Tuesday Bantering: Yet more on Tulo

There are little bits of Blue Jays news out there. Not all of them about a 315 foot fly ball. I mean, I’m all for over-stating everything that happens during spring training, but it isn’t like Tulo drove the ball 450 feet. He sliced one down the line that just cleared the short porch.

I do hope the best for Tulo (other than he is playing for the Yankees). I disagree with him saying that the Jays ‘told him’ he couldn’t play anymore, but It is understandable that he took it that way. Ross Atkins did say he was finished as an everyday shortstop, which might not have been the smartest thing to says but such is life. I don’t know if he can play everyday, but I wouldn’t want to bet on it.

It is easy for me to say that baseball is a business, but, for the players, it is also personal. I enjoyed watching him play. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked. It wasn’t his fault, I do wish that MLB would do something about the first base bag. The injury he suffered at the bag made his other smaller injuries worse and cost him a lot of playing time (and likely some range in the field).

It is pretty easy for us to say that Tulo should take the high road. He should. But then, he is a person too. We don’t always do and say the right thing. I’m pretty willing to cut him some slack on this. This time. In the future, I’d expect him to be more profession.

It looks like today’s game is canceled:

The Jays announced their starting pitchers for the next few days. Shoemaker was to start today. Tomorrow Thomas Pannone gets the start. Ryan Boruck goes Thursday and Aaron Sanchez Friday. I’m interested to see how Sanchez does.

There are changes:

Not about the Jays, but Adam McCalvy, at Brewers.com writes about our old friend Brett Lawrie. It is an interesting story, saying that Brett won’t be taking part in ‘baseball activities for “the next 6 weeks”. They will try to strengthen his body:

“Brett is not hurt. He is not an injured player. He has had a number of lower body injuries, and before we put him back out on the field, we want to understand why. And we want to do our best to give him a comprehensive plan for, ‘This is how we believe we can get you back on the field consistently and as a productive player.’”

But this bit is the best bit:

“We were in Vegas, [playing for the] 51s,” said Eric Thames, who played with Lawrie in the Blue Jays system. “He took four scoops of pre-workout and he was trying to jump through the ceiling of the clubhouse. Like, put his head through the ceiling panels. He almost got it. He’s a freak athlete.

“We were like, ‘Dude, you’re insane.’”

Half this post was going to be about the starting lineup. Dalton was going to lead off. Grichuk was going to get his first action. And Vlad was going to play again. And Lourdes was going to play second.

Nolan Arenado signed an 8-year, $260 million contract with the Rockies. He’s going into his age 28 season, so he’s likely to be a Rockie for the rest of his career.

Wrecks my OOTP plans, in last year’s game I signed him as a free agent and moved Vlad to right field.

OOTP 20 is coming out in March. I’m hoping Harper will still be a free agent in the game. I think he would be my first big signing.