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Happy Friday.
The Jays had their first intrasquad game yesterday.
It sounds like they were short outfielders. They used a coach in center field (Matt Buschman), Andy Burns and Riley Adam in the corners. And there is this:
.@ShiDavidi, @bnicholsonsmith and I have been able to spot 43 of the 46 players the Blue Jays brought to Toronto this week.
— Arden Zwelling (@ArdenZwelling) July 10, 2020
Only one of them — Teoscar Hernandez — is an outfielder. https://t.co/MZ0Honoq2q
Which is one of the worries I have about playing in a pandemic (being fair, it is one of roughly 300 worries, and this one doesn’t involve someone dying): What if a team loses most of their pitchers to Covid? Or most of any position? If we went into the season with only one outfielder, it could be pretty tough to win.
Apparently Rowdy Tellez and Bo Bichette homered. Shoemaker threw 60ish pitches. He allowed 4 hits.
Julian Merryweather, Jake Petricka, Brian Moran, Simeon Woods Richardson and Joey Murray also pitched.
Media isn’t allowed anywhere near the players yet, so interviews are via zoom.
Something I’m glad about:
Here is what’s going to keep #BlueJays players in their stadium/hotel bubble this summer:
— Scott Mitchell (@ScottyMitchTSN) July 10, 2020
Per multiple sources, players have been told penalty if seen outside ballpark is $750,000 fine and potential jail time.
And you know if a player is out there will be 3000 cell phone photos of him. The dome is open so they will get fresh air. I don’t see this as a tough thing for the players to do. They would be stupid not to stay in their bubble.
I didn’t know about the exhibition games in Boston.
#BlueJays will open the season on July 24 in Tampa. With exhibition games in Boston now scheduled for the 21 and 22, the team will spend a hair over two weeks in Toronto for training camp. Where the Jays will play their home games is still TBD.
— Laura Armstrong (@lauraarmy) July 10, 2020
There is a day between the games in Boston and their first regular season game. Is regular season the right term? Irregular season?
I’ll be curious to watch for injuries with the shortened camp. I wonder if there will be more hamstring injuries and that sort of thing.
Here is Bo’s homer:
Bo Bichette with a no-doubter pic.twitter.com/WSDVnpYTLR
— Baseball Bros (@BaseballBros) July 9, 2020