Sports science is "baseball's next arms race," and with their High Performance department, the Blue Jays "may be leading the pack," according to Arden Zwelling of SPORTSNET.ca. The department is an "interdisciplinary collection of specialists covering everything from strength and conditioning to psychology." It is an "all-encompassing collective" the Blue Jays hope will "provide each and every player in the organization, from the teenager at the bottom of the minors to the $20-million asset playing every day on the big-league roster, the tools and resources they need to be at their best." Blue Jays LF Steve Pearce, who signed with the team this offseason, said, "In my experience, it's completely unique to baseball. I'm doing exercises I've never done before. I feel like a fish out of water just trying to learn all the stuff that they do because it's completely different." The department is run out of Dunedin, Fla., by Angus Mugford, a sports psychologist who came to the Blue Jays from IMG Academy. Mugford said that the department is "among the best-staffed in baseball, and may be the MLB frontrunner in sports science." Zwelling noted there is "no denying the organization's extensive investment" in sports science. Along with a recent round of full-time hires to the High Performance department, the club put more than C$1M into "weight room renovations" at Rogers Centre this winter. The new hires included "two physical therapists, two dieticians and a mental coach." Mugford's department "currently employs three mental performance coaches." Additionally, the Blue Jays have "revamped the food selection" for players at Rogers Centre and "each of their affiliates." Sleep is "another critical area where the department is searching for openings." Mugford: "Baseball is just not set up to be conducive to sleep" (SPORTSNET.ca, 3/19).
