 ERA at least 20 starts into a season has ever turned around to make at least 10 appearances out of the bullpen. So no wonder, now that the Blue Jays monstrous moment of decision is approaching, we still find ourselves asking:How will this affect their deadline dealings? How will they juggle the chance to win with their commitment to keeping a great young pitcher healthy? And whatever they do, how will they sell it to their fans, their clubhouse and the rest of their sport -- all of whom are watching closely?My job is to go out there and start games until Im told not to, Sanchez told me earlier this month.Were hoping, as players, that it kind of gets re-evaluated, the friendly neighborhood MVP, Josh Donaldson, said that same day.Nothing has changed, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said this week. The whole time, what weve been trying to balance is whats best for the team and whats best for Aaron, and to weigh that against a lot of alternatives.Hmmm. The storylines sound familiar? Now before we sort through all these questions, theres something you need to keep in mind: Nobody knows the right answer.Medical science doesnt know. No GM, no manager, no pitching coach, no doctor, no pitcher really knows. And whatever happens -- to Aaron Sanchez, to his team, to the front office that will make a call that could change the face of its season --nobody will ever be able to say if it was the right decision or the wrong decision. Well all play the what-if game. But well never know.Got that? Cool. Now lets tackle the big questions:How will it affect the deadline?Too bad its not last year. Last year at this time, the Blue Jays solved their rotation problems by making a franchise-changing deal for David Price. So if they could just pluck an ace out of the sky again this July and plug him into Sanchezs spot in the rotation, boy, would they save themselves a lot of second-guessing. Not to mention first-guessing.Except theres no sign theyre on the verge of trading for, say, Chris Sale. So Plan B is to trade for, well, pitching -- probably a starter, possibly a reliever. But Atkins is adamant that he cant let the Sanchez decision weigh too heavily into whatever deals his team makes in the next few days.Asked if his preference is to acquire a starter, the GM replied: Our preference is to acquire the best piece that can make our team better. But our preference is also to acquire the best piece at the best price.I do think that starting pitching is going to be harder to find, he went on. But even if it would be our preference to have that, were not going to let Aaron Sanchez factor into that decision.Nevertheless, other clubs report that the Blue Jays have been one of the most aggressive teams in hunting for a starter in recent days. Theyve been linked with all sorts of names, ranging from the usual suspects (Rich Hill, Andrew Cashner) to some youd never see coming (CC Sabathia?). One name to keep an eye on is Philadelphias Jeremy Hellickson, who at least could provide reasonably dependable innings, for a return they could probably afford.What options are on the table?Life is complicated. Baseball is complicated. And this decision is complicated. It might not involve a pitcher coming off Tommy John surgery. But its just as complicated, simply because of Sanchezs innings history (109.2 in 2013 if you include the Arizona Fall League; 133.1 in 2014; and 109.1 last year, if you include the postseason). Hes on pace to pitch 205 this season -- without even factoring in October. So what should his team do?When the Nationals were weighing how to handle Strasburg in 2012, they considered exactly one scenario: Operation Shutdown. But the Blue Jays are viewing their version of that decision as more of a multiple-choice quiz.So they could ...Pick a point in August and move Sanchez to a late-inning bullpen role.(Still likely.)Let him keep starting every fifth day and pull the plug on his season once he begins to show signs of fatigue.(Not happening.)Keep him in the rotation but look for ways to stagger his workload, give him extra rest and/or occasionally skip a start.(Very much on the drawing board.)Another, less orthodox plan that Atkins described, simply, as something more creative.(Youve got us.)And when will they make this call? Sometime after the deadline, Atkins said, when they know exactly what their options are for potential rotation replacements, bullpen alternatives or some combination of both. So the options will be clearer then. Unfortunately, there will never be a perfect answer.Will Sanchez get a vote?This wont be Aaron Sanchezs decision. A year ago, it felt as if the Mets were waiting for Harvey to announce, I want to start, before they could all move forward. It wont work that way in Toronto.Sanchez will be part of the conversation, Atkins said. But so will his manager, pitching coach, medical staff, front office and sports science department.That conversation hasnt happened yet. And when I interviewed Sanchez a couple of weeks ago, he said he had asked pitching coach Pete Walker about this once all sseason -- then shut it out of his mind.dddddddddddd.I told him, I dont want to know, Sanchez said. I said, I dont want it to be a distraction. Just let me control what I can control and do what I need to do, and when youre ready to talk about it, then well sit down and discuss it. I said, If you dont have it in your minds any time soon, then dont even bother me.But its obvious the powers that be will be ready to talk about it sooner rather than later. And when they do, their first question will be: Tell us honestly how youre feeling.I feel great, Sanchez said two weeks ago. Ive felt great all year. My bodys responded well. Even with the amount of innings Ive been logging and as fast as Ive logged them, I dont see myself falling off any time soon.Asked if he had any sort of innings limit in his head, Sanchez gave an enlightened, 21st century answer.I try not to look at that, he said. I try to gauge more off of how my body [feels]. ... I think my body will tell me when I need to stop.And if he and his team are waiting for his body to tell them when hes feeling fatigued, they have plenty of data that indicates that point hasnt arrived yet. His average month-by-month fastball velocity, according to Pitchf/x and Brooks Baseball, has stayed remarkably consistent:April: 95.34 mphMay: 95.05 mphJune: 95.89 mphJuly: 95.26 mphWeve wondered for years when teams would start using more sophisticated data than innings pitched to make decisions like this. It has finally happened. Atkins has said repeatedly that the Blue Jays will use as many facets of todays technology as possible to look for signs of fatigue. So we can all stop counting innings.Why is that? Because not all innings are created equal. Because this is a guy who is so efficient that only 10 starters in baseball use fewer pitches per inning than he does (15.0). And because, if you look at a stat ESPN defines as stressful innings (30 pitches or more in an inning), Sanchez has had only four of them all season.So if you see that Sanchez is 12th in baseball in innings pitched, you might say, Hoo boy. But if you check out pitches thrown and see he ranks just 31st, feel free to say, Never mind.Will his teammates get a vote?It was almost exactly a year ago that the Blue Jays shot a lightning bolt through their franchise with the trades for Price and Troy Tulowitzki. Whats hard not to wonder now is this: If they abruptly hook their best pitcher from their rotation in the next couple of weeks, could that decision have the reverse effect?Asked how big a topic this is in their clubhouse, Donaldson said: We dont talk about it. We refuse to talk about it, because hes been one of our best starting pitchers.So Im going to pretend that its not there, because this guy, honestly, has been ... the real deal.The MVP is well aware that when a team plays deep into October, every player pays a price. Every player pushes his body beyond the point of fatigue. So do Sanchezs teammates understand that there is a balancing act here between whats best for this players long-term future and whats best for this team? Sure they do. But is that something these players are worrying about as they look at the standings? You know the answer.To answer your question, no, Donaldson said. We dont make those decisions. All of us have our own personal beliefs on how that should go. And Im not going to sit here and say one is right or one is wrong, because honestly, hes a young guy.And you want this guy to be around forever. And sometimes you have to pick your poison. But my personal belief is this: that the way he is going out there and starting is going to tell you whether or not hes getting tired or starting to wear down. And to this point, he hasnt shown any sign of fatigue.But it isnt just this clubhouse that is watching. The whole sport is watching. And if the Blue Jays take their prospective Game 1 starting pitcher out of their rotation, there are going to be people on other clubs who will view that decision as Strasburg-esque.When youre talking about winning it all, said one NL executive, youd better have three legit guys in your rotation, starting with that No. 1. And if the Blue Jays take Aaron Sanchez out of their rotation, theyre not that team.That execs feelings mirror the sentiments of so many of his peers: This team has to find a way to have Aaron Sanchez in its rotation in September and October.They have to be creative to do that, the exec said. They have to skip some starts and adjust off days ... but they cant go deep without him in their rotation. He has really been That Guy.So where is this headed?We seriously doubt the Blue Jays are about to trade for Chris Sale. But that doesnt mean they shouldnt be looking closely at Chris Sale -- not to deal for him, but to learn from him.Not so long ago, Sale was the Chicago White Soxs best pitching prospect. But he wasnt pitching a lot of innings because, like Sanchez, he began his big-league career in the bullpen. So look at how his innings jumped after he moved into the rotation:Age 22 (2011): 71Age 23 (2012): 192Age 24 (2013): 214.1He has made 77 starts in the 2? seasons since, averaging 191 innings in the two full seasons. He did miss a few starts in 2014 with a flexor muscle strain, but has shown no aftereffects after a month on the disabled list that year.So Sales innings jump was far more pronounced than the one Sanchez could be about to make -- from 133.1 to 109.1 to wherever he ends up this year. The Toronto Blue Jays sure do have a lot to think about.Their GM isnt ready to say precisely what theyre about to do. He just promises theyll be as transparent about the process as any team in this position has ever been.Well work hard to ask a lot of people for their opinions, Atkins said. Well gather information. Well give feedback. And well explain the rationale behind all our options.Theres one thing they almost certainly wont be able to do in the days leading up to this trade deadline. And Ross Atkins is already resigned to it.No matter what kind of deal we make, he said, it would be very difficult to upgrade on Aaron Sanchez. ' ' '