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DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Brett Cecil walked into spring training last year with his career in limbo. The Toronto left-hander seemed far removed from his breakout season of 2010, when he posted a team-high 15 wins despite not making the 25-man roster out of camp. Instead, he was fresh off two years of disappointment. Hed bounced back and forth between the Blue Jays and Triple-A, going a combined 6-15 while getting demoted from the rotation. Cecil knew that if he didnt show improvement, his days in Toronto would be numbered. "There was a big discussion before the beginning of spring last year whether he was even going to make the team," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said Saturday. That doubt forced the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Cecil to make a change. He began throwing a weighted baseball during pitching drills to help strengthen his arm and build velocity. It worked. After several strong outings, Cecil was informed in the final days of camp that hed made the final cut. As a reliever, in fact. Cecil took advantage of that opportunity and went 5-1 with a 2.82 ERA and one save. He was also picked as an American League All-Star for the first time. Cecil pitched in 60 games, striking out 70 in 60 2-3 innings. He signed a one-year, $1.3 million contract in the off-season. The 27-year-old Cecil said last years experience changed his mindset and made him appreciate what he has. "Completely different," he said. "Im fairly certain that I have a spot on the team. Obviously, I have to perform, but its a little bit more pressure taken off not being on the bubble." Though Cecil performed well early on in 2013, he began to wear down during the second half of the season. Extra work with the weighted-ball routine and the added stress of having to continuously prove himself took a toll on his body. In September, soreness developed in his shoulder and prematurely ended his season. "I just needed rest," Cecil said. "It was a combination of a different role, different workload and overdoing the ball program a little bit." Cecil said he is now completely healthy and understands where his limits are. He said it will be much easier to dial it back when he needs to instead of constantly going full-bore all the time. "I just dont want any red flags to be thrown up, but I am going to be a lot smarter about the time I take throwing," Cecil said. "When I feel like I really need the work, if I feel like I need to take a day, I said Im going to take a day." "(During batting practice on Friday) they told me I had 25 pitches, and I said I dont need 25 pitches, Ill do 20. If I can throw 20, Im sure I can get five more in a game down the road. I dont need that right now. I need 20 or so and that would be it. Right now, its just saving as many bullets as I can for August, September and, hopefully, October." Gibbons agreed and said it will take that approach from Cecil to help the bullpen succeed. "He had a heck of a year," Gibbons said. "Hes found a role, he likes that bullpen role and hes very good at it. The big thing is always going to be durability, because the good ones get used a lot. Hes got to be conscious of that. He can be a hero, but he also has to understand that to be good in this business." NOTES: Gibbons said LHP J.A. Happ will start the Blue Jays exhibition opener on Wednesday in Clearwater against the Philadelphia Phillies. ... RHP Liam Hendriks, claimed off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, joined the team. ... Japanese-born SS Munenori Kawasaki said he will cheer for the Canadian mens hockey team during its Olympic gold-medal game against Sweden on Sunday. Kawasaki said he predicts a win for Canada, because his son, Issho, was born in Toronto last year. "I love Canada," Kawasaki said. "I think Canada wins 2-1. Yes, perfect. Sounds good. Lets go, Canada." Evgeny Kuznetsov Jersey . Unlike last year when nobody got in, there have been estimates of as many as five getting voted in this time around and as few as one, Greg Maddux. Custom Washington Capitals Jerseys . - Urijah (The California Kid) Faber finds himself in an unaccustomed position Saturday night at UFC 175 — on the preliminary card. http://www.officialcapitalspro.com/Tj-oshie-capitals-jersey/. In the last race before the Sochi Olympics, Bjoergen followed up her win in the 10-kilometre classical race on Saturday by beating World Cup sprint leader Denise Herrmann of Germany by 0.43 seconds for her fifth victory of the season. Nicklas Backstrom Jersey . The government says top golfers are expected to compete in the PGA Tour event at the Ashburn Golf Club in the suburb of Fall River from July 3-6 and again next year. Washington Capitals Jerseys . Sterling was banned for life and fined US$2.5 million by the NBA on Tuesday for racist comments the league says he made in a recorded conversation. Nash, who plays for the rival L.A. Lakers, spoke as a representative of current NBA players at a press conference assembled by Sacramento mayor and National Basketball Players Association adviser Kevin Johnson.Republic of Ireland forward Jonathan Walters says they will take scrappy 1-0 wins all the way, if it means qualification for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The Republic have been placed in a tricky qualification group, which also includes Wales, Austria and Serbia.But the Republic are level with those three countries in Group D on four points from two games, after a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Georgia in Dublin on Thursday, in which they were second-best at times. But Walters reflected: We have won, thats the main thing.It doesnt matter how we performed. If it was a knock-out tournament, wed be through to the next round.But theres lost of twists and turns, we knew that from the last group [from which they qualified for Euro 2016]. We beat Germany at home when we had been written off early in the group and Im sure there will be lots of twists and turns between now and the end of this group.There are some good teams in there and we want to be up there facing the likes of Austria and Wales. We want to be in wiith a shout of qualifying.ddddddddddddWe dont look too far ahead. If you take your eye off one team - the likes of Moldova - it can be a tricky game.The Irish are in Chisinau to play the Moldovans on Sunday and Walters added: Lets hope we are sitting here on Sunday with seven [points].We always knew it was going to be a tight group. These are the games that you need to win and we will deal with the other ones when they come along.If we are sitting here and we play terribly all the way through and get 1-0 results, everyone is going to be happy. We got the result, that was the main thing.You can watch Englands tour of Bangladesh, plus Premier League football and the Japan Grand Prix on Sky Sports. 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