Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
All right, welcome back to Blair and Barker, brought to you by Capital One. Capital One, giving Canadians credit for 30 years. 707 will be the first pitch tonight as the Jays take on the Rays. Shane McClanahan on the mound. For the Rays, Patrick Corbin for the Jays. The Rays coming off an 8-5 win over the Jays last night at the Rogers Center.
The Rays' hitting coach is Chad Mottola, and he joins us on Blair and Barker. Former Barker teammate, I might add, which is sure one of the lines in your resume. I bet it is, yeah. I bet he's excited. God bless.
How's it going? It's good. It's always good to be back in Toronto. Love it here. The energy's great right now with the way the team's played last year, so it's always fun to come here.
Awesome. Chad, I'm going to get out of the way because I know I'm looking forward to hearing you and Barker talk hitting, but I did want to ask you after watching Chandler Simpson last night, when you have a guy with that skill set that is kind of unique for the way the game is played right now,
How different is it or how different does your approach have to be with a guy like that compared to, let's say, Junior Caminero or I'm going to say a more traditional, you know, current hitter? Great question.
You're always coaching the player in front of you. I mean, the thing about makes him so unique is he knows who he is. Certain guys that come to big leagues. It takes years to figure that out from day one being around this guy. He knows who he is. So it's just a pleasure to be around and I'll tell you what some of the veterans are taking notice and it's a pretty easy message to tell everybody.
Go ahead and put the ball in play, move it forward, because you see the results of what's going on.
Okay, a big picture. You know, your rotation is healthy. Your pitching staff as a whole is really good. How much pressure every day for you as the hitting coach of the Tampa Bay Rays is it on you to score more runs? I guess that's the right way to say it. Just kind of match what the staff's doing kind of thing.
Yeah, yeah, our DNA is pitching defense.
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Chapter 2: What insights does Chad Mottola share about developing hitters?
So that's acknowledged that you've got to catch the ball to play here. So it's one of these things that we've got to deal with the skill set in front of us. We're fortunate to have Cammy, Aranda, and Yandy as the base guys. Any three hitters in the league will start in any lineup in the league. So just because we don't get the credit in the media doesn't mean we're not good hitters.
Yeah.
Chad, I'm wondering, people always talk about the raise when it comes to their pitching, identifying certain things. Is there a raise way when it comes to identifying hitters and developing hitters?
No, I think you just find a value. That could be different ways. Like I said, it could be catching the ball. It could be base running. It could be bunting. It could be power. But that's what we've always done well in all parts of the game is find out what you're good at and build off that and try to, you know, sprinkle in some other clubs in there as well.
Chad, I think me and you tried to be run producers when we were coming up in the minor leagues, trying to get to the big leagues, doing that. Aranda, you mentioned, is turning into one of those guys. In your mind, what makes a good run producer in the big leagues in 2026?
I mean, just the skill set of covering all the different pitches. These guys with different arm angles, different spin, four-seam, two-seam cut, sweepers now. It's just having different lanes available. That's what Aranda, Yandy, Cammy do. They have different swing paths available. We're working out with some of the younger guys with all the tech out there.
There's new information out here that proves that you can match certain pitch types and certain pitch types you don't do well against. And that's part of our roster construction as well.
Is the tech for hitting catching up to the tech for pitching? Because I think a lot of people think that a lot of the developments in the last 10 years or so have focused on pitching, pitching labs and things of that nature.
I think the last probably year and a half with all the swing path and bat plane and things like that, it's true information. This whole launch angle stuff and exit velocity, I think that was a false narrative. As you know, we want to catch the ball out front for a little more power. There's no secret about that, but that has nothing to do with the launch angle and things like that.
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Chapter 3: How do the Rays' hitting strategies differ from traditional approaches?
So it's not trying harder. It's not crashing. And it's just a reminder these days you have to protect the player just as much as coaching them. It's slowing down. It's not chasing those numbers. It's not reading the metrics and thinking you're improving.
But that's the tough part about being a hitter these days because you always want to try to improve and you don't know which things will make you better or not. You have to just go through them. So it's just trial and error, but always being available and making them understand faster is not better.
Chad, how are you different now than you were when I played with you? As a baseball mind.
I'm a lot slower, that's for sure. Aren't we all? I would say I'm a lot more humble too. I think we thought we knew everything back then. And the more we get around, the more we learn, the more we realize we don't know. And I think that's what part of, you know,
gaining experiences, you realize that you're just stealing ideas from everybody else and putting more tools in your toolbox from everybody that you coach, everybody you're around. So, you know, there's gurus out here and a lot of our players go to them. And I don't mind at all because that's what keeps me current.
But I think that just being more humble and open is probably the best way to say it.
Yeah. I'm not going to ask you what makes a good hitting coach, but I am going to ask you this. What gives a hitting coach the most satisfaction? At the end of the year, obviously you want to have a championship, but at the end of the year, what gives you satisfaction when you look back at your team?
Is it how a certain player developed or, you know, how would you kind of contextualize that for us?
I would say just like a guy like Corey Dickerson that was Toronto briefly. He's on our staff now. And he comes up and gives you a big hug and saying, great to see you. I mean, hitting stuff. It's failure. It's just, I would say just being available. And when you see these guys down the road, three, four years later, realizing that maybe in the moment, he didn't appreciate you as much.
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Chapter 4: What factors contribute to a player's success as a run producer?
The simplest way I could say is you have to be yourself. So with all these different techniques of hitting and things like that, it's great, like I said, to explore, but you have to know who you are. And being athletic is being you. And that's what we do so well as an organization, is whether it's pitching, hitting, fielding, defense,
is we figure out what you do well, and we try to repeat that over and over and put you in a situation where your skill set will serve you good purpose. So the best way I can say is athletic is just being yourself. Like I said, you're going to explore ways to do things. You're going to experiment on ways to search for more power, for more coverage at different pitches.
But you have to stay true to your DNA, whether that's a contact hitter, whether that's the gap hitter, whether that's the home run hitter. But you have to learn these things, what you are. And that's what, like I said, from Eric to Cashy, they let me do that as a coach as well.
Chad, listen, you've been really generous with your time on a game day. We truly appreciate it. Thanks so much. It's great seeing you again, and good luck.
Yeah, it's good seeing you, man. Great seeing you guys. It's always great to be in Toronto. Awesome. Happy for you, dude. Good luck. All right.
Good seeing you, too. See you, man. That is Chad Mottola. He is the Rays' hitting coach. That's some interesting stuff. Yeah, it is. Long angle, velocity. There's a lot there. Slow him down. I find that really fascinating because you would think, Well, you would know this better than me because you were the athlete. But I would almost think that the tendency is...
go harder, go faster, be stronger, because I'm not getting the results. Instead of taking that step back and just kind of slowing down. Well, I mean, it's stats. That's stats-driven, right? It's when you look up at the scoreboard and you're not hitting what you think you should be hitting, it's hard to slow everything down. It's hard to look in that little tiny window.
You know, he wasn't trying to let too much out of the bag. You know, but it's... I think that athletic part, if you're a young person trying to learn how to hit anything, I think it's how quickly you can get to being athletic. And athletic is my front foot down, 50-50. It's like Andre's.
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Chapter 5: Is batter technology catching up to pitcher technology?
Andres last year wasn't very athletic a lot. He was some of the time, and that's why his offense was very erratic. It was all over the place. Sometimes he'd make good contact. Most of the time he wouldn't. It's because the lower half was not very athletic, and now you're seeing when he is sort of that talent and bat path and the way he can guess and certain at-bats,
kind of can take over that way. So, yeah, it's just pretty cool to listen to a guy that's in the heat of the moment that's got the underground city that he can go to and just kind of – you can tell, Jeff, there is a lot being thrown at these players about, you know, just the – you know, the iPad is not actually them going over and looking. You know, it's the exit velocity.
It's the point of contact. It's the – It's just things that I would never have paid attention to when I was a player. That's all they pay attention to now. And it's just how they add up to being the best version of themselves, getting to that. with how they go about it to how I used to go about it. And even how Chad used to go about it. Cause I was the free hole hitter.
Chad was the cleanup hitter. He'd be standing on the on deck circle when I was before I would walk to the plate. Like it was just totally different about how we would approach it at bat. And just interesting to hear how certain guys take off and, and you know, his definition of a run producer and how hard that is and how hard they, he, he mentioned velocity a bunch, which is,
I mean, it's a giant headache. You know, and when guys are struggling most of the time, it's because they're not moving that forward with authority. And Chad gets to that. How do you be the best version athletically to hit velocity? If you start there, everything else will take care of itself. It's just interesting to hear him talk about it. Yeah. And it's pretty cool stuff. It really is. Yeah.
We've been giving you the chance to win Blue Jays tickets all season long here in Blair and Barker. All you have to do is text the correct answer to our daily baseball trivia question to 590-590. There's always standard message and data rates may apply. Our last question and answer was, he made his MLB debut in 1994 with Toronto. You want to stink?
Here, if you want to do something, read the damn thing. You're on a roll. You read the damn thing and I'll go and I'll get the fire. I'll get the fire going. With the jacket on. Sure you don't want to do this?
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Chapter 6: What challenges do hitters face against high-velocity pitchers?
No, I'm good. All right. He made his MLB debut in 1994 with Toronto. He played 13 years in the majors in the Blue Jays and Razor, the only AL teams he ever played for. During his MLB tenure, there was a player with the exact same name as him who also played the same position. The answer, Alex Gonzalez. Today's question is to win tickets to see the Jays and Rays on May 13th at the Rogers Center.
He's played for three out of the five teams in the AL East. That includes the Jays and Rays. He's a five-time All-Star. He made the postseason in nine of his 14 Major League seasons. He's a World Series champion. He's a Cy Young Award winner, winning each once in his career. Again. He's played for three out of the five teams in the AL East, including the Jays and Rays.
The five-time All-Star, made the postseason nine times in 14 Major League seasons, won the World Series, won the Cy Young Award, winning each of them once in his career. Text the answer to 590590 for your shot to win. See rules at sportsnet.ca slash 590. Standard message and data rates may apply. I have the Blue Jays lineup in front of me. Do we have it up?
By any chance, I want to make sure this is the right lineup. Okay, then we can fill time until we put it up. I think that's your trivia question. I think that's an easy one. Oh, pardon. I'm sorry. Did I ask a question? That guy's been on our show before? Several times. Okay. Well. The first time he was on our show, he was... We believe... That's the guy, right? Yeah. Yeah. No, we don't believe.
Oh, there's no believing. I mean... He was... He was... I'll let you... He was... He was... It was at or near a toilet. How I would put it.
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Chapter 7: How does playing at different ballparks affect hitter performance?
He was... Yeah. He was very excited to be on our show. Let's take a look at the Blue Jays lineup, shall we? Yeah. George leading off. Miles Straw hitting second. There you go. Oh, it's early. Oh, it is early. It's early. I should just go home. Miles Straw hitting second. You read the lineup. No, no, I'm good. You read the lineup. Go ahead. Vladdy's hitting third. Okamoto's hitting cleanup.
That's it.
Sosa's hitting fifth. That's it. Clement Varsho Schneider Valenzuela. Patrick Corbin's on the mound. It's not your best effort, but you got through it. Well, I mean, there's an arrow. Is that like the past 10? I don't know. Yeah. I mean, it looks like some good approaches in there. They'll need it tonight. Yeah, I don't think you can go about it that way.
I think you have to take the approach is he doesn't have a zero ERA. He's a human being. He will give it up, but you've got to work for it. I think that's it. Right now, it's changed up. It's got two different ones. One that runs, one that sinks. This dude right now has probably never been better.
Now, his velocity's been better in the past, but the way he's using his pitches, how unpredictable he is early in counts, how he's putting guys away, You know, if you listen to Chad there, offensively, the way the Rays try and attack certain pitchers is kind of what the Jays need to do against some good pitching, right? You know, I can't try and combat his strength. It ain't going to work.
He's throwing those things for a reason. And when I get in the head and the count, John said this many times, you got to be very stubborn in the big leagues in 2026 just because of how hard they throw and the secondary stuff that they throw. There's never a fastball count, Jeff. That's basically the point I'm trying to tell you. And they've never thrown harder.
So try hitting it with a round thing. It's hard unless you buy into what you're trying to do at the plate. If I'm sitting curveball, I'm sitting that and I'm taking the outcome.
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Chapter 8: What are the next steps for Junior Caminero's offensive development?
I'm okay with that. If you have that nine guys having that approach, sooner or later two or three of them is going to sort of, you know, have it come together and somebody's going to run into one. But if you don't, You know, you're going to look up, and it's like the other night against the Angels, and it's the eighth inning. You're down 5-1. You got two hits. It's that kind of thing, right?
So that's all I'm saying. It'll be intriguing to see how they attack this, and this guy's hot and feeling good about himself. 7-0-7 will be the first pitch tonight. It is Shane McClanahan on the mound for the Rays. Jesus. Patrick Corbin for the Jays. I mean, it's just been off the rails a little. It's been freezing in here. It's a little warmer now. Oh, because I got a jacket on.
That's the only reason. I thought we had our best. Are we allowed to go to our mouth? We're allowed to go to our mouth once on the mound in cold weather. Isn't that it? No, you blow. Oh, you blow. Okay. You have to step off the mound. You don't lick it. Okay, you can blow. I'll blow. You can blow, not lick. I don't think you can ever lick. Okay. You can only do it. So I've been told.
Yeah, we should probably just leave it. Ben Nicholson-Smith is Sportsnet's MLB insider and Sportsnet's Jays reporter. He joins us next.
It's Blair and Barker on the Sportsnet Radio Network and Sportsnet.
All right. Welcome back to Blair and Barker brought to you by Capital One. Capital One giving Canadians credit for 30 years. Yep. There it is. There it is. Good thing it's gotten warmer in here.
We need to stop talking. There's all sorts of people out there that don't give a rat's ass.
They don't care, do they? No. All right. Oh, geez. It's warmed up a bit. No chance. We're fighting through it. Yeah, we're fighting through it. Yeah, I took that hanging curveball to get that heater down the middle. Yeah, so far. If there was a heater down the middle, it's the only heat we've seen in this show. I thought you were quitting. Stop it. I might. Days early.
It is.
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