Forum » the former Blue Jay told reporters Friday upon his return

TORONTO - When the Raptors first set out on their daunting six-game, two-week journey - broken up by the short holiday break in between - a record of 2-4 may have seemed like a passable, perhaps even optimistic final result. Cheap Diamondbacks Jerseys . At worst, that looked to be where their recent road trip was headed. They hung with a talented Bulls team until the closing minutes in Chicago before heading out West. They upset the Clippers in L.A. and battled altitude on the second night of a back-to-back, coming up victorious in Denver. They wrapped up a historic calendar year in Portland, dropping a hard-fought overtime contest to the red-hot Trail Blazers. Then the elements got the best of them, undoubtedly leaving a sour taste in their mouths as they made their long-awaited and much needed return to Toronto on Monday. The Raptors opened 2015 with a pair of uncharacteristically lifeless outings in Oakland and Phoenix, surrendering 251 total points in suffering their most lopsided defeats of the season. Battling the expected fatigue that tends to take over at the end of a long trip, with Kyle Lowry running on fumes, carrying the weight of the injured DeMar DeRozan, Toronto ran into two opponents that anyone would hate to face with heavy legs in the Warriors and Suns. They simply ran out of gas. These West Coast excursions have long been a cause of frustration for the franchise ,but these two blowouts still seemed odd, an unfamiliar sight to behold during a campaign in which theyve competed with remarkable consistency. It was the first time all year they had been thoroughly outplayed, not just once but twice in two games and, for that reason theyve earned the benefit of the doubt, at least for now. Billed as their biggest test of the season to this point, and it was, this trip was supposed to help expose the teams true personality. But it didnt. The same questions remain. Are their impressive offensive numbers a mirage and can they defend enough to hang with the leagues elite clubs? Is their 24-10 record a product of what many have called a soft early-season schedule or are they still trending upwards? What are they really made of? Much of this uncertainty can be attributed to the absence of DeRozan, who has missed over five weeks worth of games with a torn tendon in his groin, but is expected to be back in uniform when the Raptors return to the court at home to the Hornets on Thursday. Toronto has gone 11-7 without its leading scorer - 10-1 against sub-.500 competition, but just 1-6 versus winning teams over that stretch. The Raptors have lost three games by 10 points or more this season - all of them without DeRozan, with two coming on this trip. Theyve squandered three games in which they held a lead going into the fourth quarter - twice on the trip, all without DeRozan. This is not to say, with any certainty, that he is the sole cause of, or the easy solution to these problems. Even with DeRozan, the Raptors had their share of difficulty against elite competition last season (they were 16-25 against winning clubs), prone to late-game offensive droughts similar to the ones that spelled recent disaster in losses to the Bulls and Blazers. If nothing else, getting DeRozan back should help decipher whether or not these are big-picture concerns. More than anything else, their most pressing concern remains on the defensive end. Only the lowly Knicks and Timberwolves are giving up more points per 100 possessions than the Raptors since the end of November - when DeRozan missed his first contest - aided by their second-ranked offence. They allowed a 40-point first quarter (at Golden State), a 43-point second quarter (at Phoenix) and a 49-point fourth quarter (at Chicago) in three separate games on the recent trip. That will be Dwane Caseys emphasis when they hit the practice gym at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday and DeRozans impending return should help restore some normalcy on that end - they were ranked ninth in defensive efficiency prior to his injury. Although DeRozan is considered an average on the ball defender, at best, his familiarity with and commitment to Caseys schemes have been missed. Beyond that, his return shifts everyone back to their natural roles, taking pressure off of Lowry - one of their more capable stoppers - and reducing the defensive responsibilities of Lou Williams and Greivis Vasquez on the perimeter. Plus, his knack for getting to the line (they attempted nearly seven fewer free throws per game in his absence) helps reset the defence. His return, and the teams homecoming, couldnt be coming at a better time. The Raptors will have three days - including two full practice sessions - to regroup before hosting the Hornets and, likely, welcoming DeRozan back just under six weeks after he sustained his injury. Theyll take on four losing teams at home (with a combined record of 36-95) before facing another tough test in the now first-place Atlanta Hawks and a much improved New Orleans Hornets team to round out a six-game home stand. Yoan Lopez Jersey .Best moustache: How can we not give this to Lanny McDonald? Check out the duster for yourself. Brandon Webb Jersey . He had spent 16 days on the disabled list before being activated Thursday. He was batting just .203 when he came to bat in the 11th inning on Sunday. https://www.cheapdiamondbacksjerseys.us/358l-corbin-martin-jersey-diamondbacks.html . Hall had a goal and three assists in a 5-4 loss to San Jose on Tuesday, had an assist in each of Edmontons next two games the capped the week with a goal and two assists in the Oilers 4-2 win over Anaheim on Sunday.TORONTO -- A reflective J.P. Arencibia says he has been his own worst enemy in the past. "A lot of my struggles were from doubts and trying to do too many things," the former Blue Jay told reporters Friday upon his return to Rogers Centre with the Texas Rangers. The 28-year-old Arencibia also admitted he had heaped pressure on himself by worrying about all the permutations of what might happen when he stepped into the batting box. Now he has come to the realization that simple is best, it seems. "God gave me abilities to do something special on the field. What are those?" he said. "So I can say All right, I need to work on those things. And not worry about everything else. And when I get into the plate, think of one pitch at the time. Not hey, if I take this pitch, is it going to affect this pitch?" Arencibia endured a horror show of a 2013 season with Toronto, hitting .194 with 148 strikeouts in 474 at-bats. He did hit 21 homers and 54 RBIs. He said it was a year of pressure, his mind going a mile a minute. "Fortunately I was able to put the ball in play at times but I wasnt good," he said. "I was fighting myself," he added. "I was in my own way. That was the biggest thing. I had to go down (to the minors) and kind of get out of my own way." It seems to be working. He slammed a three-run homer off R.A. Dickey in the seventh inning Friday. Arencibia signed with Texas as a free agent, hitting .133 with a .182 on-base percentage in 20 games before being sent to the triple-A Round Rock Express in mid-May. He was recalled Thursday. With three other catchers (Robinson Chirinos, Chris Giminez and Geovany Soto) on the Rangers active roster, Arencibia has been getting a crash course in playing first base. He hit .279 with 14 home runs and 41 RBIs in triple-A. He got the start Friday at first base, becoming the eighth Ranger this season to start there. Asked if he was a first baseman or catcher now, he said that wasnt his decision. "Obviously they know I can catch and they have a lot of catchers on the roster. So right now if playing first is best for the team, thats what Im doing. Ill work hard to be the best first baseman I can be." The stint in the minors helped slow the game down, he said. "I 100 per cent needed it," Areencibia said. Curt Schilling Jersey. . "It was something that was necessary. I went back and had to iron something out and be who I can be. "That was really the main thing -- changing my mentality and really understanding myself ... Obviously you dont want to be down there, and at the beginning it was tougher but more and more as I was down there, I realized there was good purpose behind it. And I was proud of myself to get past that and bounce back." Arencibia said his struggle was to be himself. "A lot of times I tried to be somebody I wasnt. I tried to be maybe what baseball or whatever I thought needed to do statistically to be a better player. And by doing that, by not being myself, I went backwards. "Im the player I can be (now). I went back to triple-A and really tried to be that." That mindset included being aggressive at the plate "and looking to do damage as opposed to worrying about swinging at a pitch in the first or making this mistake or that mistake." Arencibia was warmly received by some of the Rogers Centre staff before the game, with hugs and handshakes. He said he was not worried about how the crowd might react. "I know the people that cared about me and the people I impacted," he said. "Whatever may be the reaction, good or bad, I wish everybody well. Obviously I cant control that stuff." He received a smattering of boos when the Rangers starting lineup was announced. The fans were far more vocal at his first at-bat -- a strikeout that turned the boos to cheers. Arencibia was far more cutting in Texas in May when quizzed by the Toronto Star about his time in Toronto. "I learned the media controls a lot of things and the only question that you guys were writing in the off-season was what they were going to do behind the plate, when obviously the pitching was something that needed to be addressed," he told the newspaper. "But I was the only question because I was the villain of the team." Asked Friday whether he regretted such comments, he said: "Im not really here to talk about any of that stuff. We all said what we needed to say. Im excited to be back in the major leagues." Arencibias life has also changed off the baseball field. In June, he married Band Perry singer Kimberly Perry in Greeneville, Tenn. ' ' '