Matt Boyd had an interesting inning, but with 40,000 plus fans watching, just putting up a zero is significant.

Boyd's fastball was up for his inning. It could have been nerves. He did throw a couple of nice change-ups. His breaking ball is a big sweeping curve.

Castro has great sink on his two seamer.

Osuna looking much better today.

Bautista was asked his least favourite pitchers to face - he replied C.C. Sabathia from the left side and Jered Weaver ("I can’t pick up the ball well out of his hand.")

Against Sabathia, Bautista is 3-26. He has hit a HR against him, but the overall line is .115/.233/.231. And against Weaver, he's 1-13 (.077/.200/.154.) He couldn't even hit Weaver's brother.

It's unfortunate for Bautista that Max Scherzer going to the other league. I would imagine Jose was in the habit sending a limo to the hotel to make sure Max arrived safely at the ball park. He's going to miss James Shields as well.

lotta good feels this weekend. I'm really liking this new tradition.

its also a great way to ramp up to pseudo-regular season energy levels before the regular season starts. they were all way overpumped yesterday and even to start today but that donaldson shot really settled them down. also good for the young hurlers like norris to get that kind of big crowd experience before starting in yankee stadium.

I still can't believe donaldson is our #5 hitter, btw.

Got to love the crowds.  In 4 games over 2 springs Montreal has had as many games with 30k+ attend as Tampa Bay did all of last year (4 games),  96k+ this year in 2 games or more than any 3 games had in Tampa last year.  Crazy eh?

We were at both games - quite the spectacle. Montreal sure loves them some Russell Martin. There were more varieties of poutine offered (four, all delicious) than varieties of beer (two, and both suck HARD - Pisswasser [Budweiser] or Mexican Pisswasser [Corona]).

It was a great time, though. There was a ton of energy throughout the place and it was especially fun watching the Jays lay a beating on Cincy this afternoon, even if it was meaningless. Best of all, nobody got hurt.

The only real disappointment was that the old lady was unable to get her Kawasaki jersey autographed.

useless final spring stats, for fun:

* = injured

ss reyes (32): .825ops
c martin (32): .576
rf bautista (34): 1.173
dh En'cion (32): .855
3b Donaldson (29): 1.076
lf saunders* (28): .000
1b smoak (28): .825
2b travis (24): .853
cf pompey (22): .795

ut valencia (30): 1.029
of pillar (26): .756
if izturis* (34): .451
c navarro (31): .656

ut tolleson (31): .963
ut goins (27): .939
ut kawasaki (34): 1.023
c thole (28): .762


SP1 Dickey (40): 12.0ip, 7k, 1bb, 0.83wh, 1.50er
SP2 Hutchison (24): 18.0ip, 12k, 5bb, 1.00wh, 1.50er
SP3 Buehrle (36): 18.2ip, 10k, 0bb, 1.13wh, 1.93er
SP4 Norris (22): 27.2ip, 30k, 8bb, 1.08wh, 2.93er
SP5 Sanchez (22): 22.2ip, 11k, 10bb, 1.37wh, 5.16er
SP6 Estrada (31): 13.2ip, 10k, 2bb, 1.56wh, 6.59er

CL Cecil (28): 4.0ip, 4k, 1bb, 1.00wh, 0.00er
SU Loup (27): 9.1ip, 7k, 2bb, 0.96wh, 3.86er
SU Castro (20): 12.1ip, 12k, 0bb, 0.57wh, 2.19er
MR Estrada (31): 13.2ip, 10k, 2bb, 1.56wh, 6.59er
MR Redmond (30): 11.0ip, 6k, 2bb, 0.91wh, 1.64er
MR Osuna (20) 12.1ip, 14k, 5bb, 1.22wh, 2.19er
MR Hynes (30) 13.0ip, 13k, 2bb, 0.38wh, 0.00er
MR Hendriks (26) 9.2ip, 11k, 3bb, 1.24wh, 3.72er
MR Delabar (31): 7.0ip, 9k, 1bb, 1.14wh, 3.86er

Three Players need to be taken off the 40-Man Roster to make room for Travis, Castro and Osuna. I understand A.A. doesn't want to lose assets, but when is the absolute latest he must make the move.

I can only only find 39 players on the 40 roster and that includes Stroman who is headed for the 60 DL.

Just one guy to move out of Bo Shultz, Preston Guilmet, Matt Hague, Andy Wilkins and the like...

I would imagine Jose was in the habit sending a limo to the hotel to make sure Max arrived safely at the ball park.

Your nod to Tommy Lasorda's famous discussion of Kurt Bevacqua made me look it up and chuckle. Youtube's a great thing.

It's an oldie but a goodie, and has been recycled many, many times. Fifty years ago, Joe Garagiola was claiming that Warren Spahn always sent a limo to Garagiola's hotel.

Craig Kimbrel in Petco? The mind reels.

Juan Pablo Oramas is the guy being moved off the 40 man.

The Jays have done a good job of accumulating bullpen depth.  Acquiring all of those pitchers over the past few months, and then losing only Oramas in the final roster crunch, means that the team will have a lot of bullpen depth at Buffalo and New Hampshire this year -- up to a dozen relievers and starters who have the potential to help a major-league bullpen.  It increases the chances that someone of the calibre of Neil Wagner will emerge as an 8th or 9th reliever if they need one.  Over the next few weeks, the Jays can let all those guys compete on the field in Buffalo and NH and just choose the best that emerge when the Jays suffer the inevitable injury or slump from a reliever.

If Hendriks survives the waiver wire, it will be interesting to see if the Jays use him as a reliever or a starter in Buffalo.   I think they've probably decided that he's stronger as a reliever.  But they're also concerned about rotation depth, so there's a chance he could be put back into that role.

I'm also curious about guys like Randy Wolf, Felix Doubront, Johan Santana, and even fringe guys like Luis Perez and Ricky Romero -- they're all intriguing for various reasons, and it will be interesting to see if they have anything left.

the guy i'm keeping an eye on is Stilson. if he gets healthy he's a legit big arm.

Opening day lineup has one surprise:

6 Reyes
2 Martin
9 Bautista
3 Encarnacion
5 Donaldson
0 Navarro
8 Pompey
7 Pillar
4 Travis

Don't know if this is a vote of non-confidence in Smoak, or if the objective is to increase the chance of trading Navarro. Either way, I'm happy the Jays are not being paranoid about the losing-the-DH scenario should Martin have to exit the game.