Fletch Lives

Hi, to you baseball fans. Boy, did we seen some great playing of the game this past weekend in Toronto. Pitchers and former Cy Young winners like Roy Holladay and Johan Santana threw the ball well. Let me tell you, as a former catcher and big league ballplayer, I've got to tell you this: I think the blue jays and Twins have found something special in Roy Hollidai and, Santana.

When I played, it really meant something to have a solid #1 ace starter who was good starting for you. You felt like you had a much better chance of winning with a Doc Hollidae on the mound than you did when, for example, you had a #5 starter who wasn't nearly as good when he pitched on the mound on that day. As a player, that made you play with a lot more confidence, knowing that you didn't need to score so many runs and also

On Sunday, Doc didn't just have his best stuff. He also had location. Location can be so important for a pitcher, it's certainly can be critical between an out and a hit. A pitch over the plate can be very easy to hit but a pitch on the inside corner can also be the most difficult for a batter.

Santana wasn't quite as sharp as Roy was, but he was still very good. The Jays may have had some chances but Santana went here comes the hammer ba ba ba ba ba here comes the hammer ba ba ba ba ba and would get the strikeout. That's tough.

On offense, the Twins hit the ball hard off of Josh Towers because that's how you have to hit the ball. That's the way to do it. The Twins played Minnesota Twins baseball in the third inning of that game and scraped together some runs. That's how you score by taking advantage of wild pitches and speed and playing small ball even when the ball isn't hit hard. You always want to hit the ball hard because you feel better about your chances of scoring runs when the ball is hit hard, compared to when you aren't hitting the ball well and don't feel as though you can score. That's very important for a team to be able to do that.

See you next time at the ball park!

Darrin Fletcher was a catcher for fourteen seasons with the Dodgers, Phillies, Expos and Blue Jays. He recently debuted as a colour analyst for Toronto Blue Jays broadcasts on Rogers Sportsnet