Latest news with #MattBoyd
New York Times
03-08-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Shane Bieber knows his path to aiding the Blue Jays in October. Now he's one step closer
TORONTO — Shane Bieber leaned on the dugout rail as his Cleveland Guardians pushed to the 2024 American League Division Series. All he could do was watch. Six months into his Tommy John recovery, Bieber was stuck on the sidelines as Alex Cobb and Matt Boyd carried Cleveland's rotation through the playoffs. Advertisement Bieber didn't realize it at the time, but he was looking into his own future — a glimpse at the rehabbing hired gun he'd soon become. The Guardians signed Boyd as a free agent in late June last season, a year after he underwent Tommy John. They traded for Cobb at the 2024 deadline, months before he could return from hip surgery and a shoulder issue. They were upside wagers. The Guardians needed rotation help and took shots on injured arms. Those moves paid off, as Cobb and Boyd started five of the Guardians' 10 October games last year. Now Bieber hopes to deliver on that same gamble for Toronto. 'They both turned out to be great assets,' Bieber said of Cobb and Boyd. 'Just to pick their brains on their experiences going through a surgery like this, how best to go about it, what to expect.' Bieber completed a fifth rehab outing on Sunday, three days after his trade to Toronto. He threw five innings for Triple-A Buffalo, striking out six batters and allowing two earned runs. The Syracuse Mets' damage came on a ground-ball single in the second frame and a solo shot in the third. Bieber reached 62 pitches with efficient innings and will likely require at least one more rehab outing to build up further. 'I'm close now,' Bieber said ahead of the outing. 'It's easier said than done to just take it one day at a time, but I'm gonna do just that.' At his best, Bieber is a conniving pitcher. His velocity doesn't overwhelm, and none of his five pitches rank above average in models such as Stuff+. He frustrates, instead, with location, tunnelling and sequencing. Syracuse catcher Matt O'Neill leaned back with dismay as he watched a called strike clip the side of the zone for a third-inning strikeout on Sunday. Bieber gets ahead with a four-seam fastball, throwing it over 50 percent of the time to start at-bats. He then owns the outside edge with the rest of his offerings — slider, changeup, curveball and cutter. Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins planned against Bieber many times while leading the Minnesota Twins' offence. The general approach was to go down and hit his pitches on the corners or hope Bieber missed in the zone — pick one. It's either giving in to Bieber or patience that may never be rewarded. Neither approach is ideal. Advertisement Ernie Clement played behind Bieber for two years in Cleveland. That version of Bieber posted a 2.97 ERA across 2021 and 2022, following up a Cy Young campaign with continued dominance. He's one of the easiest pitchers to field behind, Clement said, because 'he just strikes everybody out.' In his final full season before injury in 2023, Bieber earned a 3.80 ERA. Expecting a return to that form after major elbow surgery is a lofty task, but Bieber just watched it happen. When Boyd joined the Guardians' rotation last August after Tommy John, he posted a 2.72 ERA in eight starts down the stretch. Boyd then allowed just one run in three postseason outings. 'Seeing the success he had right away was encouraging,' Bieber told The Athletic earlier this year. It remains a mystery how, specifically, Bieber fits into Toronto's September rotation and October plans. Manager John Schneider met with the Jays' five current starters after the trade, he said, stressing to the group to 'not be looking over your shoulder.' There is a chance that at least one will lose their starting spot, eventually. The team is also considering a six-man rotation, but that would throw off routines and add stress to the bullpen. 'There's not a glaring person that deserves to be demoted or moved or anything like that,' Schneider said. 'So I just think it's a good problem to have, and you deal with it when that time comes.' That decision will fall on Schneider and Toronto's coaching staff. It probably won't come for at least 10 more days. Bieber's current task is simple: continue carving through minor-league hitters and building his pitch count. Then, eventually, he can step off the sidelines. The Blue Jays hope, this October, Bieber won't be stuck watching.
New York Post
13-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Yankees only can hope Max Fried, Jonathan Loaisiga don't become long-term concerns
Access the Yankees beat like never before Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees. Try it free Maybe this was just the kind of ho-hum 5-2 loss that merges seamlessly into a 162-game season. After all, the Yankees offense wasn't going to keep scoring five or more runs a game, as they had done the previous 10 before Saturday, the most within one season in the majors since the 2023 Braves and the longest by a Yankee team since July 2012. And it wasn't like the Yankees were going to end the regular season on a 73-game winning streak, so a five-gamer ended against the Cubs as All-Star lefty Matt Boyd efficiently subdued the Yankees for eight shutout innings. You know there was a 'but' coming and here it is: That this was just one of those ho-hum games in a long season, but what if it wasn't? Max Fried developed a blister and Jonathan Loáisiga was blistered again. Within a month when Brian Cashman has multiple other pitching areas to address externally, the Yankees sure need these internal matters solved.
Otago Daily Times
09-05-2025
- Science
- Otago Daily Times
Growing for our own needs
Near-urban agriculture and prior planning will help our cities survive global catastrophes, say Matt Boyd and Nick Wilson. New Zealand researchers are calling for the protection of productive near-urban land from development, citing their new study into how strategic investment in these areas now, can keep New Zealanders fed during global catastrophes. In their study into food resilience to abrupt global catastrophic risks, the researchers, Matt Boyd, of Adapt Research Ltd, and Nick Wilson, of the University of Otago, provide a practical road map for food production in and around cities in catastrophic events, such as a nuclear winter, massive volcanic eruptions, solar storms or extreme pandemics. "During a global catastrophe that disrupts trade, fuel imports could cease, severely impacting the industrial food production and transportation systems that keep our supermarket shelves filled," Dr Boyd, the report's lead author and executive director of Islands for the Future of Humanity, says. "To survive, New Zealanders will need to dramatically localise food production in and around our cities. This research explores how we might do that." Using Palmerston North as a case study of a globally median-sized city, the study shows that urban agriculture using home gardens and parks within city limits could potentially feed about 20% of people. The other 80% of a city's food requirements could be grown in city-adjacent areas equivalent to a ring less than one-kilometre thick around the city. The researchers also calculated the most efficient crops to grow both within and nearby the city to maximise caloric and protein yields. These included peas and potatoes in normal conditions and sugar beet, spinach, wheat and carrots during a nuclear winter. "Liquid fuel dependency is New Zealand's Achilles' heel. We would run out of stockpiled fuel after about 160 days in a prolonged catastrophe," Dr Boyd says. "However, we found that setting aside just 9% of the required near-urban land for biofuel feedstock production would provide enough biodiesel to run the essential agricultural machinery." The researchers' message to leaders is that implementation at this scale requires planning now. "Success depends on integrating food production into urban areas, protecting and making ready near-urban land, building local food processing infrastructure, ensuring seed availability and integrating food into our national security policy framework," Dr Boyd says. "The risk of global catastrophe is rising," Dr Boyd says. "These relatively modest investments could be the literal difference between survival and famine should the worst come to pass." The study, "Resilience to abrupt global catastrophic risks disrupting trade: Combining urban and near-urban agriculture in a quantified case study of a globally median-sized city" is produced in affiliation with the registered charity Islands for the Future of Humanity and will be published in the international journal PLOS ONE . The article • A report on the research is freely available in PLOS One
Scoop
08-05-2025
- Science
- Scoop
Researchers Ask How We Could Survive A Nuclear War, In Palmerston North
Press Release – RNZ A new study looks at what it would take to feed a city in the event of a global catastrophe. Residents living near cities would have to produce food to feed city populations in the event of a global catastrophe, like nuclear war or a massive volcanic eruption, a new study has found. The team at Adapt Research, supporting independent charity Islands for the Future of Humanity, modelled how a city could feed its people after such a disaster, if global links to imports like fuel, food and also transport and telecommunications were disrupted. Researchers used Palmerston North of Manawatū-Whanganui as a case study of a mid-sized, land-locked city of 91,000 people to model yields from agriculture with the food supply needed to feed the population. Lead author, Dr Matt Boyd said they found 80 percent of the city's food supply needed could be met by growing food within a one kilometre radius of the city, and 20 percent of the supply could be topped up by urban agriculture. 'We established within Palmerston North, in this case, the amount of potential land where you might be able to grow food, like people's backyards and golf courses and parks and things, and what would be the optimal crops to grow that would produce the most protein and food energy per area of land, and therefore feed the most people,' he said. 'What we found is that it's a surprisingly little amount of near urban land that would sort of top up to feed the city's population.' He said the Covid-19 pandemic inspired the need for the research, 'because we all remember what happened to supply chains.' Freight and food security for global commodities like wheat were also threatened in the years that followed, when the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022. Researchers modelled which crops would be most efficient to grow in an environment where imports were no longer possible, to maximise caloric and protein yields. They found peas and potatoes would suit normal growing conditions, whereas sugar beet, spinach, wheat and carrots would be most efficient during a nuclear winter scenario. Considering the country's reliance on imported fuel as our 'Achille's heel,' Boyd said agricultural machinery could still run, powered by biofuel that was produced by 9 percent of the entire city crop. 'During a global catastrophe that disrupts trade, fuel imports could cease, severely impacting the industrial food production and transportation systems that keep our supermarket shelves filled. 'To survive, New Zealanders will need to dramatically localise food production in and around our cities. This research explores how we might do that.' Boyd said modest investments into securing seed availability, integrated food security into the wider national security and building local food processing capacity could be the difference between survival and famine.
Scoop
08-05-2025
- Science
- Scoop
Researchers Ask How We Could Survive A Nuclear War, In Palmerston North
Residents living near cities would have to produce food to feed city populations in the event of a global catastrophe, like nuclear war or a massive volcanic eruption, a new study has found. The team at Adapt Research, supporting independent charity Islands for the Future of Humanity, modelled how a city could feed its people after such a disaster, if global links to imports like fuel, food and also transport and telecommunications were disrupted. Researchers used Palmerston North of Manawatū-Whanganui as a case study of a mid-sized, land-locked city of 91,000 people to model yields from agriculture with the food supply needed to feed the population. Lead author, Dr Matt Boyd said they found 80 percent of the city's food supply needed could be met by growing food within a one kilometre radius of the city, and 20 percent of the supply could be topped up by urban agriculture. "We established within Palmerston North, in this case, the amount of potential land where you might be able to grow food, like people's backyards and golf courses and parks and things, and what would be the optimal crops to grow that would produce the most protein and food energy per area of land, and therefore feed the most people," he said. "What we found is that it's a surprisingly little amount of near urban land that would sort of top up to feed the city's population." He said the Covid-19 pandemic inspired the need for the research, "because we all remember what happened to supply chains." Freight and food security for global commodities like wheat were also threatened in the years that followed, when the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022. Researchers modelled which crops would be most efficient to grow in an environment where imports were no longer possible, to maximise caloric and protein yields. They found peas and potatoes would suit normal growing conditions, whereas sugar beet, spinach, wheat and carrots would be most efficient during a nuclear winter scenario. Considering the country's reliance on imported fuel as our "Achille's heel," Boyd said agricultural machinery could still run, powered by biofuel that was produced by 9 percent of the entire city crop. "During a global catastrophe that disrupts trade, fuel imports could cease, severely impacting the industrial food production and transportation systems that keep our supermarket shelves filled. "To survive, New Zealanders will need to dramatically localise food production in and around our cities. This research explores how we might do that." Boyd said modest investments into securing seed availability, integrated food security into the wider national security and building local food processing capacity could be the difference between survival and famine.
