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DUNEDIN, FLA. — It was the first full-squad workout of spring training for the Toronto Blue Jays, and catcher Gregg Zaun was already reverting to secrecy mode.
Zaun let it slip to a group of reporters yesterday afternoon that Roy Halladay, the ace of the pitching staff, is working on some new things. When pressed to reveal the nature of Halladay's work, the normally loquacious catcher acted as if he were making a trip to the mound during a game and holding a mitt over his mouth while conversing with the pitcher.
In other words, Zaun was not about to reveal what he considered state secrets.
"I don't really want to tell everybody what he's doing just yet," Zaun said. "I'm sure most of the people in the league will find out soon enough. Let's let them find out on their own."
Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay says his cut fastball causes him more discomfort than any of his other pitches. (Frank Gunn/CP)
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So what's going on?
"I don't think they're really secret weapons," Halladay said with a smile when asked what Zaun was talking about. "I've talked about throwing my sinker to the other side [of the plate] and really that's about it. It's just a matter of working on those things.
"You're always trying different little things to help. So it's something I'm going to fiddle with down here and see where it goes."
While Zaun raved about how all the pitchers have looked to him early in training camp, there are concerns about the health of Brandon League.
League is the 23-year-old right-hander pegged to replace Justin Speier as the main setup man for reliever B.J. Ryan.
First, a sore hamstring was bothering League at the outset of camp. Yesterday, League showed up a little later than the rest of the players and complained of a stiff shoulder. He did not participate in any throwing drills.
"We'll see what it develops into," manager John Gibbons said. "We'll see what's going on."
Gibbons said League will be checked by team doctors and will probably have the next couple of days off.
Gibbons was more at ease discussing Halladay, a 16-game winner a year ago despite suffering from forearm stiffness that ended his season on Sept. 20.
Yesterday, Halladay pitched batting practice for the first time at camp this year and reported everything felt fine.
Zaun was behind the plate for the session and he raved that the 2003 American League Cy Young Award winner was not off the plate by more than two inches with any of his pitches.
Halladay said he is tailoring his work at camp with an eye toward March 1, when he expects to get the call to pitch in Toronto's first spring-training game, against the Boston Red Sox at Knology Park in Dunedin.
The 29-year-old Halladay said he hopes that throwing more sinkers this season will allow him to ease off a bit on the cut fastball that he has relied on to keep hitters off balance. Throwing the cutter so often comes with a price, he said.
"The one thing we noticed is that's where, later in the year, I had the most discomfort was throwing that pitch," Halladay said of the cutter. "I think it was one of those cases where I was so used to throwing that 50 per cent of the time and it was probably too much."
