We get our first look at J.P. Arencibia, as a major leaguer, tonight. Whether we see him behind the plate is a separate question. It generally takes Cito a bit of time before he is comfortable enough with a young player to put him into the line up. With the young player being a catcher, it might be that much tougher for Cito. It wouldn't be a stretch to think that some of the pitchers (most of the pitchers?) feeling more comfortable throwing to Jose Molina, since he has been with the team all year and is a good receiver and works well with the pitchers.
The flip side of that is Brett Cecil is the starter tonight and he will have thrown to JP before. I really hope he's in the line up tonight but it wouldn't surprise me if he isn't. The downside for me of JP coming up now is that I'm off on holiday starting next Monday and I won't be able to watch many of the games. So the timing isn't great, for me.
John Lott has a story on Arencibia in the National Post.
Anthopoulos made it clear on Thursday that Arenecibia "is certainly here to play for the two-week period."
"He'll get the majority of playing time, but again, with him being a young player, I don't know that it will be exactly the equivalent of what John Buck enjoyed," Anthopoulos said.
Morgan Campbell in the Star writes about the troubles Spanish speaking players have in baseball.
When the Jays traded for Yunel Escobar last month, some reports in the mainstream media labelled the former Braves shortstop as indifferent on the field and aloof with the press, even as Spanish-speaking reporters who had dealt with him described him as easy-going and approachable.
The Southpaw has a great post on which of our starting pitchers should be shut down, including our minor leaguers. A good read.
Richard Griffin figures that Mark Cuban, who lost out in a bid for the Texas Rangers, should be a baseball owner soon. I know why writers and people like me would like to have him as a MLB owner: he would give us no end of things to write about.
Jon Bois, on SBNation.com writes about steroids and how to revise home run stats.