The first week of spring training was somewhat like the off-season, not much to report. The Jays won three games then lost two. The Jays will pay seven games this week before taking the next two Monday's off. This year the Jays have only one split squad day and that is a day when one of the games is against Canada's Junior team.
There is no expected change to the 12 or 13 players targeted to head north. Ryan Goins is 1-8 at the plate, Anthony Gose is 2-9 and Kevin Pillar is hitless in 6 at-bats. Moises Sierra is hitting .333 and in the lead for the right handed DH, fourth outfielder role. Munenori Kawasaki is hitting 400 and doing his best to send Goins to AAA. If Goins hits .125 for the spring, would the Jays go with Kawasaki?
The one change I noted is that Melky Cabrera is running better than last season, that is a big plus for the Jays. Melky hit 455 in week one.
On the pitching side Drew Hutchison had the best week among the fifth starter candidates. Esmil Rogers and Todd Redmond pitched twice and each had one good and one not so good appearance. Ricky Romero dodged a bullet and pitched a scoreless inning. Kyle Drabek was wild. Sean Nolin did OK but he would be bottom of the list for potential number five starters. Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez both gave up some baserunners. So Hutchison takes the early lead but he has options left and there are four weeks of spring games left.
On the bullpen side Casey Janssen and Sergio Santos have not pitched yet. Brett Cecil and Steve Delabar have looked OK. Neil Wagner and Aaron Loup were hit around a bit. Luis Perez hasn't pitched yet. Don't forget Chad Jenkins who hasn't allowed a baserunner in three games but he has been pitching late in the games. Dustin McGowan pitched a good inning, John Stilson pitched to one hitter and struck him out with the bases loaded. Jeremy Jeffress has been hit and miss.
So not much notable happened in week one of games, hopefully some players will step it up in week two.
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