It was great to see the Jays in action on TV again today, and a pleasure to listen to the excellent UPN 38 broadcasters, Sean McDonough and Jerry Remy. Toronto left a few key players in Dunedin: Stewart, Hinske, Wells, Delgado, Phelps, Catalanotto, Woodward and Hudson -- the "rule" about playing four regulars in spring road games is a farce. Nomar and Manny also took the day off, so the 7,000+ fans in Fort Myers might have been grumbling a little, but it was an entertaining game.
Make of this what you will; Pete Walker started, and did fine. I think it means he's #5 in the rotation, when the time comes. He helped himself in the first with a fine snare of a Todd Walker comebacker, got strikeouts with both a nasty changeup and high heat, and one of the "hits" he gave up was a two-hopper that should have been scored as a rare error by Mike Bordick, who started at 3B. Dave Berg was the offensive star, with two doubles and a single in 5 AB; his spring AVG was .471 prior to an 8th-inning groundout. Tom Wilson, who looks fitter this year, went all the way at 1B and continues to have quality at-bats. He had a walk and a double, and always seems to go deep into the count.
It was my first look at Aquilino Lopez, and again, the box score won't reflect how sharp he was, or the movement on his slider. Just as I was thinking he might not be a great fielder -- he falls off the mound toward first -- he made a fantastic play on a high hopper to his right.
The Syracuse SkyChiefs OF started -- Mike Colangelo in LF, Rob Ryan in CF and Bruce Aven in RF -- but nobody won or lost a job. Ryan had a tough day, looking confused on a ball hit over his head and off the wall, losing an easy third out in the sun, and getting called out looking, twice. However, he later stroked a leadoff double, then showed good baserunning ability, staying put on an Aven 6-3 groundout and scoring from second on a shallow Russ Adams single.
Adams is going to be a great player. His E-6 was unlucky, actually another fine fielding play -- he almost doubled off Damon after spearing a liner, but the throw hit the runner. And he steered another two-strike pitch the opposite way for an RBI single. Illustrating the difference between a good analyst and John Cerutti, Remy observed that Adams tipped his pitcher's curve by gliding to his right too soon; that's also the difference between a AA player less than a year out of college, and the big-league star he will become in time.
John-Ford Griffin looks a bit like his favourite player (John Olerud), stands like him in the box, and has considerably more power. He showed a good eye to draw a walk his first time up, and hit a fly ball to straightaway center that had about six seconds of hang time in his next AB. It was a 400' out, but he was a fraction of an inch from a 450' HR -- his bat speed is terrific.
Among the other Toronto pitchers, Evan Thomas does not impress, Pasqual Coco reminds me of a skinnier Escobar -- great stuff, no command -- and Kelvim himself started out very wild, but settled down. Oriole castoff Josh Towers, a longshot to make the cut, baffled the Bosox with changeups off his moderately-paced "fastball", and worked an easy 1-2-3 ining.
For the Red Sox, most of the real bullpen worked, and Mike Timlin didn't look great. Chad Fox is nowhere near his former velocity, Alan Embree is rounding into form, but Ramiro Mendoza looked best of all, and might be the chairman of the committee. Shea Hillenbrand, who played 1B, is on fire -- I know he's not a stathead darling, because he's impossible to walk, but he's hitting about .600 for the spring.
Yesterday, the Jays sent three players to the minor-league camp -- Scott Cassidy (whose lower arm slot made his pitches move a bit more this spring), Mike Smith (to be groomed as a reliever) and Scott Wiggins, probably because Trever Miller has been the club's best LH reliever.
Tomorrow, some well-rested regulars should be backing Roy Halladay against the Twins.
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