Pitch Talks

The Pitch Talks Blue Jays Podcast returns for the 2018 season. In this episode, FanGraphs' Carson Cistulli and Travis Sawchik discuss not only the awkward place along the win curve in which Toronto found itself entering the offseason but how well the front office did to acquire useful pieces without mortgaging the future.

Ben Hansen is the vice-president and Chief Technology officer at Motus Global Company. Motus is a biomechanics company focusing on injury prevention and performance analysis. Ben speaks to Day Games about the recently developed Motus Baseball System – a wearable sleeve technology that aims to reduce pitcher injuries and improve hitter’s effectiveness. As of spring 2016, the playing rules committee approved Motus’ wearable sleeve technology for use in major league games. Mike Sonne speaks to Ben about what it’s like to work in one of baseball’s fastest growing fields, how he found himself there and what it's like to help Andrew McCutchen with his swing.

Andrew Stoakley is a Production Sound Mixer that works delivering live in-game audio for Toronto Blue Jays’ television broadcasts. Andrew speaks to host Mike Sonne, about his journey from radio host to audio mixer; and what kind of work it takes to make sure everyone watching at home hears everything they need to hear while eliminating some of the more colorful audio that is reserved for more mature audiences. Day Games also learns about what makes mixing audio for live sporting events more interesting than more traditional audio recording projects.

Ashley Stephenson has been a member of the Canadian Women’s National Baseball team since 2004, primarily at third base. Ashley spoke to Mike Sonne about her time playing women’s baseball on the highest stage in the world and takes Day Games through the ins and outs of women’s baseball. As the popularity of women’s baseball continues to grow, Ashley also explains how she fits her training and baseball prep into a busy schedule.

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This week, Mike Sonne speaks to Eno Sarris, one of the baseball world’s busiest men. In addition to his writing for one of baseball’s biggest analytics websites - FanGraphs, and role (at the time) as editor in chief for RotoGraphs, Eno finds time to manage BeerGraphs - an analytics website for beer, and launch a new beer related venture called “October”. Eno is one of the few who marries pure statistical analysis with traditional baseball player interviews, and provides Day Games with stories about his winding road to fantasy baseball royalty.

Sam Bats are not only one of the most popular bat manufacturers in professional baseball, but were the pioneers of crafting bats out of maple wood. Day Game’s speaks to Sam Bat’s President, Arlene Anderson, and Director of Pro Production, Alfred Mione about the different challenges and requests that come with making bats for everyone from sluggers like Barry Bonds to MLB pitchers like David Price. Host, Mike Sonne was also curious about how bat makers themselves feel about the growing trend bat flips in pro ball.

Dr. Mike Sonne may have considered trading in his work in ergonomics to do what Kyle Boddy does. The Director of Research and Development and Founder of Driveline Baseball specializes in improving professional and top prospect pitchers and hitters with data-driven training and super cool baseball technology. If you listen closely you can hear Dr. Mike squealing from Boddy's technical explanations in the background. There is no doubt that talking numbers and baseball is a dream come true for both parties.

Team president Mark Shapiro has suggested he won't trade any of the Blue Jays' core pieces at the coming deadline. His resolve leads to a logical question: what does the 2018 roster actually look like? That questions informs this edition of the Pitch Talks Blue Jays Podcast.