Saturday Bantering: Saunders, starting pitchers

The Blue Jays have announced who will be starting pitchers in their first 5 spring games.

Tuesday: Aaron Sanchez

Wednesday: Marcus Stroman

Thursday: Daniel Norris

Friday: R.A. Dickey

Saturday: Mark Buehrle

Tuesday's game will be on Sportsnet and MLB.tv and it will be our first GameThread of 2015. Saturday's game is also on MLB.tv and then next Sunday's game is on Sportsnet.

Gibby says he hasn't decided who will be the opening day starter yet.

Other news:

Barry Davis talked to a very happy Michael Saunders. Saunders talked about how he decided, before the surgery, that he would have the meniscus removed, saying that he read up on it and he talked to some doctors.  He said that the Jays tried to talk him out of having it removed, not wanting him to have problems later in life. As it turned out, the doctors when they saw how damaged it was, they decided it had to be removed.

Saunders says that his goal is to be ready for opening day, I hope he doesn't push too hard. Mid-April would be fine by me.

Johan Santana has arrived at camp:

Johan Santana has arrived! pic.twitter.com/zVWGhKp8HV

— Blue Jays (@BlueJays) February 28, 2015

Santana is saying that he is in no rush to get him into games, he wants to be ready first and that he considers the April 28th opt out date as 'just a number'.

And, if you are interested in reading more about the Dan Duquette saga, Barry M. Bloom at MLB.com has an interview with him.

"I knew the people from Rogers [Communications] before I took the job at the Orioles," said Duquette, who spent three years as director of player development for the Montreal Expos, and would have been a good fit again north of the border. "You'd have to check in with those guys, but I think they liked the work I did in Baltimore."

It didn't happen. As has been reported, the Blue Jays and Orioles couldn't work out a compensation package for Duquette. The Jays terminated discussions near the end of January. Asked if compensation was the reason why the Orioles wouldn't let him out of his contract, Duquette simply said: "Yes."

Just think, in 8 months or so, this will start all over again.