DUNEDIN, FL – FEBRUARY 27: Aaron Sanchez #41 of the Toronto Blue Jays poses for a photo during the Blue Jays’ photo day on February 27, 2016 in Dunedin, Florida. (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images)

Video games are more and more realistic. Gone are the days of 8-bit video games (especially now that Nintendo discontinued it) and now we have games that eerily look real life.

For Blue Jays pitcher Aaron Sanchez, he’s not only on the Canadian cover of MLB The Show but he’s a serious gamer. MLB The Show is so realistic that Sanchez uses it to study opponents to help himself on the mound and that’s quite an endorsement.

“It’s actually kind of funny. There’s hot zones, there’s cold zones. They do a really good job of showing what types of players are,” Sanchez said earlier this week. “So during the year if you’re hooked up to internet at your place it gives you a lineup of who’s playing that night, who’s pitching against who. If guys have made it to the big leagues and there’s new people up there with the updates it gives you the lineup that they think is gonna be out there that night and when they do that there’s times when I wake up in the morning and play two or three innings where I go through the lineup once to just kind of see what works here and try to use that to my advantage if I think of something that night during the real game.

“I wouldn’t say it’s something that I rely on, but it’s definitely something of a, I guess you could say, a cheat sheet.”

This isn’t that uncommon. Many athletes in various sports use video games in order to make themselves better. This is most common in motorsports where many drivers use iRacing or have their own simulator to race. Due to rules limiting testing and the high costs involved, it’s a way for rookie and experienced drivers to get acclimatized to a track and figure out how to best get around the track without the risk of crashing an expensive race car. It’s even caused some gamers to become professional racers as a result.

For Sanchez and the Blue Jays, things have gotten off to a rough start. Sanchez is 0-1 in two starts as Toronto fell 6-4 Friday night to the Orioles. If Sanchez is to find an edge using MLB The Show, he’s going to have to look deeper.

[Sportsnet]

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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