Toronto Blue Jays center fielder Rajai Davis steals third base in the Blue Jays 9-5 spring training baseball victory over the Baltimore Orioles at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium in Dunedin, Fla., Sunday, March 27, 2011. Davis went 5 for 5 in the game. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)Kathy Willens/The Associated Press
Rajai Davis, the new centre fielder for the Toronto Blue Jays, has a penchant for speed that the American League team is hoping to unleash throughout the course of the season.
Davis said one of his early mentors in base stealing was Jason Bay, the Canadian major-league baseball star who is recognized more for the pop in his bat than his dazzling speed.
"I learned that guys without blazing speed could steal in the majors," Davis said on Thursday. "He proved that."
Bay, a native of Trail, B.C., who's now with the New York Mets, was once a base-stealing threat when he was establishing himself in the game as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In 2005, when Bay earned his first all-star nod, he tied the major-league record when he successfully stole 21 bases to begin the season.
Davis, who was in the Pirates minor-league system at the time, said he followed Bay's feat with great interest.
"I watched him steal those 21 in a row and I wondered, how does he do it?" Davis asked before the Jays held a final workout at Rogers Centre in advance of their regular-season home opener against the Minnesota Twins on Friday night.
Davis, who was second in the AL last season when he stole 50 bags for the Oakland Athletics, soon learned that speed is not the only element to being a successful base stealer.
Timing your takeoff, he said, and being able to take advantage of those situations when pitchers don't hold you as close to the bag as they should, are also important.
Left fielder Travis Snider did not participate in the workout, opting to rest a sore hip that isn't expected to keep him out of the opening game.
The Blue Jays also announced on Thursday that Hall of Fame second baseman Roberto Alomar has been named a special assistant with the organization.
New Toronto manager John Farrell is promising that the sedate base-running approach that was one of the hallmarks of Cito Gaston-led teams the past couple of seasons is a thing of the past.
"We just felt an area in which this team could improve upon, our ability to go first to third, our ability to go second to home," Farrell said. "If you look at where we ranked last year in doing just that, we were last in both categories. And that's not to be critical of any one approach.
"This is a team that was built around the long ball, which is still a strength of this club. And it has been mentioned repeatedly [to the players] we're not trying to change the face of it, we're trying to supplement the strength that's there."
The Blue Jays have a lot to improve on when it comes to base running.
Along with its failure to take the extra bag, the Blue Jays were also plodders at stealing, ranking last in the AL last season with just 58.
Over the past 10 years, the Blue Jays have been more snail than hare, averaging 72.7 steals a season, the worst of any AL club. The Tampa Bay Rays have been the best over the same period, averaging 141.5.
That was the main reason Toronto general manager Alex Anthopoulos obtained Davis from the A's in exchange for a couple of minor-league prospects during the off-season.
The replacement for Vernon Wells in centre, Davis will provide the Blue Jays with their first quality leadoff hitter since the days of Shannon Stewart.
Ricky Romero, beginning his third season with the Jays, will make his first opening day start before a sold-out gathering that will number close to 50,000 at Rogers Centre.
The 26-year-old said the players have fallen in line with the new mindset that Farrell has brought to the team.
"He's willing to do everything and anything to win," Romero said. "Not that Cito didn't but it looks like our approach is a little bit different. Rajai on the top of that lineup, stealing bases and doing little things to kind of move runners and stuff like that. It's definitely a step in the right direction."