Good morning.
There are a few little bits of Blue Jay news this morning:
- Mike McCoy, Luis Velez, Ryan Schimpf, Jim Negrych, Claudio Vargas, Luis Jimenez and Ramon Ortiz all got sent down to the minor league camp. No surprises there, though I figured they would keep McCoy up for a little longer. Since he can play all the positions, he's pretty useful for minor league games. But then, he or any of these guys can be brought along to any of the spring games, if they feel a need. 43 left in the major league camp.
- Edwin Encarnacion is being held out of games for a couple of days because of a jammed finger he got in the WBC final. They are saying it isn't serious.
- Brett Lawrie will be held out of spring games, just in case he has to go on the DL. They can back date the start time of it to his last action, so he wouldn't have to miss much regular season time.
- Both Casey Janssen and Sergio Santos are to pitch in today's game. Good to see Janssen pitching again, though it is bad news for whoever is on bubble for the last spot in the bullpen. J.A. Happ starts and could go 6 innings.
- Jose Reyes will play today. The champagne hangover must have ended.
- John Lott tells us that the final bullpen and the backup catch decisions won't be made until the end of spring. Don't believe him, they know what they are going to do.