The Jays take the ol’ B-squad to Lakeland in order to get pummelled into oblivion by Justin Verlander, seen above in the role of Rich Dick Wendels. He squares off with Brandon Morrow, who bounced back from a bit of a rusty spring opener to throw two shutout innings in his last start.
“I felt in rhythm, and I was a lot more aggressive to my spot with the ball, which obviously the results were better,” said Morrow following last Thursday’s outing against the Yankees in Tampa. Let’s hope those good feelings continue today, though… y’know… after the terrific spring Ricky Romero put in ahead of his clusterfuck of a 2012, it’s not like anybody us under any illusions that it really matters.
Meanwhile, team Dominicana remains in the area, squaring off with the Big Hirok and the Yankees at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa at 1 PM, once again featuring Jose Reyes in the lead-off spot, with Edwin Encarnacion today three spots behind him, hitting cleanup. Later, out in Arizona, Team Canada takes on the Cincinnati Reds in a tune-up of their own.
Scuttlebutt
Mike Wilner tweets that John Gibbons said today that there is one bullpen spot up for grabs, unless Casey Janssen has to start the season on the DL. What he didn’t say, however, was who was earmarked for those jobs already apparently set in stone. Janssen, Sergio Santos and Darren Oliver are obvious. Steve Delabar would seem to be the next most obvious name, then after that I’d might guess the guys who are out of options– Esmil Rogers and Brett Cecil in particular– have the inside track, though it wouldn’t shock me if it’s Aaron Loup instead of Cecil or Brad Lincoln instead of Rogers, either.
Maybe I should rethink that Cecil/Loup stuff, though, because we have more bullpen stuff from Wilner, who tweets that Gibbons also said that the two lefties aren’t necessarily competing for the same job. “Cecil could be mutli-inning guy, Loup not seen that way,” he adds.
And one more from Wilner, who tweets that John Gibbons is taking a hands-off approach when it comes to the oft-confused Adam Lind. ”What am I gonna tell him?” the manager asked. Figure it out yourself, Adam.
Brandon Morrow won’t be throwing to his old college roommate today, who was revealed to be, by John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press, Tigers outfielder Brennan Boesch.
Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star talks about the players leaving the Jays for the Global Honkbal Spectacular, and how the team has been left to make do, which… hang on. It’s make do, not make due??? No shit, eh?
Lastly, in case you missed it yesterday, I tackled all kinds of goodies– from whether the Jays should extend Josh Johnson now, to how much rope Colby Rasmus can be afforded, to how the bullpen should stack up on opening day– in this week’s edition of the ol’ hijacked Griff Bag.
TV: None. The game can be heard at MLB.com, featuring either the Tigers crew from WXYT (if you have an MLB.tv subscription), or what I’ve so far found to be the thoroughly enjoyable pairing of Wilner and Dirk Hayhurst.
You can watch the visuals of the Dominicans’ WBC warmup against the Yankees via MLB.com, though not this evening’s Team Canada tuneup against the Cincinnati Reds, either.
And now the lineups…
Toronto Blue Jays
A. Gose CF
R. Davis LF
M. Izturis 2B
A. Lind 1B
A. LaRoche 3B
R. Langerhans RF
L. Jimenez DH
J. Thole C
L. Zawadski SS
B. Morrow RHP
Detroit Tigers
A. Jackson CF
T. Hunter RF
V. Martinez DH
P. Fielder 1B
A. Dirks LF
J. Peralta SS
J. Kobernus 2B
D. Worth 3B
B. Holaday C
J. Verlander RHP
“It’s make do, not make due??? No shit, eh?”
… I’ve struggled witht his for a long time too.
Lol. I used to defend Lind and argue with Stoeten that he wasn’t *that* bad.
I’ve given up at this point.
Of course, me giving up is a sure sign of a coming reversal. Plus they might actually sit him against lefties and save him for late inning PH vs righty relievers. We have so much speed now, you could PH Lind in place of Davis and still have a speedster to pinch run if Lind manages to get on.
No doubt Lind is going to be terrific this year. I can deal with getting shit on for it if he is, of course. Happily.
Yup, thinking about dropping a couple hundred on various Adam Lind prop bets based on this post.
Zawadski hits a 600 foot bomb off the 200 million dollar man. Book it.
I’ve also been enjoying the Wilner/Hayhurst combo. And find myself surprised to be saying so. Not so much for Hayhurst, who I’ve always liked, but for Wilner, whose role as team fart catcher has annoyed me in the past.
I think they’ve been great.
I like the Wilner/Hayhurst show as well.
They treat spring training games with exactly the level of seriousness they deserve.
Crazy idea that I can’t blame on rum.(but probaby stupidy)
Which ever reliever loses out (Santos/Jannsen) on the closer role, try to trade to Detroit for Avisail Garcia. I wouldn’t do it if I were Detroit but from all the press they seem to be getting pretty desperate. Garcia could share time in the outfield and dh.
I think he’s going to be the shit.
Delabar looks like he can close if the Santos/Jannsen fail.
I didn’t misspell that on purpose.
People make a big deal about Garcia because he kinda looks like Miguel Cabrera and went from high-A to the Majors last year. But I don’t get it. He didn’t hit for power at all in MLB (ISO of zero in 23 games), had a .405 BABIP, couldn’t hit right-handers at all and can’t take a walk. I know it’s a real small sample, he’s young and has the potential to be better, but I honestly think if the stupid Little Miggy stuff didn’t exist, nobody would give a shit. And it’s not like the jump to the Majors was entirely on merit– it had to do with how fucking awful the Tigers’ corner OF production was last year.
Agreed on his inability to take a walk but his slash in the minors last year at 21 years old was .299/.333/,455 with 23 steals. Plus he looks like Miguel Cabrera!
He ranked number 2 on their prospect list so someone must see some upside to go with what he’s done.
Which list? Hulet had him at 4 in the org. on FanGraphs, Law had him at 2, but not in the top 100. So yes, he’s a decent enough prospect, just… overblown, I think.
I was going by Baseball America which had him 2 on Detroit and 74th overall.
I’ll be honest, I’m purely basing my opinion on watching at bats last year in a few september games and in the playoffs. Nothing I can support it with statisticly, he just had that look/swagger of a guy who was going to be a beast. Looked confident and mean.
An assesment like this isn’t worth the pixels it’s printed on, I know. Just my gut I guess.
Shit, I’ve become Pat Tabler.
Does he have soft hands Pat?
Awesome.
Smasher’s arguement “He has a good face.” Is his girlfriend good looking?
Avisail’s ceiling is lower than Moises Sierra…it’s just that people know his name from the playoffs…there are 150 miner league OF’ds to target before a look alike with no standout tools…
You’re crazy if you think SIerra will be better then Avisail.
I hope you’re right you crazy bastard.
Cecil …..
come on Justin, if your going to dress like Mr Rogers meets Tiger woods, at least you need to shave.
Hayhurst is awesome. Makes spring games very enjoyable. Brings a new way of thinking to the booth.
No, he thinks with his mind like the rest of us.
Why id Morrow get pulled after giving up 1 hit? did something bad just happen?
Pitch limit.
thats a fact and not a guess?
I worry, feel like a mother whos Son didn’t get off the bus.
that’s a fact. He had a 50 pitch limit that he reached after the 1st batter in the 3rd.
ok good………DL use to mean down low, now it means cold sweats.
Pretty certain. Hayhurst and Wilner mentioned he hit 50 pitches at the time he was pulled.
that would have been great, had i been listening to it
Lind, Lind, Lind!!!!!
It’s pretty encouraging that Cecil is hitting 90-91. the pen would be a lot stronger if he has a good year.
It’s pretty encouraging that the Tigers aren’t knocking the snot out of the ball.
You spoke too soon.
And *especially* encouraging when Verlander’s only been sitting a couple MPH faster on the gun…
something tells me he has a few more ticks of ceiling on his fastball than cecil
My point exactly… gun could be reading a little low.
Guns don’t lie, people do.
Jays drop more balls than worldwide puberty. 2 errors already.
Homer Simpson – “It’s funny cuz it’s true.”
Homer Simpson: “I think I’ll order a tab.”
Until April we are just going to refer to them as Buffalo, OK?
I read somewhere Santos was or will be skipped due to sore triceps or something like that. Somebody make me feel better about this pdq please. Thanks in advance.
Everything will be ok. It’s not over.
He had a precautionary MRI on it, showed nothing.
Was working out today.
Seeing as he hasn’t thrown in a year-ish, it’s a safe bet that something like this would happen during spring.
Very rusty indeed
Just bought another baseball only T.V for the garage. Probably going to need a good divorce lawyer by August. Go Jays!
Triceps muscle I don’t think is that critical…too many pushups or something. IF it’s really that though and of course it’s not a lie if they know the truth.
Just above the comments section there is a “related posts” with links. They change whenever you refresh it, so the one I’m talking about won’t be there. It was from a Jays-Red sox game last september with a picture of John “Suck it” Farrell in a red sox uniform.
I clicked on it to make sure that we all speculated Farrell was leaving and we wanted Torre or Francona. (Someone argued it was impossible for us to want Francona since Cleveland hired him before Jays “traded” Farrell.
Instead, I was treated to a delightful lesson on how the name “Formerly the Smasher” evolved. LOL, hilarious coming across this after silently wondering about this name for months!
The poor uterus’.
LOL, that was hilarious!
I cant stop laughing reading those old comments
It’s why some of us keep coming back.
LOL GSMC, I can’t stay away.
One more insult/slight and I’m outta here though. This time I mean it. I’ll be outta here!
I can’t take the hurt!
Suck it Farrell
Stoeten stole my uterus.
I have a feeling Rasmus does not disappoint this season. 30+ dingers hitting .270-.280 quietly going about his business. If he can learn to take a few walks he will be perfect! Can’t wait to see him stalk a few flyballs in CF again, he looks so at ease out there.
whats the word on his health, been out of act all week?
action*
last i saw, said out until Tuesday….but not in the line up today?
ok, found something that says thursday he will be back.
http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/how-well-do-you-know-brett-lawrie/
Did this already get linked? Sorry if so.
Adam Lind’s answer to who’s face is on the money in Canada is probably the funniest thing I’ve heard a Blue Jay’s player ever say.
holy shit now texeira has a strained wrist the 2012 jays vibes have apparently moved to the bronx