Spring Game Recap Jays Lose to Reds

Hey, so, I’ve finally remembered to pop my head in over here and start paying attention to my main source of Jays chatter. Been feeling that urge ever since my apartment here in Edmonton has been getting warm rays of sun coming in – baseball is here!

Anyways, a few queries. Some may have been addressed earlier, some may not, I apologize in advance for that:

Adam Lind – Jamie Campbell over on Sportsnet is raving about how much bigger Lind is this season, saying he added about 20 pounds onto his frame in the off-season. Do you think his struggles are based on that added weight? How is he looking in the field though? Adding muscle mass is easiest on your lower body, so I’m hoping he’s added some spring to his step and is moving a bit quicker in the field.

Russ Adams – Why are we hanging on to him? Maybe I’m naive in the world of baseball, but wouldn’t it make sense to attempt to move him somewhere he might have a chance to make it up to the majors? We don’t seem to have room for him right now, unless we’re hoping to have him suddenly fix his control issues and take over at 2nd and move Hill over to SS again. Is that actually a feasible plan or is there absolutely no market for a guy like Adams?

Pitching – It’s sounding like our starters (or possible starters) are having a solid Spring Training so far. Are we getting more cautiously optimistic or are we stuck thinking we need to add about 4 runs per game to our average from last year?

Anyways, glad baseball season is back – so stoked for the season opener! I suspect I may be taking a day off classes for it.

PS – Go Canada! Down with Italy and Venezuela!

Lind has only had 17 at bats, too few to really get worried about, he has hit a home run. I think it is likely he is getting his timing down. Between that and the small sample size he will be ok. 20 pounds of muscle added over the winter is a fair change in the post-steroid era, but let’s give him some at bats before deciding he’s having troubles.

Adams (and Curtis Thigpen) were removed from the 40 man roster, so any team that was interested in him could have picked him up basically free of charge. No one did, I think that says a lot about how other teams see him. His only real hope of making the majors is as a utility guy, and then only if he starts hitting. His defense is never going to be great at any position.

The pitchers look good, but it is early, the line about pitchers being ahead early in camp is always used when pitchers do well early. I don’t think our starters are going to be as bad as others seem to think. Burnett wasn’t much better than average as far as ERA last year, McGowan was worst than league average and that’s with our great defense behind them. Marcum on the other hand was quite good and will be hard to replace. Cecil has the potential to be good, Clement looks good, Janssen could do well and Mills has looked great. Purcey should improve on last year.

No we don’t haven’t to be 4 runs a game before, which would be impossible even if we suddenly became the 1927 Yankees. I think we can hope to be 60 run better offensively this year just with the improvement to the DH and LF spots, which were black holes last year. Add in Hill, hopefully healthy all year and perhaps better seasons from Rios, Rolen and Overbay and 70 to 80 runs better than last year is a possibility.

I’m up high enough in an apartment that I get the nice rays of sunshine and yet I can’t really see the snow-covered ground, so it’s pretty nice.

I was a little worried that immediately people would start crying “foul” about Lind’s extra weight, but I think most people who spend time in a weight room know the wonders of adaptation, especially if he hasn’t been using proper post-workout nutrition as he says.

I hadn’t realized that Adams and Thigpen were basically fair game, but you’re right – very telling that no one has made a move on them. Too bad – we (and by we, I guess I mean JP) had high hopes about him and Hill pairing up for a few years.

I guess about the pitchers I was aware of the old saying, but I was hoping this was a little ahead/above what we were hoping for at this stage of the game. I am optimistic about the young guys stepping in and doing around average – with Doc and Arnsberg, they have a very solid pair of teachers. And