A couple of things came this way over the past few days.
A Blue Jays official said that the team should have their minor league staffs finalized early in the New Year. Interviews have been taking place since November. Last year, the Blue Jays had a signficant turnover in staff, bringing in many instructors who had extensive coaching and/or education backgrounds, with a healthy dose of sports psych thrown in. There may not be as many new faces this year, but the team is trending toward minor league staff with teaching backgrounds. Openings will have to be filled at New Hampshire, as Manager John Schneider has been promoted to MLB coach with the Blue Jays, as Guillermo Martinez, who moves from MiLB hitting coordinator to hitting coach with the big team. Martinez was part of that new wave of instructors the team hired last year. Last fall, we spoke with long time Blue Jays staffer Dennis Holmberg, who was hoping to move to a role closer to his home in Dunedin after managing in Bluefield for the past seven seasons. We hope his wish is granted.
In an email, Vancouver Canadians GM Allan Bailey discussed the future of the C’s broadcasts. The C’s announced a new partnership with Sportsnet this fall: games will air on Sportsnet’s Vancouver radio outlet this season, and six of their home games will be televised on Sportsnet Pacific, opening the team up to a nationwide audience.
In the past, Shaw televised a half-dozen C’s games per season, but they shut the channel that aired that programming down last year. Bailey agrees that it was disappointing that this decision was made.
At this point, the team has no plans to stream their home games on milb.com, but Bailey says that may change in the future. From talking to Lansing GM Tyler Parsons last year, that’s a bigger logistical and technological challenge than we might expect.
At this point, no dates for the Sportsnet Pacific games have been set.
