Blue Jays 2010 first-round pick Noah Syndergaard shortly after the right-hander's Northwest League debut with the Vancouver Canadians.
By Simon Druker
August 18
Vancouver – As the Blue Jays continue to gauge the progress of some the organization’s young arms that may have an impact in the coming season and beyond, the arms that project to debut long after 2012 are shining bright further down the minor league highway.
One of those lights is courtesy of the Lone Star State and it’s a big one in 6’5, 200-pound right-hander Noah Syndergaard.
The product of Legacy High School in Mansfield, Texas made his fourth start since being promoted to the short-season Class A Vancouver Canadians and managed to improve upon what has already been a dominant second professional season.
Taken with the 38th pick in the 2010 MLB draft, Syndergaard has a fastball that tops out in the high 90s although some around the Canadians say it may in fact be higher.
That speed along with an advanced changeup helped the 18-year-old Syndergaard tear through Appalachian League pitching en route to his promotion.
“Noah went to Bluefield (Virginia), did what he had to do and dominated the (Rookie-level Appalachian) League,” says Canadians pitching coach Jim Czajkowski. “And that’s what you want when you bring up another guy, you want him to dominate that league and show everybody he does not belong there.”
Dominate is a fair term
In seven games totaling 32 innings, the six-foot-five, 200-pound right-hander struck out 37 while holding opponents to a .198 average and posting a sparkling 1.41 ERA.
He tossed five scoreless innings in his Canadians debut. Limited by a pitch count, he tossed four in each of his next two starts, surrendering a four runs, 11 hits and eight strikeouts over eight innings but it was Thursday night back in the friendly confines of a sold-out Nat Bailey Stadium that the reserved Texan truly put on a display of the talent that has helped him dominate a level typically meant for older college-drafted players.
Against the Everett AquaSox – a Seattle Mariner affiliate – Syndergaard fired a no-hitter over five frames before being lifted due to a pitch count. What’s more is that he struck out eight of the first 10 batters he faced while routinely hitting 97 on the radar gun.
Czajkowski – along with Canadian’s manager John Schneider – praises the young righty’s pure pitching ability but it is mental toughness that has them equally impressed. That toughness is something that is necessary in preventing a bad pitch from becoming a bad inning (see Drabek, Kyle). It’s even tougher to harness when you consider Syndergaard is now pitching in front of crowds which number in the thousands – Thursday’s crowd was over 5,500 – rather than the paltry numbers of the Gulf Coast or Appalachian Leagues.
In your head
“Mental strength is big,” says Czajkowski, who closed out 122 games over a 12-year minor league career that finished up in the Blue Jays system. “Noah came in and kept doing what he was doing. Blocked everything else out and went about his business very well.
“If you remember the movie For the Love of the Game,” he says, referring to the 1999 film in which Kevin Costner played the aging ace of a floundering Detroit Tiger team. “When he says ‘clear the mechanism,’ that’s what these guys have to do to be successful. They’ve got to clear all those distractions no matter if there are 50 fans or 5,000. Its do your job, one pitch at a time.”
Syndergaard acknowledges a bit of shock and awe at first but said he welcomes the bright lights.
“Bluefield was quite a bit of a change (over the Gulf Coast League). Night games, there are not as many fans but you get the same atmosphere of playing in stadiums. But here (Vancouver), it’s quite a change playing in front of 3,000 fans. You get a nice little adrenaline rush when you have lots of fans cheering behind you.”
Impressing at a young age
The Jays brass must get a similar rush when they watch him pitch. Already physically imposing, Syndergaard doesn’t turn 19 until August 29, meaning he will enter spring training likely trying to crack the full-season Class A Lansing Lugnuts rotation as a teenager.
“We knew at extended that he was a power guy,” says Czajkowski, picking apart the right-hander’s repertoire. “The changeup is OK but maybe a little bit hard for this level. We’ve got guys that throw their fastball as hard as he throws his changeup. So that’s kind of hitting speed for these guys maybe.
“But at Double-A and Triple-A it’s the right speed. So he may get hit around with the changeup once in a while but when he gets to the higher levels, it’s going to be the right speed because guys are going to have to give for his fastball and they’re not going to be able to do it. They’re not going to be able to hit his fastball here, they may foul it off and that’s where his curveball development comes into play. That’s a pitch that he can throw and guys will swing and miss.”
Not looking for the big K
Though he does throw high-octane, Syndergaard – much like Jays rookie Henderson Alvarez – doesn’t call himself a strikeout pitcher, preferring to induce grounders and let his infield do the rest.
“Getting strikeouts is kind selfish, but I have the utmost confidence in the defence behind me. I love throwing inside and hearing the bat break.
“I’m really working on the changeup and the curveball. I’ve always had a changeup I’m just working on fine tuning that here.”
His velocity will allow Syndergaard to get away with throwing up in the zone more than most but Czajkowski too envisions him jamming hitters with inside fastballs rather than setting them down with them.
“At the higher levels, it may not be so many (strikeouts) but he’s got an overpowering fastball and will force guys to put pitches in play that they didn’t really want to swing at or couldn’t get the fat part of the bat on. So he’s going to be able to do a lot of things.”
Right now, Syndergaard will take the outs and worry about how he got them later. He’s already on the fast-track and he knows it.
He pauses briefly before answering the final question, although he’s absolutely certain of the response.
“I guess next year I’m really shooting to not go to extended spring training and hopefully have a starting spot in Lansing.”
If the numbers are any indication, Noah Seth Syndergaard is definitely on his way.
Photo by Simon Druker
As the rainy days start to dissipate on the west coast, ultimate frisbee is one of the many sports that can be seen widely-played around the Lower Mainland.
Click on image to enlarge.
Howie Meeker still doesn’t know why he was chosen to receive the Order of Canada.
Nominated by a community member who has known him for a number of years, Meeker will receive the award during an official ceremony in Ottawa on May 27 after a distinguished career as both an NHL player and iconic broadcaster.
“I didn’t think that at any point in my life I would be nominated for something like this,” said the former Hockey Night in Canada fixture, via telephone from his home in Parksville, B.C.
“It makes you feel exceptionally proud.”
The road to greatness
Meeker was a hotshot prospect on the rise when, at age 20, he opted to join the Canadian Armed Forces during World War II. The Waterloo, Ont. native was injured by a grenade blast but survived to join his childhood-favourite Toronto Maple Leafs, earning the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league’s top rookie in the 1946-1947 season. Meeker squeezed out another hockey icon for the award that season, Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe.
Meeker and the Leafs would go on to win four Stanley Cups during a five year period, including one in that rookie season. His run in Toronto saw him play along all-time Leaf greats Ted Kennedy, Bill Barilko and Turk Broda among others.
Meeker would play just 346 games over an eight-year career that also included two years serving as a Conservative MP in the Waterloo South riding. After winning a by-election in 1951, Meeker did not seek re-election in 1953.
Change of scenery
After retiring due to a chronic collarbone injury, Meeker decided to get away from the game he loved, at least on a professional level. It was after this and a move to St. John’s Nfld., where he ran youth hockey camps that would inadvertently lead to a career in broadcasting.
Meeker walked into a local radio station to drop off the score sheets from his camps when he was approached by the station’s manager. The newscaster had just quit that morning and he wanted to know if Meeker was interested in a job.
“I said ‘Sure I am’,” said Meeker. “He handed me the sports section of the day’s newspaper and some wire stories that had come in and said ‘Here, you’re on in an hour!”
That led to a 30-year career as a broadcaster for a number of different networks, including Hockey Night in Canada, which aired a weekly segment, Howie Meeker’s Hockey School, from 1973 to 1977.
Career highlight
Oddly enough, the proudest moment of his distinguished career took place in the final minute of his first season as a player.
“It took me a long time to realize, but really the seventh game of the (1947) Stanley Cup finals and we were up 2-1 with a minute to go. (Leafs coach) Hap Day, with all sorts of experience on the bench, put me and four other rookies on the ice. It was the Montreal Canadiens with (Maurice) Richard and (Toe) Blake, the greatest team in the league by far but we whipped their ass!”
Doing what he loves
Now 87, Meeker lives with his wife in his adopted province of British Columbia. He is still involved in charity work, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars through his golf tournament, which supports the B.C. Guide Dog Services.
“It has been a wild and really enjoyable ride, it really has,” says Meeker, reflecting back.
“I’m lucky now,” he says. “To have a beautiful lady, I’m relatively healthy and I’m doing what I want to do and enjoying myself.”
March 2011 –
Vancouver residents came out in droves to voice their opposition to a proposed casino entertainment complex adjacent to BC Place on Monday night.
It was standing room only at city hall for the public meeting as city staff outlined the project proposal before ceding the floor to the first of 163 registered public speakers.
B.C. Pavilion Corp. chair David Podmore – who spoke prior to the public delegations – was interrupted numerous times by a raucous and skeptical crowd and at one point an anti-casino advocate burst into council chambers and approached Podmore before he was removed by security.
Opposition comes out strong
City staff confirmed 360 letters opposing the development to date, as well as 500 letters of support.
Other than a visible contingent of existing casino workers, most crowd members seemed skeptical of the project.
“Look at how many people are here, most of them don’t want it,” said Matt Visconti, one of the hundreds of people who lined the halls outside council chambers.
Fate of existing employees up in air
The first speaker to address the crowd lamented the potential loss of jobs that would occur if the project stalls.
“Without the City of Vancouver’s approval of this expansion permit, those jobs would be in jeopardy,” said Robert Harrison, a Canadian Autoworkers Union member. Harrison said there are 500 CAW workers currently employed by Edgewater and that number could jump to 1,900 with the new complex.
The proposed redevelopment will see the Edgewater Casino relocated from its current location in the Plaza of Nations to part of a larger entertainment complex adjacent to BC Place. The complex is expected to include two hotels along with the new 114,000 square-foot casino, along with a conference centre and other amenities.
The new casino will contain 1,500 slot machines compared to only 600 in the present casino while the number of gaming tables will jump from 150 to 600. The hotels will have approximately 600 rooms.
Landowner, developer state cases
PavCo, the provincial corporation that owns BC Place and the land on which the proposed redevelopment will sit, is supporting the application by Paragon Gaming, the company that operates Edgewater.
Paragon CEO Diana Bennett did her best to appeal to the crowd.
“Our proudest moment was when we came to Vancouver,” said Bennett, who spoke of her company’s endeavours in Whitecourt and Parkland County, Alberta as reasons for optimism around the new development.
Both the River Cree Casino in Parkland County as well as Whitecourt’s Eagle River Casino are much smaller than the proposed new Edgewater site and their locations are not close to the urban density of the site next to BC Place.
Councillors skeptical
Members of the development team were grilled by councilors before the public got their turn, shortly before 10 p.m.
Coun. Kerry Jang questioned how much casino revenue would come from problem gamblers – a question to which there was no answer – while others raised concerns over the casino potentially siphoning revenue from the six other casinos in the Lower Mainland.
“Isn’t that kind of like having your head in the sand,” said Jang, about not having certain information. “We’ll talk about the responsible gaming but we won’t talk about the problem gambling.”
Big money involved
The proposed $500 million casino project is projected to generate more than $130 million in new gambling revenue, according to the B.C. Lottery Corporation.
Public hearings continue next week.
March 2011 –
“If the media can’t do its job, then despots and sociopaths are going to carry the day out there.”
Those were the words of TransLink director of communications Ken Hardie as he addressed a group of journalists at Langara College yesterday.
Unfair reporting
Hardie said he feels journalists don’t always give the transit authority a fair shake when it comes to reporting on controversial issues.
The 62-year-old said journalists often jump on any negative aspect of a story and don’t present the situation in a constructive manner.
“Will it be a thoughtful analysis?” was how Hardie, who plans to retire in two years, described how he judges the fairness of a story.
“We’re worried about what our readers are going to see,” he added.
Possible route cutting
Hardie pointed to a current situation involving the number 50 False Creek South bus route, which TransLink is hoping to alter this year, in order to save $1 million.
He said cutting a small portion off the end of the route would accomplish the savings but could upset a group of senior citizens who rely on that specific portion. Anyone then wishing to travel along that portion of the route would need to transfer to a different bus.
Hardie said that while the proposed change would inconvenience a small group of riders, it was necessary to improve other areas of the system, especially since provincial funding to the transit authority has been tightened. He added that even though a larger number of TransLink users stand to benefit from the savings, the media would inevitably put a negative spin on the story, even though no decision has yet been made.
“Inevitably every time something is change, someone is going to disaffected,” he said.
“Sometimes letting people have their say is enough to let people know they’re not getting bulldozed.”
Critical of reporting in Lower Mainland
Hardie then took issue with reporting in the Lower Mainland. He said journalists don’t give fair coverage to both sides of an argument and will jump on any chance to portray TrankLink in a controversial or negative light, even before final decisions are made.
“What we’ve found with journalists is that speculation is punished,” said Hardie, adding he was attending a public meeting that night to listen to concerns from citizens over the change.
In a city where everyone wants transit expansion, Hardie said pleasing everyone is an impossible task and that being transparent helps calm tempers.
Skeptics plentiful
Not everyone in attendance was buying Hardie’s play ball with the media theory. He admitted to sharing more information with certain journalists, depending on how he thought they would shape a particular TransLink story.
“I thought his [Hardie] main source of irritation was based on a perception of the media sensationalizes news for effect, rather than telling readers what they really need to know,” said Adrian MacNair, a freelance columnist.
Experienced media members said journalists should weigh everything Hardie says carefully and need to decipher message from pure fact.
“He’s very good at his job which is delivering his message,” said Ross Howard, an expert in media ethics at Langara College.
January 2011 –
Canadians are spending more on basic consumer goods including gasoline, but that’s not necessarily because there’s a hole burning in their wallets.
According to a new Statistics Canada report, the Canadian economy saw a 13.8-per-cent increase in gasoline sales between November 2009 and November 2010. That growth was part of an overall gain of 5.3 per cent made by the country’s retail economy sector.
Not easy to cut back on gas
Ambarish Chandra, a UBC economics professor, said that unlike other products, consumers don’t cut back on gas prices despite price increases.
“People don’t cut back on consumption very easily,” said Chandra. “You’re sort of committed to your commuting patterns and the amount of energy you use in general.
“Prices rise but the quantity consumed doesn’t necessarily fall and that’s why total revenue numbers tend to rise even in the short run.”
Similar situation
Chandra said the current situation is not quite at the point of the price increase of 2007, which saw prices climb to $1.50 per litre by the end of that year, according to vancouvergasprices.com.
“What we saw back in 2007 was that the rise in prices stopped being accompanied by a one-for-one rise in revenue because, at some point, people started cutting back on consumption.”
The same website lists today’s average pump price at $1.216 per litre.
Chandra said that while it’s yet at that point, the situation will inevitably happen again.
“There are always some people that will balk at the price, the question is how many people will it take to make a noticeable difference,” said Chandra.
“Whether it happens next year, this year or two years from now, at some point we’ll get there again.”
Other hot commodities
The gasoline sector was one of a few to see business jump by double-digit percentage points.
Jewelry, luggage and leather goods stores enjoyed the largest increase in sales at 17.6 per cent, while automotive parts and tire stores weren’t far behind with a 14.3 per cent jump, according to the report.
Overall, retail sales were pegged at $37.31 million for November, up from $35.44 million a year ago.
British Columbia retail sales were slightly lower than the rest of the country at 2.7 per cent, matching Nova Scotia and ahead of only Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Newfoundland and PEI.
March 2011 –
A New Westminster man was sentenced yesterday to three years probation for threatening to cause death or bodily harm to a woman in the parking lot of Royal City Centre Mall.
Labud Stevovic, 22, appeared without council as Madame Justice J.C. Challenger imposed the sentence which carries a number of provisions including a curfew.
The offense occurred last Halloween when Stevovic approached a woman, who is only identified by the court as D.L., in the parking lot and verbally assaulted her.
He made lewd comments about the woman’s breasts and when she called police, threatened to rape her before killing her. Stevovic then fled on foot.
Psychological assessment ordered
Stevovic was found guilty at trial and ordered to undergo psychological testing before the sentence hearing.
A court psychologist deemed him a “high risk” to reoffend but also felt mandatory counseling would have little effect due to his “extreme denial, guardedness and lack of psychological insight and sophistication,” according to the report.
Previous conviction
Stevovic has a previous conviction for assault, four years ago when he forcibly confined his then girlfriend to his family home, held her on the ground and kicked and spat on her.
He completed court-ordered counseling for that offense but “demonstrated little retention of material or insight into the subject matter,” according to a report from Stevovic’s parole officer.
Trouble accepting responsibility
The court came to the conclusion that he had trouble accepting responsibility, perhaps based on an abusive childhood in which his father abused his mother.
Stevovic, who has a grade 9 education, served 36 days in custody after his arrest leading up to his trial. Challenger said he could not justify imposing more jail time as the 36 days carry an equivalency of a two-and-a-half-month sentence. The maximum penalty for the offense of which he was convicted is 18 months.
Judge issues stern warning
Challenger warned Stevovic to take the sentence seriously, noting that his current behavior could lead to more serious offences and jail time in the future.
“You will then be locked up and your life will be changed forever and you might just get a taste in custody of what it is like to be raped,” said Challenger. “So think about that, if nothing else.”
Photo by Simon Druker
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Click on image to enlarge
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Simondruker.ca 