We have been waiting a long time for this. It is currently -11 degrees (-22 wind chill) outside my window but the anticipation of today's spring training game warms me right up. The Blue Jays will be facing their spring training neighbours at the Phillies' Bright House FIeld in a 1 pm Eastern tilt this afternoon. The Blue Jays are trotting out their expected regular lineup (maybe this year it will actually happen more than three times!) today:

Today's @BlueJays Line-up vs. #Phillies - Reyes-SS, Cabrera-LF, Bautista-RF, Edwin-1B, Lind-DH, Lawrie-3B, Rasmus-CF, Navarro-C, Goins-2B

— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) February 26, 2014

According to Gregor Chisholm's post on pitching schedules, the Jays have planned to send six pitchers out today. J.A. Happ will start and pitch two innings, Todd Redmond--who Nick Ashbourne wrote about this morning--will follow with two, Kyle Drabek will get one or two, and Chad Jenkins, Neil Wagner, and Mickey Storey will follow them.

We will have a spring gamethread up this afternoon, so please join us for some great baseball chat!

Links

Second to None - Getting Blanked
Last year's "darlings" are "just another team" this year, Drew Fairservice writes about the Blue Jays and their depressing options at second base. Stephen Drew, of course, is still a free agent option and will be a huge upgrade from what Toronto has now, but I'm not sure whether the Blue Jays' front office (or owners) would be all that willing to talk to agent Scott Boras after his comments to Ken Rosenthal the other day and yesterday's appearance on Jeff Blair's show. I firmly believe the Blue Jays won't be able to give Drew the contract he--and Boras--wants. Prove me wrong, Alex Anthopoulos! And also, how desperate is Boras these days to take his sales pitches public, first to Toronto telling everyone that Drew would be willing to play second base and now to New York telling the Yankees that he could move to third?

Agent Scott Boras wants to see Blue Jays win - Toronto Sun
Speaking of Boras--actually let's not. You can safely ignore the first half of this Bob Elliott piece, but do read the second part where he talks about a spring training battle off the field. Rogers Sportsnet Radio 590 the FAN are trying out various broadcasters to fill Jack Morris's role as Jerry Howarth's radio partner. It has been made clear that Rogers would like to see a former major league player in the booth from the time Warren Sawkiw was sacked. This afternoon's real fake game's radio broadcast will feature the voices of Howarth and former catcher Joe Siddall, who will also do the games through the middle of spring training. I have no idea how good Siddall is on the radio, but at the very least it seems like a nice gesture to give him a chance to focus on something else after his young son's death earlier this year. For the last weeks of spring, Elliott reports that the mic might rotate between Jeff Nelson, C.J. Nitkowski, and others.

Sanchez hit hard in Blue Jays intrasquad game - Sportsnet.ca
Mike Wilner recaps Tuesday's fake fake game that involved the Blue Jays beating the Blue Jays 1-0 in a five-inning intersquad scrimmage. Apparently both sides were wearing identical uniforms--you'd think this would be a nice place for them to debut their new red alternate alternate caps. Aaron Sanchez's nerves got to him, giving up "bullet after bullet" up the middle to Brett Lawrie, Dan Johnson, Kevin Pillar, Erik Kratz, and Maicer Izturis. Luckily, Sanchez will face less skilled players in the Eastern League this season. An interesting tidbit from Wilner's recap is that Munenori Kawasaki saw some time in left field--the position, not the Toronto-based baseball-themed brewery. John Gibbons said that Kawasaki will see some time there this spring to give him more versatility coming off the bench... in Buffalo, one would hope. Left field has been the place where teams generally try stick a player to try to get them another defensive position. In the past four seasons, Mark DeRosa, Jayson Nix, Omar Vizquel, John McDonald, Yan Gomes, and Edwin Encarnacion (!) are among the names to have manned left field for Toronto.

How new-found knuckleballer Tomo Ohka saved his pitching career - Toronto Star
Brad Lefton wrote a special piece for the Toronto Star in which he details the career of Tomo Ohka and how the Japanese knuckleballer ended up with a minor league contract and an invitation to Blue Jays big league camp. I have absolutely no expectations for Ohka, so I guess he can only exceed them. Josh Thole probably revealed how early the knuckleball is in its development by telling Barry Davis that it had improved a lot in the past week--I read that to mean that the pitch is still pretty bad, but not as bad as it was when Ohka showed up to camp.

The Toronto Blue Jays, Number One Prospects, and Aaron Sanchez - Drunk Jays Fans
Kyle Matte gives DJF a solid guest post in which he looks back at Blue Jays' development of top prospects of the past before looking forward to the future of current prospect Aaron Sanchez.

Prospects Will Break Your Heart: 2014 Organizational Rankings - Baseball Prospectus
Jason Parks ranks the Blue Jays in the middle third of farm systems at #13, but notes that the organization has "some of the best young prospect depth in baseball" and that the system should find itself in the top 10 in 2015, where "they are likely to stay for a very long time"... at least until the next big trade. The Red Sox are ranked #4, the Orioles just squeaked by the Jays at #12, the Yankees are at #23, and the Rays' thin farm has been bumped all the way down to #26.

Blue Jays’ future in hands of elite youngsters at Prospects Camp - Toronto Star
Richard Griffin reports from the Blue Jays' prospect camp.

The Most- and Least-Improved Teams for 2014 - FanGraphs Baseball
Jeff Sullivan looks at Steamer and ZiPS projections, which shows the Blue Jays, along with the Yankees, as one of the ten most-improved teams for 2014, with the Red Sox, Rays, and Orioles among the top ten teams going the other way. As Sullivan mentioned, this is somewhat expected, as the Blue Jays should enjoy some regression after an underachieving 2013 while the Red Sox should fall back down to earth.

It is almost like Christmas, it might be fake baseball, but it is still baseball. I've been waiting impatiently for this.

The Jays are using what might be their regular lineup for the season, unless Alex finds us a second baseman in the next month or so. The Phillies are using most of their regulars too.

The game is on MLB.tv.

I'm mostly interested in seeing if Melky can run. Other than that, well, it is early, so other than the fun of watching baseball, I'm not going to read too much into this one. Though Happ could pitch well and make me feel a little better about the Jays giving him the 4 spot in the rotation.

I guess I'm also interested to see if Brett Lawrie can tone down all the bouncing and moving at the plate. And maybe Ryan Goins will hit 2 home runs and make me believe.

As always....the rules apply to the game thread, mostly don't be terrible.  No arguing with Mods; No GIFS or images until after the game; No linking to illegal streams;

OT...I can't wait until this idiot 'face of the MLB' crap to end. I'm going to have to turn off twitter until it does.

Blue Jays 4 Phillies 3  (7 innings, and then the rain came)

Quick recap:

Happy thoughts:

• Jose Bautista homer in the first (massive shot to left) and walked in the third.

via cdn1.sbnation.com

• Brett Lawrie, Colby Rasmus and Moises Sierra all hit balls off the wall. Wind was blowing out, but still good hard contact
• Adam Lind had a hard hit single, darn near taking out the pitcher Aumont.
• Melky Cabrera singled and walked. He also scored from second on a singe. Didn't see him running much but looked some faster than last year, but still slow. Will have to keep watching.
• Todd Redmond threw 2 very good innings, no hits, no walks, 1 k.
• Neil Wagner pitched an inning, getting 3 k.
• Dioner Navarro looked fine behind the plate. Did let a Happ pitch get past for a wild pitch, but didn't have much chance on it.

Less than happy thoughts (it is early, I'm not really worried about any of these, yet):

• J.A. Happ threw 37 pitches in his 1 inning, he was to go 2 but threw too many in the first. There were a couple of soft ground balls that went for singles. If they had been outs, there would have been fewer pitches, but he still went to full counts too often. 4 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, 2 earned. He wasn't just throwing fastballs, there were curves and changeups.
• Kyle Drabek walked 3 in 1.2 innings and looked to be falling off to the first base side.  He allowed 1 hit, 1 earned with a k.
• 0 for 3 for Jose Reyes, and didn't show a lot of range, but went down the line quick on a ground out. 0 for 3 for Navarro and 0 for 2 for Ryan Goins.

Todd Redmond gets the win, Phillippe Aumont gets the loss. Chad Jenkins gets a save.

Tomorrow's game is on Sportsnet. R.A. Dickey is to start. Esmil Rogers is also to pitch.

Players making adjustments, searching for a new spring home, and all is well in Amador Land.

A Happy Resolution

We still don't know if Japhet Amador will play in the Major Leagues for Houston, and certainly not if he'll be any good. We don't even know if he'll stick around in the minors for that long (if he doesn't figure out how to walk against non-Mexican League pitchers, he might be headed back south of the border before long).

But, in the end, those things aren't important when talking about the health of his wife and unborn child. Fortunately, it seems his wife is through the worst of whatever illness befell her and caused Amador to miss the reporting date to Major League camp. He's now expected to report to camp on Friday and may even be in uniform for the first Spring Training game that afternoon.

What do you think? How much has his stock taken a hit? He did miss the reporting date, but it was for a pretty good reason and it looks like he may only miss one or two actual games because of it.

Tucker's Good ImPreston

CRPerry13 ain't the only one who loves him some Preston Tucker. Reportedly the former Florida Gator has raised Bo Porter's eyebrow with his hitting prowess and power. He figures to get a good look in Spring Training, but may end up cut after the first couple of weeks, as he's not really on the radar as a guy who could break camp with the club.

He's on the fast track though, right? Making it all the way to Double-A in your first full season is no small feat (his super-polished teammate from Florida and second-round pick, Nolan Fontana, sputtered in Lancaster, after all). Do you think he'll head back to Corpus to start the year, or could we see him in Triple-A on opening day? The Majors later in the year even?

House Hunting

In the ongoing saga to find a spot to build a new Spring Training facility, the Astros have apparently parted ways with the Jays and thrown their hats in with the Nats. (I'm stopping, promise)

Evan Drellich tells us that, with Palm Beach Gardens off the table, the Astros and their representatives are expecting to receive a list of possible alternate sites within the next ten days. Among possible sites are somewhere along Military Trail, the Magnolia Park neighborhood just north of Lake Magnolia, and downtown in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Upset that the Blue Jays backed out? Like the new affiliation with the Washington Nationals? Do you like that they may move, or do you think Kissimmee is fine? Or maybe they should just go to Arizona?

Tweaks, Fixes and New Pitches

It wouldn't be spring training without stories of people learning new pitches or fixing their mechanics after watching video. While many of them are much ado about nothing, you never know when a player is finally going to make a change that lets it click for him. So far we've heard about:

• Kyle Weiland is finally on the road to return
• Reliever Jorge De Leon adding a Rocket-taught a splitter
• J.D. Martinez opting for a complete mechanical overhaul
• Marc Krauss is keeping a catcher's mitt handy, just in case
• Chad Qualls is back to his old self, thanks to improved health
• Grossman seemed to have benefited from an eye exam last year

Which one of those guys intrigues you most? Personally I hope Weiland makes it back ASAP; he's a really solid ground ball pitcher who can also miss some bats, and look at the rate stats he managed to put up in those three MLB starts with us while he had a bum shoulder and an infected biceps muscle.

Our last group of prospect before we hit the Top Ten.

Moving up the list. If you've missed one 16-20 is here, 21-15 is here, the 26-30 is here, 31-35 here and 36-40 here.

15. John Stilson: John had a really nice 2013 season, with a 2.09 ERA, in 33 relief appearances, for Buffalo. He allowed 36 hits, walked 15 and struck out 47 in 47.1 innings. The only down part was that he moved to full time relief. He didn't have as much fun in the AFL, giving up 6 earned in 2.1 innings, before leaving early.

John was our 3rd round draft pick in 2011, he's a big guy at 6'3" and 200 lb. If our bullpen wasn't so crowded, I think he'd have a good shot at making the team. I do think we'll see him at some point this season.

Stilson throws a fastball that can get to 95, a good changeup , a curve and a slider. He has had some injury issues in the past, so being in the pen and keeping his innings down is a good idea. It's too bad, having a hard throwing starter, that's about major league ready, would be a good thing. But, with his stuff, he could grow into closer's role. He was 16th on our list last year. John Sickels has him at 13th and MLB.com has him at 6th.

14. Andy Burns: Andy was our 11th round pick in 2011, but he's played like a much higher pick. Last year, he started in Dunedin, hitting .327/.383/.524, with 8 home runs, 21 steals, 25 walks and 38 strikeouts in 64 games. He had a bit of a tougher time of it when they moved him up to New Hampshire. He hit .253/.309/.419, with 7 home runs, 12 steals, 23 walks and 55 strikeouts in 64 games. Not great, but really not bad for his first look at double-A pitching at age 22. He played in AFL and was great, hitting .312/.402/.403 and won a player of the week award.

He played mostly 3B and he made more errors than you'd like to see, 27 in 117 games. But he has a good reputation with the glove, so I won't worry too much about the errors, especially with minor league official scorers. It would be a lot better if he was still at second base, since he isn't all the much younger than Brett Lawrie and he isn't going to move him off third. He might end up a utility type.

Last year we had Andy at #17 on the list.

13. Dawel Lugo: Dawel was a big international free agent signing, getting $1.3 million out of cheap Rogers in 2011. Don't tell anyone, but he's yet another Dominican. Just 18, last season (he turned 19 in December), he started the year in Bluefield, and hit .297/.317/.469 with 6 home runs, 5 walks and 28 strikeouts. He moved up the Vancouver, hitting .246/.257/.348 with 1 home run, 1 walk and 13 strikeouts, in 16 games. Not great number but he was playing in Vancouver at 18 years old.

Yeah, he doesn't walk as much as you would like, but, again he's young, he can learn, though I'd like to see some sign he's learning. As well, his defense is a work in progress. It's also possible that, as he matures, and puts on size, he might have to move off of short.

He's a long way from the majors, we won't see him in Toronto for 4 years, at best. He moved up from #39 on last year's list. Keith Law has Dawel 9th on his list.

12.Chase DeJong: Chase was our 2nd round pick in 2012. He's another big guy, 6'4" and 185. A right-hander, he throws low 90's now but he just turned 20 at the end of December, as he matures he might add a few mph to that. He also has a very good curve and, like everyone in our system, he's working at a changeup.

Last year he played in Bluefield, making 13 appearance, 10 starts, with a 3.05 ERA. In 56 innings, he allowed 58 hits, 10 walks and 66 strikeouts (28.1% strikeout rate will get your attention).

Chase was 12th on our list last year. I'd think he'll get into full season ball this year and if he has a good year he should be in our top ten next year.

11.Roberto Osuna: It's tough to know where to place Roberto, I had him a few spots further down the list but I was persuaded that I was being a little rough on him. He was #2 on our list last year, but he's had Tommy John surgery and won't be pitching until near the end of the season, at best. The good news is that he just turned 19 earlier in February, so if he has to miss a season, it might as well be now.

Before the injury, pitching in Lansing, he made 10 starts, had a 5.53 ERA, allowed 39 hits, 11 walks with 51 strikeouts in 42.1 innings. You have to like the 29% strikeout rate.

The Jays signed Osuna to a $1.5 million signing bonus, back in 2011, when he was 16, out of Mexico. Can you imagine getting $1.5 million when you are just 16? Hopefully he'll still have the fastball mid-90's fastball when he returns from injury.

Ray takes a look at the recent average draft position (ADP) data from NFBC for outfielders, and advises to not buy into the Billy Hamilton hype, and consider the injury risk with Jacoby Ellsbury.

Today we take a look at the average draft position data for outfielders according to the ADP data from the NFBC (National Fantasy Baseball Championship) courtesy of NESN.com.

Unlike the last few weeks, I am not including the Max and Min Pick data, as I had a real problem converting the table from the NESN site into Word, then into Excel then back into Word. There is probably an easier way to get their data into a clean table, but I have yet to find it.

In addition, I did not include the Fake Teams rankings for each player.

As you can see from the table below, the players names are in two different columns. I usually manually typed them in, but felt it would be too time consuming to type in 75 player names, so please accept my apologies for the looks of the table below.

Quick Thoughts

A few years ago, Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie reeled in the love of fantasy owners across the internet, only to disappoint them in 2012. Well, I think we have another one of those hyped up players on our hands heading into fantasy drafts this season. His name: Billy Hamilton.

Hamilton is being drafted as the 23rd ranked outfielder this season, ahead of Jason Heyward, Carlos Beltran, Jayson Werth, Josh Hamilton, and many others who I would draft before Hamilton. Hamilton's ADP indicates he is being drafted in FIFTH round of fantasy drafts. That's just insane! At that price, people are drafting him assuming he will play 150 games and will steal 60+ bases. He very well could, but that comes with plenty of risk.

Another player I think is being drafted way too early is Yankees outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury. His NFBC ADP is 11.52, which is just too high for an injury-prone outfielder. Ellsbury, when healthy, is very valuable, but not first round worthy. Sorry, I just don't see it. He is being drafted ahead of Bryce Harper, Giacarlo Stanton, Yasiel Puig, Carlos Gomez, Jay Bruce, and several others who I would draft ahead of him.

The same can be said about Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, as he is being drafted in the second round of most drafts I have participated in or reviewed. He has just over 100 games of major league experience and could be a bust candidate this season. While I hope that is not the case, as I am a Dodgers fan and own him at $2 in an NL only keeper league, it is a possibility.

Puig's teammate Matt Kemp is also a big risk this season. He will start the season on the disabled list, but is still being drafted in the early fourth round of most drafts, which might be too much risk for many to take. I see his ADP falling as the season approaches.

NFBC ADP Rankings - Outfielders

Fantasy Rundown

If you are looking for more position rankings, or plain old fantasy baseball goodness, make sure you check out Fantasy Rundown, your one place to get all things fantasy.

The Jays and Phillies have their second game of the spring, this time at Dunedin and this time it is on Sportsnet.

There was a little bit of excitement on twitter this morning, when was reported that Edwin Encarnacion said that he told the Jays he didn't want to play first base anymore. It didn't last long, other reporters talked to Edwin and he said he was happy to play where ever the manager puts him. A couple of things might have happened. Edwin might have misunderstood the question, English not being his native language. Or Edwin might have said something about preferring to DH. Or maybe Eddie just wants to emulate his hero Russell Martin and demand to play shortstop.

The other bit of new is that Esmil Rogers is a new daddy, he has a baby girl they named Elaina. Congratulations. And he's back today and will pitch. I don't know, after the birth of each of my kids, I couldn't get enough sleep to function at all, for the first week or so.

Erik Kratz gets the first chance of catching the knuckleball. Jays want to see if he can do it, since they know Thole can.

Also scheduled to pitch today are Rogers, McGowan, Cecil, Loup, Jeffress, Rasussen and Walden.

Remember the rules, mostly try not to be terrible. Go Jays.

But that certainly helps.

The Detroit Tigers had an American League low 35 stolen bases in 2013. New Tigers left fielder Rajai Davis had 45 of his own with the Toronto Blue Jays. The year before he had 46. Of course, base running isn't just about the stolen base stat, and first-year Tigers manager Brad Ausmus is as happy with the extra 90 feet taken during Wednesday's Grapefruit League opener against the Braves as he is about the pressure Davis puts on the opposing battery any time he's on base.

"I think because of (Davis') speed and his aggressiveness it'll energize and be infectious," Ausmus said. "It can have that effect."

Still, it's hard to deny just what kind of impact a single player can have. SB Nation's Blue Jays blog, Bluebird Banter, wrote about Davis' time in Toronto:

In a very literal sense Rajai Davis created every once of positive value that the Blue Jays had on the bases in the last three years. In terms of stolen bases alone Davis managed a 80.6% success rate, compared to a 69.9% rate for the rest of the team. The comparison between Davis and his teammates is even more astounding looking at last years statistics in particular.

With Davis, the Blue Jays were 10th in stolen bases in baseball and eighth in Fangraphs' baserunning stat (BsR). Without him, they fell to 22nd in the game and 21st in BsR, their number falling from a positive to several runs below average.

"You don't really have to go out and hit home runs to score runs when you have speed," Davis said. "This way when you have a guy who can steal bases, who can get 90 feet closer, a lot of times it's just manufacturing runs. And manufacturing it some times a lot easier than hitting home runs."

The Tigers were last in MLB in BsR, coming in nearly 20 runs worse than average. For a team with power that had among the highest averages and on-base percentages in the league in 2013, the Tigers never seemed to live up to the run-scoring potential seemed to have. Players like Davis, as well as Ian Kinsler, whose BsR was about even in 2013 after several years of being above average, can help mitigate the loss of power that comes with the trade of Jhonny Peralta and Prince Fielder.

"I think after you've played for awhile, you come to realize" the importance of baserunning, Ausmus said. "You realize what a difference base running can make over the course of a season."

Ausmus isn't necessarily going to be calling for the steal at every opportunity. Those extra 90 feet can come at any time. "Quite frankly the way Victor Martinez ran the bases yesterday, and he's the opposite of Rajai Davis, can have an effect. Victor was very aware on what was going on around him and advanced 90 feet twice. That's huge. That's what we're talking about. Getting that extra 90 feet. It doesn't always have to be a ball in the dirt or tagging up on a fly ball."

"Having speed helps but I think your approach is still the same," Ausmus said. "You still want to run the bases in a similar fashion. Players' abilities may dictate what degree it will become successful as a philosophy, but the speed of a player doesn't change the approach of the player. In terms of base running. Base stealing it changes a little bit."

Blue Jays 7 Phillies 5

Two games, two wins. Have to like that.

Happy thoughts:

• Two doubles and a walk for Jose Bautista. He's hitting the ball hard right off the start.
• Moises Sierra hit a ball off the center field fence, about two feet short of a home run. And he looked fast on the bases.
• Melky Cabrera had a hard hit double. More important, he beat out a throw on a double play chance and tagged up from second to third on a fly ball. He was running pretty good, much better than last year. I wouldn't say fast but at least 2 Molina speed.
• Brett Lawrie also had a double, hit to the opposite field, to the wall. Very hard hit. He had a single as well.
• Kenny Wilson singled, looked very fast on the bases and looked good in CF too, not that he has a chance to make the team.
• Brett Cecil and Dustin McGowan each pitched scoreless innings. Cecil gave up a bunt single but looked good. McGowan got three fly outs, one that was hit hard but Wilson caught it on the track. Jeremy Jeffress gave up an infield single and a walk, but the Phillies couldn't get any hard contact off him.
• Erik Kratz looked good catching Dickey. He was charged with a passed ball, but I'd have called it a wild pitch, it was well off the plate.
• Marcus Walden pitched a very nice 9th (of course it was against the Phillies minor leaguers). Two strikeouts and a ground out.

Less happy thoughts:

• Brett Lawrie made a bad decision and an error. Runner on first, soft grounder to left of third, Brett should have thrown to first but instead tried to force a play at second.
• R.A. Dickey had a bit of a rought first inning, a single and 2 walks. He wasn't helped by Lawrie's error. Second inning was better, three quick outs after the leadoff single and steal. In all 2 hits, 2 walks, 1 k, 1 unearned run. Knuckleball looked pretty good. Not a bad outing.
• Esmil Rogers gave up a walk and a homer to start his first ining as a father, but got three quick outs after that. Just needed the wake up.
• Aaron Loup gave up a home run, but the rest of his inning was clean.
• Rob Rasmussen had his problems. A leadoff error from Jared Goedert didn't help but he gave up a walk and a hit batter to load the bases. Then Andy LaRoche made an error at first base, hitting the runner going to second. Rasmussen did get out of it, only allowing 1 unearned run, but he didn't impress.
• 0 for 3 day for Kratz, with a strikeout.
• Niether Gose or Pillar are impressing me with the bat.

Tomorrow's game is on Sportsnet again. We are to see Mark Buehrle and Brandon Morrow pitch.

This is the ribbon-cutting post.

The Bluebird Banter staff would like to proudly introduce the Bluebird Banter Library: a place for Toronto Blue Jays fans to quickly access important information about the club. One of the highlights is a table which shows how many options a Blue Jays player has remaining, and in which years he was previously sent to the minor leagues.

To access the library click on the tab on your desktop device or the menu button on your hand-held device.

Right now our library only has a small collection, but we hope to populate it with interesting and useful resources for the Blue Jays fan. The inaugural collection includes a few things that have been posted in the past that will continue to be updated regularly:

• Blue Jays Blogroll, where we list fellow Blue Jays blogs
• Blue Jays Roster Tree, where we graphically display the origins of every player on the 40-man roster
• Posting and Commenting Guidelines, which are basically the site rules that everyone should read.

Of course, the highlight is a great new resource compiled by reader MjwW: a table showing the option and outright status of every Blue Jays player on the 40-man roster (and a few who aren't). Quite often I would not know which players can be optioned and which cannot, and it is typically not trivial to find this information online but thanks to MjwW we can just head over to the Blue Jays Option and Outright Status page of the library to check.

Since there is no commenting feature in the library (because you shouldn't talk in libraries) I have reposted MjwW's work here for your discussions, questions, and comments. Go ahead and bookmark that page for even faster access when you need to find out whether or not a player can be sent down to the minors.

CORRECT AS OF 2014-02-28 (For up-to-date information visit this page)

40-MAN ROSTER

Can option? - "Yes" means a player can be unilaterally optioned by the club. "Yes*" means optional waivers are required prior to the player being optioned. "No" means the player is either out of option years, or the player's consent is required.

Can outright? - "Yes" means the team can outright the player upon clearing waivers without the player having the right to elect free agency. "No" means the player can reject the outright assignment and elect free agency

MLB Service - Credited service time as of January 2014, from Baseball-Reference.com in date format yy.ddd. For example, 3.102 means a player has three years, 102 days of service time. 172 days are needed to qualify for a full year of service time, although a player cannot earn more than one year's service in a season.

Added to 40-man - Date the player was first added to the 40-man roster, in date format mm/yyyy.

Opt 1/2/3 - Years that the player's first / second / third option years were used, if applicable. Use of fourth option year, if applicable, is indicated in notes.

Previous outright - Year that the player was first previously outrighted off a 40-man roster, if applicable.

NON 40-MAN ROSTER

Note: All other organizational players are not believed to have ever been added to a 40-man roster, and therefore retain their full complement of options and the ability to be outrighted off the 40-man if added.

Sources: Baseball-Reference, BlueJays.com, TSN.ca.

Sneak Preview

Coming next to the Bluebird Banter Library: a primer on baseball transactions.

Two games, two wins. It doesn't count but winning always feels better than losing. I wonder if getting some wins this spring will be important for the team's psyche? Make them feel like everyone's wrong about them this year? I don't know, I guess I want to think there is a purpose to the games.

Today, after two games against Philadelphia, we play the other Pennsylvania team, the Pirates. The Game is on Sportsnet.

A couple of tiny bits of news today:

• Sergio Santos has a stomach flu and was told to stay home. He was scheduled to pitch today.
• Gibby said something that we all knew already, second base is Goins spot to lose. We knew that. What we don't know is what he would have to happen to lose the job. If he goes 0 for the spring, does he lose the job? Is it all on his defense? Does he have to show he can take a walk?

Today we have Buehrle starting. Morrow is also to pitch. Delabar, Jenkins, Hendriks, Nolin, Sanchez and Storey all are to appear.

The Mel Rojas, Jr is the son of Mel Rojas the former relief pitcher/closer for the Expos, as well as being a nephew of the Alou brothers.

As always, join in the thread. Don't be terrible.

Go Jays.

Undefeated in February! It's not the same as being undefeated in October, but we'll take what we can get.

Blue Jays 4 Pirates 2

Three games, three wins. Maybe Buck and Jerry are right that Seitzer is a miracle worker.

Happy thoughts:

• Once again Moises Sierra made good contact, hitting a hard single that went right through the Pirates SS, but his big moment was throwing out Gaby Sanchez, who was trying to tag up from second to on a deep fly to the right field corner. Just a terrific throw. Moises has looked really good this spring.
• Mark Buehrle looked good in his first inning (3 quick outs), less good in his second, 2 hits, a walk and a run. All in, not bad for his first time out.
• Brandon Morrow was much the same, great quick first inning. His second inning, he gave up 2 hard hit doubles to start off the inning, then was helped out by the fly out double play by Moises. Another hard hit fly to Sierra ended his inning, with him giving up the 1 run. Not great but his first time out there since last May,
• Steve Delabar and Chad Jenkins each pitched a clean inning. Sean Nolin gave up a hit and a walk in his scoreless inning.
• We had our first live look at Aaron Sanchez, we saw the good and the bad. An amazing curve for strike 3 against his first batter. A quick ground out followed. 'Then a walk, a soft single and a walk, before he got out of the inning.
• Liam Hendriks allowed just a walk in getting what will likely be his only save ever for the Jays, pitching the 9th. Andy Burns made a great play at first to help him out.
• Munenori Kawasaki had 2 singles, a walk and a steal...I think he wanted to show Gibby that he shouldn't just give second base to Goins.
• Colby had a hard hit single to drive in a run and drove in another with a tapper to the pitcher, who bobbled it, taking away any chance at getting the runner at the plate. Course we were told it was Seitzer that caused it.
• Dioner Navarro doubled, and looked fine behind the plate.

Not so happy thoughts:

• 0 fors for Gose, Lind, Dan Johnson, Izturis and Goins (though Goins and Gose each had a walk. And I think that's about all unhappy thoughts. Who can have unhappy thoughts when there is baseball?

Tomorrow the Orioles are the opponents. It looks like it is on MLB.tv. Drew Hutchison, Ricky Romero and Marcus Stroman will each get their first spring game action.

We've hit that time in spring training where the minor sorenesses are starting to show up:

• Brett Lawrie has hamstring tightness and will sit today. He wanted to play but the team is being careful.
• Casey Janssen has a sore shoulder and will get a few days off.
• And Edwin Encarnacion is getting the day off, not because he is hurting but because the team wants to be careful with his wrist.

All of these are normal spring training aches and pains, I don't think there is anything to really worry about (though if I was going to worry about one, it would be Casey).  Guys get playing again, after a winter off, and there are going to be some aches and pains. When they start talking MRI's and things like that is when I'll start worrying.

In other news, John Lott has a talk with Melky Cabrera, with Melky saying that when he heard 'tumor' he thought the worst, which I guess we all would, but:

The tumour was benign. "Now, thank you to God, no pain or nothing. My body's very good," he said. "Everything is normal."

The Blue Jays appear to have already declared a winner in their second base competition.

Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said Friday that Ryan Goins is expected to be the team's starting second baseman come the beginning of the season, reports Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com.

Previously, Goins has been expected to compete with Maicer Izturis to claim the starting job. However, it appears Gibbons has already made his choice.

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"Goins is our guy right now," Gibbons told reporters. "We want to see him do his thing. There's always a chance."

Gibbons also acknowledged that while the left-handed-batting Goins might be the primary starter, Izturis could be the second baseman on Opening Day as the team faces Tampa Bay Rays' left-hander David Price.

Goins, 26, started most of the Blue Jays' games at second base over the final six weeks of the 2013 regular season. Emilio Bonifacio started the season as the team's primary second baseman, but lost most of his playing time and was eventually sent to the Kansas City Royals. Izturis started 47 games at the position last year.

Over 34 major league games in 2013, Goins had his share of struggles, hitting .252/.264/.345. He also had a .679 OPS for Triple-A Buffalo last year and is a career .273/.330/.376 minor league hitter.

There may still be a possibility that fresh competition could knock Goins out of the starting spot. The Blue Jays have reportedly had some interest in shortstop Stephen Drew on the free agent market. Were Toronto to sign Drew, he could play second base with Jose Reyes at short and Brett Lawrie at third.

The game is on MLB.tv.

We get to see Drew Hutchison today, I'm looking forward to that. I'd like him to get a job out of camp but I know it is't going to happen. Alex isn't going to lose both Redmond and Rogers so Hutchison can start. We'll also see Romero and Stroman today.

Pretty good lineup for the O's, though I didn't realize that Alex Gonzalez was still playing. I'm always curious to see which regulars make bus trips in Spring Training. Later in camp some of them will use their major league veteran card to get out of sitting on a bus in Florida traffic.

What I'm interested to see today: Stroman, still interested in watching Melky run, also interested in seeing how long it takes before one of Lind's teammates chops off that beard while he is napping.

Join us in the thread. As always, try not to be terrible.

Go Jays.

Blue Jays 9 Orioles 7

What You Need To Know

• Drew Hutchison looked great on his road back from Tommy John surgery striking out four batters. He blew through the first inning throwing exclusively low-90's fastballs, showing no nerves or mechanical issues. In the second inning he brought in his slider as well at 87MPH a few times, striking out J.J. Hardy with one. He also threw a wicked changeup to Matt Wieters, showing that he still has the feel for all three of his pitches. The fastball command was solid throughout the two innings and was a great statement appearance in his attempt to grab the last starting rotation spot.
• Chris Getz staked his claim for a legitimate look at the second base position this season with a nice defensive play in the first inning plus an easy triple in the second, a single in the fifth and a RBI double in the sixth as well as beating out a double play in the eighth. On the downside he got caught stealing on a bad call and dropped a very tough pop-up in the fourth inning, but I wouldn't hold either of those against him.
• *I would hold the error Chris Getz made in the eighth inning against him though seeing as it pretty well cost the Blue Jays the game.
• Jared Goedert had a nice at-bat following Getz's triple, driving him in with a RBI single.
• Marcus Stroman came in throwing heat alongside some nice looking sliders and changeups, although the radar gun on the TV broadcast went a little wild recording most of his pitches at 61 MPH. He surrendered a single and walk in the third inning, but the strike zone did get a little tight when he was throwing. He then gave up a double to Chris Davis on a hanging slider that drove in the two runners. He got out of the inning with a much better looking slider to Adam Jones. The Duke graduate came back out for the fourth flashing some nice changeups, but the command wasn't there for a lot of his pitches, allowing back-to-back singles before getting out of the inning by striking out the side.
• Ricky Romero came in and *GASP* couldn't throw strikes. The delivery was all sorts of awkward, but he laboured through the inning safely mainly because Baltimore hitters were swinging at pitches in the other batter's box.
• Anthony Gose had a RBI single in the sixth inning and then proceeded to steal second and third before being driven in by Chris Getz.
• Dan Johnson smashed a three-run homer over the right field wall in the sixth inning.
• Deck McGuire didn't look so great in his planned two innings of work, getting hit around in the eighth inning before exiting the game with the bases juiced and just one out on the board (he went 1.1 innings). Jordan Walden came in and let all of McGuire's baserunners score and loaded the bases himself before a bases clearing triple made it 9-7 Baltimore. The seven-run eighth inning is what lost the Blue Jays this game.
• The Blue Jays big league hitters didn't look that great today, with the reserve guys/Chris Getz getting the majority of the hits.

All in all a positive game for the Blue Jays with some fringe players making a statement that they deserve a shot at the big league squad. Tomorrow sees the Blue Jays host the New York Yankees in Dunedin. Esmil Rogers, Todd Redmond, Brett Cecil, Aaron Loup, Jeremy Jeffress, and Chad Jenkins are expected to take the mound.

An eighth inning rally by the Orioles resulted in a 9-7 Orioles win. All of the regulars were already out of the game, but it was still fun.

The Orioles and Blue Jays faced off today in the O's first home game of the spring, and Miguel Gonzalez took the ball for the Orioles against Drew Hutchinson of the Jays. The starting lineups for both teams was made up mostly of regulars, and while they battled each other the score remained a respectable 2-1 in favor of the Orioles. It was only after the regulars were out of the game that all heck broke loose, resulting in a 9-7 Orioles win thanks to a seven-run eighth inning.

Miguel Gonzalez had a quick first inning, but got into knocked around in the second as the Jays got to him for two singles and a triple. A double play in the middle meant that only one run scored. The O's got back on top in the bottom of the third, as new Orioles David Lough and Nelson Cruz got on base via single and walk, respectively. Chris Davis muscled a double the opposite way to knock both runners in and give the O's a 2-1 lead.

By the start of the sixth inning, the Orioles had made substitutions for pretty much their entire starting lineup, but the Jays still had most of their regulars in. Edgmer Escalona came in to pitch for the O's and he was not good. He managed to retired Adam Lind and Jose Bautista, but everyone else owned him. He gave up singles, he gave up doubles, he gave up walks. And the icing on the cake was a three-run homer by former Oriole (if you blinked last season, you missed him) Dan Johnson. It's only spring training, but Escalona did not make a very good impression.

The Jays added one run in the top of the eighth, and in the bottom of the inning the Orioles scrubs played their hearts out and knocked around a pitcher allegedly named Deck McGuire. Francisco Peguero and Steve Pearce singled, followed by a walk to Ivan De Jesus to load the bases. Johnny Monell struck out, but Jonathan Schoop singled in a run. That was it for Deck McGuire, who was replaced by another guy whose name isn't as cool as Deck McGuire. Xavier Paul singled in another run and Julio Borbon knocked in a run on a force out. The O's scrubs re-loaded the bases just in time for Peguero to get his second at-bat of the inning, and he hit a sweet shot to right-center field for a bases-clearing triple. Nice!

Evan Meek, who is larger than I would have guessed from his name, pitched a clean ninth inning to wrap up the win. The Orioles are now 2-0 in the Grapefruit League.

Tomorrow the Orioles take on the Boston Red Sox. If you have MLB.tv or MLB Network, the game will be broadcast there beginning at 1:05.

Game Notes:

• MASN had a very nice tribute to Monica Barlow, their PR director who passed away yesterday from cancer, throughout the game. Stories from Gary Thorne, Buck Showalter, and Adam Jones, along with tweets from others who knew her (such as Amber Theoharis), along with pictures of Monica between innings. It was sad but lovely.
• It's spring training for the announcers, too, as Gary Thorne pronounced Edgmer Escalona's name as Es-ca-LAH-na and referred to the Blue Jays' manager as Jay Gibbons instead of John Gibbons.
• New Orioles David Lough and Nelson Cruz made a good first impression. Cruz didn't have a hit, but he walked twice. I will always accept that. And Lough had a single and a stolen base on offense, and made a sweet diving catch on defense.
• Franciso Peguero was the only Oriole with more than one hit, and he had them both in the same inning! We don't give Most Birdland Player awards for spring games, but if we did, he earned it.

After a one-year partnership with Jack Morris, long-time Blue Jays radio play-by-play man Jerry Howarth will be partnered with former catcher Joe Siddall in 2014. Siddall, a 46-year-old from Windsor, Ontario, made his broadcasting debut just last Wednesday during the Blue Jays' first spring training game. Although Howarth mentioned several times during the Wednesday broadcast that Siddall was going to be joining him for the entire season, the decision was not made official until today.

Jerry just said it - it's officiall! Joe Siddall is our new full-time analyst on #Bluejays radio broadcasts. Welcome aboard, @SiddallJoe !

— Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness590) March 1, 2014

It was previously reported by the Toronto Sun's Bob Elliott that Siddall was just the frontrunner for the analyst job, and would be auditioning in the spring with others joining the booth in the second half of March. Sportsnet Radio 590 the FAN approached Jeff Nelson, C.J. Nitkowski, and Matt Stairs as well, Elliott reported, but they did not want to commit to a full 162-game season.

Having only caught parts of two games on the radio so far in the spring, it is hard for me to form a definitive opinion of Siddall as a radio analyst, but I have enjoyed it so far. Siddall, being a former catcher, has given some good situational analysis,but does occasionally does slide into cliches. However, as Jerry Howarth said at the end of the Saturday broadcast, Siddall has been doing great for a broadcasting rookie.

Joseph Todd Siddall was signed by the Montreal Expos as an amateur free agent in 1987 and made his professional debut the next year in their short-season A affiliate in the New York-Penn League. He was promoted a level each season until reaching double-A in 1991 where he stayed for two seasons. He was promoted to triple-A Ottawa in 1993 and made his major league debut for Montreal on July 28, 1993 at age 25. On September 6 of that season, Siddall was tapped to catch Denis Boucher at Stade Olympique, forming just the eighth all-Canadian battery in major league history. In that game, for the first time in major league history, three Canadians were in the starting lineup (Larry Walker was in right field).

Siddall would end up catching just 73 games over parts of four seasons in the majors for the Expos, Marlins, and Tigers. He signed a minor league contract with the Red Sox and was triple-A Pawtucket's backup catcher in 2000 before he hung up his cleats in June, right before his kids' summer vacation.

"When I retired, I left the Red Sox at the first of June (2000) and it was a very difficult thing . . . and when I came home by the end of June, the kids were out of school and it was the greatest decision I ever made in my life," he told Slam! Sports in a 2006 interview. Unfortunately, Siddall lost his son Kevin to cancer less than a month ago on February 4-days before the teen's fifteenth birthday.

You can stream the radio broadcasts to all Blue Jays spring training games for free at BlueJays.com. You just need to sign up for an MLB account.

The good news is that the Jays are now playing baseball so we fans can focus on the games and not the tumultuous offseason which disappointed many. The bad news is that Scott Boras is still acting like a bad Jaystalk Caller. The good news (so far) is that AA is treating him as one by ignoring him.

JAYS LINKS

Toronto Blue Jays’ Mark Buehrle, a quirky starter, breaks in a new catcher | National Post
Buehrle is a rarity among pitchers

Healthy Blue Jay Melky Cabrera attempts to rehab image: Griffin | Toronto Star
Jays outfielder running freely after back tumour surgery, eyes rebound in final year of contract.

Toronto Blue Jays’ Drew Hutchison focuses on finding strike zone in spring start | National Post
Toronto starter Drew Hutchison, battling for the fifth starter's job, struck out four in throwing two scoreless innings

More mature Blue Jay Brett Lawrie ready to blossom on his own: Griffin | Toronto Star

The question is: when is Lawrie’s athleticism going to translate into a breakout season for the tightly wound young star?

Hutchison not making things easy for Stroman - Sportsnet.ca
If Saturday's game against Baltimore is any indication, Marcus Stroman is facing a steep climb in his bid for a rotation spot due to the performance of his main competitor, Drew Hutchison.

The Blue Jay Hunter: Maybe Scott Boras Was Right?
Scott Boras criticized the Blue Jays ownership for their lack of moves this winter. Maybe his points were valid?

MLB LINKS

Did MLB Rig Its Own Stupid Contest?
It is very unlikely that you weren't at least peripherally aware of MLB Network's irritating, interminable, "Face of MLB" contest, a bracket-style competition where fans voted on Twitter for a meaningless award. David Wright was announced as the winner this morning, but not after some curious voting irregularities.

Twin prospect Miguel Sano headed for Tommy John surgery, will miss 2014 | Big League Stew - Yahoo Sports
The Minnesota Twins were holding their breath after power-hitting prospect Miguel Sano— ranked No.6 in Baseball Amerca's preseason prospect rankings — reported discomfort in his right elbow on Friday. Unfortunately, their worst fears were realized on Saturday when it was determined he will require Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2014 season.

Vin Scully Calling A Kid Rolling Down A Hill Is What Spring Is For (text sort of NSFW0
Part of me loves this clip because that little kid is way cute and listening to Vin Scully talk about anything is always a good time, but another part of me hates it deeply.

MLB Announces Revolutionary New Fielding-Tracking System
Even in their recent state of repair, defensive metrics have always had a certain reverse-engineered, SABR-in-retrograde quality to them, even in a statistically mature sport like baseball. MLB Advanced Media just announced a new system that would slam the door shut on that era.

The Significance of Pitching to the Park | FanGraphs Baseball
Would you really want a fly-ball guy in, say, Baltimore? Would you really want a fly-ball guy in Toronto? Those are pretty homer-friendly parks. In theory, they’re not suited to Santana’s skillset.

Exceptional Defense Touches Everyone | FanGraphs Baseball
Here’s something that should be pretty evident: If you’ve got a ground-ball pitcher, you want him pitching in front of a strong infield defense. Likewise, if you’ve got a fly-ball pitcher, you want him pitching in front of a strong outfield defense.

How Batted Ball Distance Ages
Never before had Ellsbury displayed that kind of power at the big league level, or even in the minor leagues over a significant number of at-bats. The question, of course, was whether this was a massive power breakout for the talented center fielder or if this was simply an outlier performance.

The Injury Zone, Revisited
When Kalk wrote "The Injury Zone" in early 2009, a new form of baseball data had just been released to the public. Kalk was able to take advantage of data produced by PITCHf/x cameras that have been recording baseball games since 2008, and that now sit in every major league stadium. The information that Sportvision’s system provides essentially allows for the reconstruction of the ball flight and release point of each pitch thrown in a major league ballpark.

The State and Future of Pitch-Framing Research
We need to better understand catcher defense. It is not a matter of small weight. It is not a final flourish on player evaluation. It is a weighty, vital next and present step in baseball analytics.

Vidal Nuno will get the start against the Blue Jays in the Yankees' sixth game of spring training. Today's game probably won't match the excitement or anticipation of yesterday's game, but we can try.

The bench for today's game includes: Gary Sanchez (C), Francisco Arcia (1B), Corban Joseph (2B), Yangervis Solarte (SS), Jose Pirela (3B), Zelous Wheeler (LF), Antoan Richardson (CF), and Addison Maruszak (RF). Available to DH are Jose Gil, John Ryan Murphy, Peter O'Brien and Mason Williams. In addition to Nuno, Bryan Mitchell, Shane Greene, Bruce Billings, Fred Lewis, Matt Daley, Dan Burawa, Chris Leroux and Mark Montgomery are available to pitch.

This game will air on tape delay at 8 pm eastern on MLB Network, but can be seen on MLB.tv.