Another one that is on Sportsnet.

On the injury front (well not really injury, soreness front):

• Brett Lawrie is back in the lineup.
• Colby Rasmus will be off for a couple of days with 'neck soreness.
• Casey Janssen needs a couple more days.

And in former Jays news, David Cooper has been DFAed by the Indians. I wonder where he will end up.

Esmil Rogers gets the start.

Join us in the thread. Don't be terrible. Go Jays.

Yankees 8 Blue Jays 2

Jays are now 3-2 this spring.

Happy thoughts:

• Jose Bautista homered in the first, it didn't seem like he made great contact, but he was strong enough to knock it out.
• Esmil Rogers looked good, he did give up 3 hits and a run in his 2 innings, but 2 of the hits were very soft contact. One went about 15 feet down the third base line.
• Brett Cecil pitched a nice inning, he did give up two very soft hits, but also struck out two.
• Munenori Kawasaki made a great play, very deep at short, making a strong throw to first to end the Yankees 7th inning. I didn't think he had the arm for that play.
• John Stilson came into the game with the bases loaded, two outs, and got a nice strikeout.
• Melky Cabrera was 2 for 3 with a double. Looks good at the plate, and is running better than last year (which, I know, is faint praise).
• Adam Lind hit a ball to the opposite field wall (after 2 strikeouts in his first 2 at bats).
• Jose Reyes and Edwin Encarnacion each had hard hit doubles. Reyes was also thrown out stealing second.
• Dioner Navarro looks pretty smooth behind the plate. He had a single in 3 at bats.
• Chad Jenkins had a quick 9th, with 2 strikeouts.

Not so happy thoughts:

• Todd Redmond did not look good, giving up 2 deep homers, 2 walks and 3 earned in his two innings. It's early but he didn't help his chances for the 5th starter spot.
• Jeremy Jeffress got 2 quick outs, then gave up a single and 2 walks. He was lucky that Stilson came in and got the third out, without giving up a run.  I didn't think he looked all that bad, but then I like the guy.
• Aaron Loup gave up a could of hits and a run.
• Neil Wagner gave up 3 hits, including a 3 run homer.
• Ryan Goins was 1 for 4. The one hit was a ground single that rolled through the infield. I shouldn't complain, but I haven't seen him make good contact yet.

Tomorrow the Jays play a split squad of the Twins, I think the game is on MLB.tv but it isn't  on Sportsnet. J.A. Happ gets his second start.

Scott MacArthur, at TSN tells us that the first cuts of the spring have been made.  Tomo Ohka and Juan Perez have been sent to the minor league camp. No surprise really. Juan is trying to come back from injury, and Ohka is trying to learn a knuckleball, there was no chance he'd make the team, though I thought he'd stay around longer to have R.A. mentor him. I don't know why they would sign a 37-year-old who's trying to learn a trick pitch, one that generally takes years to figure out. I guess they just want to give their minor league catchers some experience with the knuckleball.

58 players are left in major league camp.

Scott also tells us that the Blue Jays are shopping Sergio Santos, again not a surprise. Scott says they are looking for starting pitching or a right-handed bat. I'm thinking that Moises Sierra has shown enough to be the right-handed hitting half of a platoon with Lind.

He also has stuff about Casey Janssen's shoulder soreness and Colby Rasmus's neck.

Last Time on Pinstripe Alley

• Video: Manny Banuelos throws live batting practice
• Yankees 8, Blue Jays 2: Trio of home runs give Yankees win
• Spring Training Game Six: Yankees vs. Blue Jays
• Don't expect Andrew Bailey to help the Yankees in 2014
• Yankees spring training TV schedule

Yankees News

ESPN New York | Wallace Matthews: Ichiro Suzuki believes he can still start and plans to play for many years to come.

New York Times | David Waldstein:Shawn Kelley was a childhood friend of Jennifer Lawrence.

The Baltimore Sun | Peter Schmuck: The Orioles didn't take too kindly to Brian Cashman calling them a fluke in 2012.

LoHud | Chad Jennings: Eduardo Nunez needs to show that he can play all over the infield if he wants to make the team.

ESPN New York | Andrew Marchand: Could the Yankees replace Derek Jeter with Jose Reyes?

Pinstripe Pundits | Chris Mitchell: Looking for players who are comparable to Greg Bird.

The Record | Bob Klapisch: Evaluating Masahiro Tanaka's spring debut.

ESPN New York | Andrew Marchand: Joe Girardi believes that Michael Pineda has improved since last year.

Beyond the Box Score | Evan Kendall: Will CC Sabathia be able to rebound in 2014?

The Beanball | Ben Berkon: Did the Yankees change their mind about extending Brett Gardner because they lost faith in their prospects?

Pinstripe Pundits | Chris Mitchell: Potential Fangraphs FANS projections for the New York Yankees.

Yahoo Sports | Mark Townsend: PSA was featured in a post about Masahiro Tanaka's debut!

Today the Blue Jays travel to Fort Myers to play the Twins.

There hasn't been much news coming out of the Jays camp so far this spring. John Lott has a story about Ricky Romero. I didn't know he had a stem cell procedure done on his knees. It doesn't sound fun.

J.A. Happ gets the start. Twins have Kevin Correia starting.

On Monday, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons made the first unsuccessful challenge in baseball history.

Instant replay officially arrived in Major League Baseball on Monday as Blue Jays manager John Gibbons challenged a ruling on a 6-4-3 double play.

In the top of the sixth inning, Brett Lawrie hit a ball to Twins shortstop Eduardo Escobar. He flipped to second base for the first out, and then Jorge Polanco fired the ball to first baseman Kennys Vargas. First base umpire Brian O'Nora called Lawrie out.

Gibbons emerged from the dugout, and after completing a lengthy discussion with the umpires, he decided to challenge that Vargas' foot was off the bag when he caught the throw.

Screen shot of umps on headsets eagerly awaiting ruling from replay central pic.twitter.com/YEVSG02hgy

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) March 3, 2014

The umpires determined the call would stand as previously ruled.

The review officially took 2:34 to complete, according to Stark. He also noted that MLB's goal is for most reviews to take anywhere from 60-to-90 seconds, meaning today's review took about twice as long as Joe Torre wants.

Here is more on expanded replay in 2014, as well as how the challenges will work.

The plan, as it stands now, allows managers to challenge one call per game with the option to challenge an additional call if their first challenge is sustained according to Daniel Barbarisi of the Wall Street Journal. Also, after the start of the seventh inning, the crew chief will be able to initiate a challenge on any reviewable play. There will also be eight new umpires to accommodate a replay command center stationed in New York which will handle all reviews. Joe Torre expects most reviews to take between one minute and 90 seconds.

The new challenge system will take some time getting used to, but in the end, it should result in the right call being made every time. That is something everyone can get behind, even if there are fears about changing the way baseball has done things for 130 years.

Blue Jays 2 Twins 12

That was less than fun. Oh well, might as well have a game like that in the spring. The Jays are 3-3 now this spring.

Happy Thoughts (there aren't many):

• Edwin Encarnacion homered, a 2-run shot, scoring all our runs.
• Kenny Wilson was 2 for 2
• Bobby Korecky was pretty good in his 1.2 innings, 1 hit, 2 k.
• Brett Lawrie turned a great double play, taking a ground ball behind the plate, and then throwing across his body to first.
• Sean Nolin was good in his 1.2 innings. The boxscore says four hits, but one was a double that Kenny Wilson lost in the sun, one was a single that K.

Less Happy Thoughts:

• J.A.Happ was terrible. Started by giving up a hard hit single and double, then went on to walk 4. He left after getting only one out. He isn't filling me with confidence.
• Dustin McGowan wasn't much better, 2 hits, 2 walk, 2 k, 3 earned.
• Kyle Drabek looked pretty good in his first inning, 2 ground ball singles and a Munenori error, but he worked through it and didn't allow a run. The next inning went single, walk, hit batter, soft line out, bases loaded walk and he was out of the game. He was charged with 4 earned runs, but 3 of those came on a fly ball that Kenny Wilson lost in the sun, turning an easy out into a 3-run double.
• We had some bad defense. Maicer Izturis had a throwing error on a relay to first, costing us a run, maybe two (a decent throw would have got the runner at the plate). Munenori Kawasaki made a bad throw on an easy ground ball to short, pulling first baseman Dan Johnson off the bag. . Gibby did ask for a replay on the call but he lost the challenge. It was close, it looked like Johnson might have gotten his foot back to the bag. And Kenny Wilson lost that ball in the sun, it was called a double but it should have been an easy out. Gibby lost another challenge in the 8th, Kevin Nolan made a nice play, on a ground ball at short, but his throw was just too far off the bag.
• Anthony Gose was 0 for 2 on 2 weak ground balls. Chris Getz was 0 for 3, one of them was a hard hit line drive, but right at a fielder. Dioner Navarro was 0 for 2. Moises Sierra 0 for 3 and didn't look as good at the plate as he had earlier this spring. Maicer was 0 for 2, soft ground outs again. Kevin Pillar was 0 for 3 with 2 k.

Not a fun game at all. Have to remind myself it is only spring and pitchers do have bad days in spring. But then, when you really aren't thrilled with the idea of J.A. Happ being one of you starters, a bad outing adds to your worries.

Brian Creagh profiles Toronto Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman

Once upon a time, former FakeTeams writer, Andrew Ball and myself found out exactly where our difference in philosophies lie when discussing the power arms at the top of the Toronto Blue Jays organization. As someone partial to the projectable frame of Aaron Sanchez, I appeared down on Marcus Stroman in comparison. I made sure to secure an article on Stroman during SP week in order to help set the record straight. Marcus Stroman has one of the highest ceilings of any major league arm, and has a very good chance of developing into an elite fantasy starter, combining high strikeout totals with low WHIP components. Stroman certainly deserves consideration for the top spot in the Blue Jays minor league rankings, but there is a certain amount of risk that Stroman still carries that makes me hesitant to crown him.

Standing at 5'9" (and possibly even a few inches shorter) Marcus Stroman lacks the size you'd like to see from a frontline starter. However he has more than enough "stuff" to make up for it with the potential of 4 above-average offerings. A nasty fastball that sits mid-90's late into the game, a big-time cutter with late, glove-side break that will break plenty of big-league bats, as well as a slider and changeup that still have some projection left. He will find consistency with the two pitches and when he does, he has a complete an arsenal as anyone in professional baseball.

The risk with Stroman is all in his frame. Due to his diminutive stature he will need to keep the ball down at all times to avoid giving up the long ball. While certainly capable of doing it, his margin for error is much smaller than say an Aaron Sanchez who has the build to get good angle on all of his pitches even when he misses his spots. The upside with Stroman from a fantasy perspective is that even if he does the rotation doesn't work out (although I think it will for the first few years) his filthy combination of pitches will play extremely well in the backend of a bullpen. Meaning buy freely knowing at worst you're going to get one of the better closers in the game if the worst case scenario comes to light.

I'm still partial to Sanchez despite him being another year or two away, but I certainly like Stroman and wouldn't advise against investing him in any keeper/dynasty format.

If you had to pick one of the A.L. East shortstops to be on your team in 2014, who would you go with? I say J.J. Hardy.

We continue our series comparing the A.L. East positions today with a look at shortstop. I have ranked each player by who I think will be best in 2014 and I have to say, it's a lot more fun writing up these comparisons now that the Orioles have good players. Take a look at my ranking and tell me what you think. Am I right on? Total off base? Blinded by my love for J.J. Hardy?

1. J.J. Hardy - Baltimore Orioles

Am I homer? Quite possibly. The shortstop position in the A.L. East has a lot of good names. If I were picking a complete career to have on the Orioles at this position, I'd go with Derek Jeter and probably Jose Reyes. If I were picking a shortstop to have from this moment going forward, I'd take Xander Bogaerts. But for 2014 alone, I find it tough to go with anyone other than our own James Jerry.

Over the past three seasons with the Orioles, Hardy has hit a total of 77 home runs, by far the most of any shortstop in that same time span. Even Troy Tulowitzki only hit 63. Of course, the flip side to that is that he hit all of those bombs while maintaining a disappointing .298 OBP. The combination make him basically a league average bat, although getting power from his position is certainly a bonus.

The thing that makes Hardy one of the best shortstops in baseball is that, combined with his power numbers at the plate, he is an outstanding defender. FanGraphs ranks him as the third-best A.L. defensive shortstop in 2013, and over the last three seasons he ranks first. He has good range, sure hands, and a strong and accurate arm. When the game is on the line, he is the guy you want the ball hit to (well, him or Manny Machado). ZiPS agrees with me that he should be the best shortstop in the A.L. East in 2014, projecting him to be worth 3.4 WAR.

2. Jose Reyes - Toronto Blue Jays

There are some days when I might rank Jose Reyes as the top shortstop in the A.L. East. I consider myself a Reyes fan, and there is no denying that when he is good, he is very, very good. He has been playing in the majors for eleven seasons already and he won't be 31 years old until June. Even last year, when he was on the field, Reyes was pretty good. But the key point is that he has a lot of trouble staying on the field.

Since 2009, Reyes has managed to stay healthy for an entire season exactly once. He was struck with injury again last year, his first season with the Blue Jays. He got off to a quick start for the Jays but suffered a high ankle sprain the took him out of commission for 66 games. He returned in June and played 83 games over the rest of the season. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't the Reyes the Jays thought they were getting. His power was down some and one of his major assets, his ability to steal bases, just wasn't there.

There's no reason to think that Reyes isn't fully healed after having an offseason to recover and strengthen his ankle, and if he is and can stay healthy for the the full year, I think he could easily be the best shortstop in the A.L. East.

3. Yunel Escobar - Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays have no issue with taking on players with character issues, and Escobar is no exception. He is far from an offensive powerhouse, but at shortstop he doesn't need to be. He has slugged just .374 over the past three seasons, but he generally gets on base at a decent, although not outstanding, clip.

Both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference ranked his 2013 WAR over 3 (3.3 bWAR and 3.9 fWAR), and that was on the strength of his defense as he showed himself to be about league average at the plate. His UZR/150 of 12.2 was far beyond any other single season mark in his career (the next highest being 5), so there is reason to think he could regress defensively in 2014.

With a bat that rarely reaches league-average territory, Escobar is reliant on his defense for much of his value. He's been a good addition to the Rays so far, and he'll likely be a solid, but not extremely valuable part of their team in 2014. I'm just glad he's not an Orioles, because rooting for a guy who puts homophobic slurs in his eye black is not something I'm capable of doing.

4. Xander Bogaerts - Boston Red Sox

I don't know where I should rank Xander Bogaerts, honestly. He is one of the best prospects in baseball, ranked #2 by Keith Law going into this season. He's had killer numbers in the minors, and he is being given the starting shortstop job in Boston with just 18 games of MLB experience. Part of me says that he'll be young and inexperienced and, even if he has a long and successful career ahead of him, it's very possible that success won't happen in 2014. But on the other hand, for a team like the Red Sox to think he's ready for the job, he must be very special.

Keith Law says about him: "Bogaerts has explosive potential as a hitter, as the ball comes off his bat exceptionally well, and the fact he sees the ball so well and makes good decisions as a hitter bodes well for his ability to adjust to major league pitching." and that he could be a player similar to Troy Tulowitzki, which means he's special. ZiPs ranks him favorably but not outlandishly, and predicts a 2.7 WAR.

It's possible that next year or the year after, Bogaerts will be at the top of this list. But he'll have to prove himself first.

5. Derek Jeter - New York Yankees

It's hard to know what to expect from Derek Jeter in 2014. On one hand, he was injured most of last year and it's uncertain how he'll bounce back from that. And he certainly hasn't been the same player over the past four seasons that he was earlier in his career. But on the other hand, he might be bolstered by his retirement tour, and let's face it, the Yankees practice dark magic.

I think that it's a real possibility that Jeter will bounce back to have a decent season at the plate, but positives on that side of the ledger will surely be canceled out by the fact that I can't imagine a world where his defense isn't horrible. In his prime years Jeter was passable, at best, on defense. But now he is a soon-to-be-forty-year-old shortstop coming off of major ankle injury that limited him to just 17 games in 2013. For what it's worth, ZiPS projects him to be worth 0.4 WAR this season.

Monday, several games were set up for replay review. And the first reviews of review are positive.

The Cubs/Brewers game Monday in Maryvale was one of several games set up for Major League Baseball's first replay-review test. Unfortunately (fortunately?), there were no plays that either Rick Renteria or Brewers manager Ron Roenicke had cause to challenge.

So the "first" in what will likely be many reviews goes to a play in the Twins/Blue Jays game Monday in Fort Myers, Florida, as recounted by ESPN.com's Jayson Stark:

It started with a play in which the two players on the historic replay screen were a couple of soon-to-be household names who were thrilled to be immortalized (or whatever) -- Twins outfielder Chris Rahl and Blue Jays first baseman Jared Goedert.

And it started with a challenge by Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, which was issued not by tossing a red flag, an old rosin bag or a broken fungo bat -- but with a jog out to first base to invite first-base ump Fieldin Culbreth to get those replay machines off and whirring.

"John came out, and, basically, he told me, 'I'm not too sure that you're not right here. But since we haven't done it before, let's go take a look,'" Culbreth reported afterward. "And I said, 'OK. That's what it's for.'"

As further written by Stark, umpire Brian O'Nora, who was in a TV truck watching for reviews, took about two and a half minutes to confirm Culbreth's safe call. That doesn't seem too long -- most manager arguments take at least that long, although Stark writes that "most" reviews are expected to be shorter than that (between 60 and 90 seconds). During the regular season, there will be more cameras and thus more angles than the three FSN North cameras that were available Monday, and the reviews will take place in a central location in New York, not at each ballpark.

There was a second review done during the Twins/Blue Jays game, and this is good news:

Maybe the most encouraging thing that happened all day was the second challenge -- because it happened in the eighth inning, when Gibbons was out of challenges. So in this case, he couldn't officially challenge a close call at first -- but he could "request" one. And the umpires never hesitated in heading right back to the headsets.

And that wasn't just because it was spring training and Day 1 in the replay lab and what the heck, either.

"I'm not separating spring training from the regular season," said Culbreth, who was in the replay booth for the second review. "I'm looking at this thing as this is the future of the game. And I'm going to treat these games here the same way that I'm going to treat them during the regular season. And if there's a reason for me to doubt what happened on the field, in the seventh inning and beyond, when it's the umpires' right to go look at it, if that's how I truly feel about it, I'm going to go take a look at it."

Let's all repeat together: Bravo.

So even though the "challenge" system is supposed to limit managers, they can also "request" reviews. And umpires, based on Culbreth's statement above, are just as interested in getting the calls right as managers, players and fans, so you might see virtually all bad calls reviewed.

As I have written before, there will be many games -- like Monday's Cubs/Brewers game -- where there will be no plays that will be reviewed. For long stretches of time, you might not even remember this system exists. I would guess that even in games where there are some controversies, you'd never see any game with more than three, possibly four at most, reviews. The Twins/Blue Jays game had two, and even the game participants didn't have any complaints:

We've heard repeatedly that the players' biggest fear about replay was that it would take too much time and destroy the rhythm of the game. But even after two reviews that ate up more than two minutes each, there wasn't a complaint to be heard.

"I didn't think it slowed the game down or anything too much," said Twins infielder Doug Bernier, whose sprint down the first-base line inspired the second review of the day. "I thought it was fine. I think everyone just wants to make sure you get the call right, so they were able to do that."

This all sounds really good. After years of having pretty much everyone in the game beg Bud Selig to get replay review going, it's finally here. It will make baseball better, because it will provide that the results on the field reflect what the players actually do, rather than one man's opinion (or four men's opinions) of what happened on a certain play.

For that, I echo Stark's call: Bravo.

No afternoon baseball today, so use that time to read this post and make some pancakes!

Spring Records

Following an undefeated February, the Blue Jays have been winless in March and now own a 3-3 record after six spring training games. Not that it matters, really: the goal is to get veterans a couple of innings of work then put in non-roster invitees and kids to see how they look... against other non-roster invitees and kids. The year when the Blue Jays "won" the Grapefruit League was also the year where they carried an excellent roster of prospects (also happened to be the year I visited Dunedin, fyi) The data below is a little dated but you can see that spring training records are barely predicative of regular season results. So I wouldn't get too wound up about wins and losses in individual games.

Blue Jays Tonight

In a rare spring night tilt against the Phillies, the Blue Jays are going to be sending out R.A. Dickey for a longer outing, around three or four innings, according to Gregor Chisholm's always-excellent North of the Border blog. Sergio Santos is expected to make his first spring appearance following Dickey, while Steve Delabar, Neil Wagner, Marcus Walden, and Liam Hendriks will also get innings in.

You can follow the game at MLB.com (audio is free for everyone, video only for MLB.tv subscribers). As always, we will have a GameThread here for you to join in.

TED Talks, But With Grass Stains

Kevin Kennedy is launching a fantastic-sounding series of baseball talks in Toronto called PITCH. The first event will be on Monday, April 7 (don't worry; it's an off day) in Toronto's Centre for Social Innovation at Bathurst just south of Bloor. They will be featuring Sportsnet's Shi Davidi and National Post's John Lott to talk about their book Great Expectations: The Lost Toronto Blue Jays Season (see my review here). Occasional Bluebird Banter Jared Macdonald and The Sport Brahs' Dylan Gott will be speaking as well. Of course, after the talk there will be a question-and-answer period.

Tickets are $15 and the event is held in support of the Jays Care Foundation; add another $15 and you'll get a copy of Davidi and Lott's book. Get your tickets ahead of time right here, and since y'all are Bluebird Banter readers, you can save $5 by entering in the coupon code "minorleaguer" at checkout. Oh yea, the $10 you'll pay will even get you a free sample of Left Field Brewery's delicious brew!

Hope to see you there!

The Origins of Edwin Encarnacion

Most of us already know how Edwin Encarnacion became a Toronto Blue Jays. He was basically the "throw-in" in a deal that landed the Jays a couple of young pitching prospects in Zach Stewart and Josh Roenicke when J.P. Ricciardi traded away Scott Rolen at the deadline. So why is Encarnacion listed as a free agent acquisition in the Roster Tree that is in our Library? It's because he was designated for assignment twice in 2010 (I think once had partly to do with his not running out a pop-up or ground ball), allowing the Athletics to claim him in the offseason, only to let him go as a free agent a few weeks later before re-signing with Toronto.

Kyle Matte, over at Drunk Jays Fans, put up an excellent recounting of how Encarnacion went from prospect to E5 before becoming the All-Star EE we all know (and now) love. Give it a read!

We Said What?!?

One year ago today, we had a post looking at the battle for second base between Maicer Izturis and Emilio Bonifacio. Tom wrote "I'm pretty sure Izturis hasn't forgotten how to hit over the winter" after he went 0-for-15 to start the spring (turns out he did!), and there were already worries about Bonifacio's defense (so it wasn't all turf?). The comments are also fun to read in hindsight.

Taking a look how our starting pitchers, and our depth starters, did the first week of spring training games.

A week into spring I thought we'd take a look at how the Blue Jays possible starting pitchers have performed.

The Tigers outfielder will be out until at least May while rehabbing from back surgery.

Detroit Tigers outfielder Andy Dirks will have back surgery and miss 12 weeks, according to Chris Iott of MLive.com.

The injury didn't arise from any specific incident, but per Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski, has been an issue that Dirks has dealt with since high school.

Dirks was penciled in as the Tigers' starting left fielder heading into 2014, with Rajai Davis expected to earn some at-bats against left-handed pitching. Now, however, the Tigers will be turning to other internal candidates, along with Davis, to help fill in for Dirks while he is rehabbing, according to Dombrowski.

Dirks will need six weeks before being healthy enough to resume baseball activities and another six weeks before he should be ready to play again, making a return sometime in May the most likely outcome.

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The 28-year-old had an up-and-down season in 2013, hitting .256/.323/.363 with nine home runs in 116 games out in left field. This came after a strong 2012 campaign in which Dirks batted .322/.370/.487 with eight home runs over 344 plate appearances in his first full major league season.

Outfielder Don Kelly swapped time with Dirks out in left field during 2013, and he is the most likely candidate to fill in for Dirks. The 34-year-old Kelly hit .222/.309/.343 in 251 plate appearances for Detroit last season.

The Tigers signed Davis to a two-year, $10 million contract back in December specifically to give the team more depth in the outfield, which will be even more crucial now that Dirks is out for an extended period of time. Davis had spent the past three years in Toronto and hit .260/.312/.375 with 45 stolen bases for the Blue Jays in 2013. The 33-year-old has been better against left-handed pitchers throughout his career, owning a .294/.354/.425 mark against lefties over his eight-year career.

As a result, the Tigers planned to platoon Davis with Dirks, who performs better against right-handers. That plan will have to be put on the back burner for the time being, however, as Dirks works his way back to the majors.

The injury isn't a huge loss for a talented Tigers lineup, especially this early in the season, but it well test the club's outfield depth until Dirks is able to return to full health.

I don't know why the 6:30 start, maybe something to do with the Phillies TV broadcast.

R.A. Dickey and Cliff Lee get their second starts of the spring.

I haven't seen lineup yet, but someone can put them up at the start of the game. I don't think I'll see much of the game, since I'll be busy making pancakes.

The game is on MLB.tv.

Blue Jays 5 Phillies 3

The Jays end their 3 game losing streak. We are now 4-3.

Happy Thoughts:

• The bullpen was great, 5 innings of scoreless pitching from: One inning each from Steve Delabar (1 k), Neil Wagner (1 hit), John Stilson (1 k). Two inings from Liam Hendriks (1 hit, 2 k). I thought Stilson was particularly impressive. I wonder if we'll see him in Toronto at some point this year.
• Adam Lind hit a home run that went went a mile.
• Dan Johnson homered.
• Melky Cabrera was 2 for 3.
• Erik Kratz was 2 for 4 and looked pretty comfortable catching R.A. Dickey, though he had one passed ball (it really didn't get far away from him, but Carlos Ruiz did a nice job moving up on the play).
• Ryan Goins went 2 for 4. Maybe Seitzer is a miracle worker.

Less Happy Thoughts:

• Dickey had a rough first inning, 2 walks, a single and a hit batter. And then in the third he gave up a single and a 2-run homer. He  did go 4 innings, I didn't expect him to go 4 in just his second start of the spring. In total he gave up 4 hits, 3 earned, 3 walks with 2 strikeouts.
• We scored a run in the second, Sierra score from 3rd on a Kevin Pillar single to left, but for unknown reasons third base coach Luis Rivera sent Kratz home, trying to score him from second. Kratz was out by 20 feet. It wasn't close. With 2 outs, I can see taking a chance but there was no way Kratz was going to score on that.
• Maicer Izturis was 0 for 2 with a walk. He's now 1 for 10 on the spring and I haven't seen him make good contact with a ball yet.

Tomorrow the Jays host the Pirates at 1:00 eastern. It isn't on TV or on MLB.tv. It will be on MLB audio.

Today's game is a 1:00 start. it isn't on TV, it is MLB audio if you want to listen today. I think I'll listen to the first couple of innings.

There is a little bit of news this morning, the Jays have sent Luis Perez, Derrick Chung and Jack Murphy over to the minor league camp. Perez will start the season on the DL, apparently he still have some numbness in his pinky finger after his surgery last year. Jays have 55 players left in camp.

And there is this:

#BlueJays say Happ's job is secure despite his early struggles this spring: http://t.co/vHUJgS12lC

— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) March 5, 2014

We knew that...it's just a question of how bad he would have to be to lose his spot. If he keeps going like his last start, he'll lose the spot, but I'd like to think he can't be that bad.

Also Bovada.lv tells us the Vegas odds for the Jays winning the World Series is 33/1 and to win the AL Pennant at 16/1.

Brandon Morrow starts, Sergio Santos, Aaron Loup, Jeremy Jeffress, Chad Jenkins and Aaron Sanchez are to follow him.

Blue Jays 4 Pirates 6

This was the first Blue Jays spring game this year only available on audio, so here's what you may have missed.

What You Need To Know

• Brandon Morrow sounds like he made some good pitches, but wasn't consistent enough in his three innings of work. Some hit batters, wild pitches, and hanging sliders led to five earned runs and six hits for the right hander. He also gave up a home run to former Blue Jay Travis Snider.
• Chris Getz continued to impress, hitting the ball hard all day and driving in Dioner Navarro with an RBI single in the fourth inning.
• Sergio Santos had a nice first appearance of work this spring, pitching a clean fourth inning.
• Jonathan Diaz supposedly made an incredible play at shortstop in the fourth inning, that made Mike Wilner get a little too excited about a Spring Training game.
• Edwin Encarnacion had a two-run double in the third inning off Duke Welker scoring Diaz and Steve Tolleson.
• Dioner Navarro had a nice game getting a single in the second and a walk in the fourth inning, which turned into a run when Chris Getz singled him home. He walked again in the fifth inning.
• Top prospect Aaron Sanchez came into the game for the eighth inning getting three quick outs including a strikeout. He went back out for the ninth getting three more easy outs, including another punch-out. It sounds like his stuff was solid today, forcing a lot of weak contact from the Pittsburgh hitters.
• It was my first time listening in to the radio broadcast this season with Mike Wilner and Joe Siddall calling the action today. I generally avoid listening to Wilner on Jays Talk (for obvious reasons), but I enjoyed him doing play-by-play, even if he got way too excited about a Spring Training game. Siddall was good as well, not sounding too cliché with his analysis and offering some good insight.

Tomorrow at 1:00pm the second half of this home-and-home set takes place in Bradenton with Mark Buehrle going up against Gerrit Cole. Feeling some déjà vu? That exact pitching matchup took place last Friday with the Blue Jays winning 4-2 behind two RBI's from Colby Rasmus.

The Blue Jays have signed another knuckleball pitcher, this one the son of a former major league pitcher, both father and son are named Frank Viola. As my son would say some would find that confusing.

@BlueJays are about to sign another knuckle ball pitcher: Frank Viola III. Minor league deal. Worked on pitch with RA Dickey. @Sportsnet

— Jamie Campbell (@SportsnetJamie) March 4, 2014

And Tim Wakefield twittered:

Congrats to @FrankViola3 on his job with the @BlueJays. Thanks for ur hard work and commitment. Welcome to the fraternity.

— Tim Wakefield (@TimWakefield49) March 6, 2014

Viola, Jr is 29 now, and has been working on the pitch for 3 years now. He wasn't having much luck throwing more tradition pitches:

April Whitzman wrote about him here.

It seems like we are trying to corner the market on people that throw the butterfly pitch. If you want to follow him on Twitter, he is @FrankViola3. His dad is @FrankViola16.

Minor Leaguer's addendum

Ahhh Frank Viola, Jr...."Sweet Music". I remember his brief time with the Blue Jays in 1996. The elder Viola had a pretty decent bimodal career, peaking in the mid-80s with the Twins and then again in the early 90s with the Mets. He was a Cy Young winner in 1988, going 24-7 with a 2.64 ERA and a solid 7.7 wins above replacement.

Injuries, including Tommy John, derailed most of his later career, but that led to his arrival in Toronto, having signed a minor league deal before the 1996 season. He didn't make the roster to start the season and was sent to extended spring training before going out to double-A Knoxville for four starts.

Back then, I was quite young so I had heard of him but I didn't know who he was really. At about the same time, my parents were encouraging me to take up a non-baseball hobby so they made me join the school choir. It turned out that I couldn't sing, so instead they put me in an after school instrumental program in late March. I was allowed to choose to learn to play any insrument I wanted, so naturally as a Blue Jays fan, I chose the viola (not fully grasping what Tommy John plus minor league deal plus 35-year-old pitcher meant).

Flash forward a few weeks and I was at SkyDome with my pops, who brought me to Windows Restaurant as an early 10th birthday present. For long-time readers of Bluebird Banter, that was the night I projectile-vomited during a horrific start by staff "ace" Erik Hanson. Anyway, we had to leave early that game, and my dad told our neighbours, his friends, co-workers, and basically everyone about the incident. My neighbour, whose company had 100-level tickets, gave us two tickets to another game--this time actually on my actual birthday. That day, Frank Viola was called up from double-A to start his first game in a Blue Jays uniform. I was excited.

Well, it turned out to be another horrible game. Frank Viola gave up six runs in the first inning, three more in the second, and another in the fourth before being chased. His line: 4 IP, 10 H, 10 R, 1 K, 2 BB, 2 HR. The Blue Jays ended up losing 17-3 to the Indians that night, but I didn't know that--we left pretty early that night even though I didn't vomit.

Viola threw another five games with the Jays, winning just one game (I actually remember his huge smile in the post-game interview) before two more poor games which ended his career.

Needless to say, I stopped playing the viola pretty soon after that. I picked up the piano.

There are two different rosters that are significant for MLB teams. The first is the 40-man (major league) roster, in force year-round, which consists of players who are under reserve to the team. The second is the 25-man (active) roster, which exists only during the season and consists of players that may be used in games.

The 15 players on the major league but not the active roster play in the minor leagues and are said to be serving an optional assignment. If a player on the 40-man cannot be sent on optional assignment, and the team does not have room on the 25-man (or doesn't want him on it), then the player can be designated for assignment (DFA). The team then has 10 days to trade the player, release him, or expose him to outright waivers where other teams can claim and add him to their 25- and 40-man rosters. If the player clears waivers, under certain circumstances (see below), he can be outrighted off the 40-man roster with the team still retaining his rights.

Players who can be sent on optional assignment, or can be outrighted, have value in terms of providing flexibility to their teams, especially in the event of injuries or player struggles. Free agents who sign a minor league contract with a team are not on the 40-man roster.

Optional Assignments

In general, teams are granted three option years on a specific player. While it is common to refer to players as having finite number of "options", that get used up whenever the player is sent on optional assignment, this is a misnomer as optional assignments are for entire seasons. Players can be optioned and recalled multiple times within a season while only using one option year. For example, Mike McCoy was optioned to Las Vegas and recalled six times in the 2011 season, but that only counted as one option. If a player spends less than 20 days on optional assignment, then the player is not deemed to have had an option year used (but the player gets service credit and MLB salary for the time spent in the minors).

A player is considered out of options in the season following the use of his last option year, and he must stay on the 25-man roster or be removed from the 40-man roster. In addition, players with more than five years major league service time cannot be optioned without the consent of the player, which is known as Veteran's Consent. In practice, this is unlikely to be granted, and it is safe to assume that a team cannot option a player with five years of MLB service.

Fourth Option Year

In certain uncommon circumstances, a player may qualify for a fourth option year. This occurs when a player's three option years have been exhausted, but he does not have five professional seasons. The crux of the matter is in how "professional season" is defined for option purposes. A season only counts as a professional season if the player spends 90 or more days on an active roster (or 60 days or more days on the active roster and 30 or more on the DL). Rookie and short season leagues do not last for 90 days, so players assigned to these levels cannot qualify (unless first assigned to a full season league).

Most players who qualify for a fourth option year are international free agents signed at age 16 or 17. If they play a couple years in rookie ball, by the time they are added to the 40-man roster four years after signing to be protected from the Rule 5 draft, they may only have one year in a full season league and only one qualifying season. Assuming optional assignments the next three years, the player will only have four qualifying seasons. In general, if a player has two or more full seasons when added to the 40-man, it is very unlikely he will qualify for a fourth option; if he has less than two, there is a reasonable chance he will qualify though it is not guaranteed.

Optional Waivers

A final complicating factor, with respect to optional assignments, are optional waivers. When a team seeks to option a player who is more than three years removed from the first date he reported to a major league team, it must first secure optional waivers on the player. Theoretically, this means that any team could claim the player being put through optional waivers. The waivers are revocable, therefore the player can be pulled back if a claim were made (though he would be blocked from being optioned). In practice, these optional waivers are ignored by other teams and do not represent an obstacle to sending players on optional assignment. Minor Leaguer wrote a more detailed account of this rule and its implications.

For the purposes of calculating optional waivers above, the player's debut date and not his reporting date was used. In the vast majority of cases, there will be either no difference or an immaterial one. The exception is for players who are called up for the first time and report, but do not debut for a significant period of time. An example is Brian "Moonlight" Jeroloman, who has yet to debut in a MLB game, despite reporting to the Blue Jays in late August 2011 and spending all of September on the active roster.

Outright Assignments

As noted above, when a player is designated for assignment and clears waivers, he is removed from the 40-man. At that point a few things can happen, assuming the team does not release him. If a player has less than three years of service time and has not been previously outrighted, then his team can assign him outright to a minor league team while retaining his rights. If a player has more than three years service, or has been previously outrighted, then he can reject the outright assignment and chose to immediately become a free agent. The player can also chose to accept the outright assignment, but retains the right to elect free agency at the end of the season unless returned to the 40-man roster. It is common for players to do this, if outrighted in-season, but the player is in control and the team cannot assign him unilaterally. An example of this is Scott Richmond, who was sent outright in 2011, and then again in 2012. He accepted the 2012 outright assignment but then elected free agency at the end of the season, which he wouldn't have otherwise been entitled to do.

Editor's Note: Be sure to check out the Bluebird Banter Library, which contains a status page outlining the option and outright status of every Blue Jays player on the 40-man roster.

Alex Anthopoulos has changed his tune a little bit about how the rotation spots are going to be decided this spring. Sportsnet has a piece up outlining some comments the Blue Jays General Manager made about J.A. Happ's future as well as how the battle for the back-end of the rotation is shaping up. Most importantly, it seems Happ's back problems and horrid pitching have switched his status from 'lock' to 'favourite' for the fourth spot in the starting rotation. As noted in the article, Anthopoulos said:

"I don’t want to make excuses for him, but I wouldn’t say he’s been 100 percent," Anthopoulos said. "If his back wasn’t bothering him the way it is, I think the command would be a lot better. But that’s my opinion."

Maybe the team should have never said he was a shoe-in for the Opening Day roster if all it took was two performances to dislodge him from that spot. This opens up the starting rotation competition even more giving legitimate shots to Drew Hutchison and Marcus Stroman to make it past the options crunch and still crack the big league squad. About Hutchison, Anthopoulos said:

"He’s definitely opened some eyes," Anthopoulos said. "He’s a strong candidate to make the rotation."

Apparently it only takes a few innings these days to go from 'surely starting in Buffalo' to 'strong candidate to make the rotation'. Continuing the trend of pitchers skyrocketing up the Blue Jays depth chart, Marcus Stroman apparently has forced himself into the conversation as well, with today's scheduled appearance (that's probably going to be rained out) carrying a lot of weight:

"[Thursday] is a big day for him—I’m being honest," Anthopoulos said. "Every outing for him is important."

So essentially, an unclear starting rotation situation entering Spring Training has actually become even more unclear in the first week of games. It seems each week will bring about a different knee-jerk reaction from the Blue Jays brass until there is no games left and the team has to make a decision.

In less surprising news, Ryan Goins is still considered the favourite to start at second base on Opening Day even with Chris Getz impressing so far this spring.