Blue Jays fly through first Practice!

Eight Blue Jays soared to great heights at the first practice of the new season Saturday, September 3, at Whittier Woods Center.

Braden Poon, George Roggie, Gavin Ferguson, Ethan Yu, Jake Schuman, John Wyatt, Jeremy Robertson and Sam Berman had fun and demonstrated outstanding teamwork on the practice field!

September 3 Practice Summary

After warming up with the ten-throw drill, the Blue Jays met at the red bag and endured Coach Steve's first speech of the year. Everyone did an admirable job paying attention.

Jeremy Robertson put on his game face for the triangle drill. We do this to work on being ready, fielding ground balls, and catching thrown balls.

The triangle also enables us to work on delivering accurate throws to our teammates. In the photo above, John Wyatt demonstrates his outstanding throwing technique.

The Blue Jays are very excited to welcome Gavin Ferguson to the team! Above, Gavin reacts after his throw was caught by a teammate.

Here, Jake Schuman cleanly fields a grounder during the triangle drill. Notice how Jake keeps his feet apart and bends at the knees so that he can make the play.

We talked about how important it will be this season to return balls that are hit to the outfield back to the infield. The Blue Jays then did a great job in the outfield-in drill.

We simulated in-game at-bats during the six-pitch drill. Above, Sam Berman sizes up a pitch from the Blue Flame pitching machine before air mailing the ball to left field!

Always a fundamentally sound hitter, Braden Poon showed that he can make contact with good pitches and with bad pitches.

We finished practice with the always popular fly ball drill. Ethan Yu, who worked hard on his catching all summer, proved to be an outstanding glove man, hauling in three tough fly balls at 2nd base.

Ever dependable with the glove, George Roggie put a bow on the first practice of the season when he nabbed a sky-high rainmaker at 1st base.

Player Development

Just 18 days removed from the womb, Clark Roggie took in his first Blue Jays' practice. We think that he is a tremendous prospect!

Great practice, Blue Jays!

Thanks for having fun, doing your best, and demonstrating great teamwork and sportsmanship.

We're excited to see everyone again at practice Saturday, September 10, when we'll get ready for our season opening game with the Tigers the following day.

Go Blue Jays!

Coach Steve