Anyone else done with Winter? I know I am, warm weather can arrive any day now.
After the off day on Monday the Jays are set to open up the next 3 at home against the visiting Oakland squad. While it looks like we are set to get our leadoff hitter Rajai Davis back from injury, HOORAY! It appears as if we have lost our Jedi Jose Bautista to personal family matters, BOO! Maybe its just me, but I really hate reading about players having to attend things for personal matters, maybe its because I have a family of my own now but I always get a sick feeling in my stomach when I see it. I am sure everyone here is with me when I wish Bautista and his family the best and I hope everything is ok.
I haven't heard anything about lineups outside the stadium today which is sad, but hopefully we can get a decent number out to the park to see the A's in this midweek matchup (not a traditional big draw). If anything I really hope we don't get close to the levels of apathy we are seeing in Cleveland these days. Man that team is going through some tough times.
On the mound today we have Jo-Jo Reyes kicking off Tao's Summer of Jo-Jo. Jo-Jo came over to the Jays as part of the trade that sent Gonzalez to Atlanta and brought back Yunel Escobar. Jo-Jo was almost the forgotten man in the deal but he really came out firing this spring when he needed to. Out of options he easily earned a spot on the 25 man roster, let's hope he keeps it up and doesn't become this year's Dana Eveland. For the record I am not sure its a fair comparison as Jo-Jo is younger then Dana was and was more highly regarded as a prospect.
Against Jo-Jo we have the A's new pickup Brandon McCarthy who earned their last spot in the rotation with a strong spring much the same as Jo-Jo did. McCarthy was once a highly regarded prospect within the Chicago White Sox organization but injuries de-railed the once promising career. While not pitching at all in 2010 he spent theprevious 3 years from 2007-2009 with the Texas Rangers, making 22-5-17 starts in each year respectively.
Taking on McCarthy will be a Jays lineup that is missing a bit of punch with the absence of our leader and slugger Jose Bautista, let's hope the rest of the guys can step up and contribute in the meantime.
Lineup tonight are available courtesy of Mike Wilner's Twitter feed:
#Bluejays line-up vs. OAK: Davis8, Escobar6, Lind3, Hill4, Rivera9, Encarnacion0, Snider7, Nix5, Molina2 - Reyes vs. McCarthy
Oakland line-up vs. #Bluejays: Crisp8, Barton3, Jackson7, Willingham0, Ellis4, DeJesus9, Suzuki2, Kouzmanoff5, LaRoche6 - McCarthy vs. Reyes
Wouldn't mind Snider moving up to 5th and bum
ping down Rivera and EE but I have a feeling that his position in the lineup isn't going to change soon and it does give the bottom of our lineup a bit more punch. Regardless of the reason it does seem the Jays are content with having him hit down there, I didn't give Cito a pass on that and I won't with Farrell just because he is new. I don't like it and I wish they would change it.
Current Series
3 game series vs Athletics @ Rogers Centre
Oakland Athletics Tuesday, Apr 5, 2011, 7:07 PM EDT Brandon McCarthy vs Jo-Jo Reyes Mostly cloudy,snow. Winds blowing in from left field at 15-25 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 40.
Complete Coverage > | ||
| Wed 04/06 | 7:07 PM EDT | |
| Thu 04/07 | 12:37 PM EDT | |
Today's title is from Ice Age
Keep it Civil and Go Jays Go!