The latest from Florida and beyond.
* The Jays made roster cuts yesterday.
The following are headed to AAA Syracuse:
Jason Arnold
Gabe Gross
Dustin McGowan
Guillermo Quiroz
Alexis Rios
Jorge Sequea
Francisco Rosario is headed to Dunedin to start the season as expected to enjoy the weather. At least he won't have to pack.
* Pat Hentgen got hit hard in a 9-3 loss to the Twins. Simon Pond continues to hit everything in sight, going 2-3 with his 2nd jimmy jack off Seth Greisinger in the 9th. He played 1B yesterday.
* Jimmy Key's Christmas Lights has another first hand account of the action in Dunedin in Friday's Roundup.
* Delgado not only works on the physical aspects of his game, he also works on the mental aspects of the game with 'Zone Coach' Jim Fannin.
* Dave Perkins worries about the Jays 'poor fundamentals'.
He also writes that 'Roto-loons surely will go the extra dollar on him (Mauer)'. Good Roto-loons (what is that anyway, something Griffin came up with?) will know to let someone else bid too much on Mauer.
* Sun Notes - Hentgen's struggles and O-Dog's goals for the season (or Dawg? I'm not hip enough to know). I found it interesting that Hudson is a natural right handed hitter.
* Don Fehr made a stop in Dunedin yesterday to go over Union issues. Fehr doubts that Selig will expand drug tests.
Rich Griffin summarizes the steroid issue and expects a compromise between baseball and the Union prior to Opening Day.
Does Fehr represent the players, or does he dictate to them?
* Carlos Tosca is in the final year of his contract. Bob Elliot thinks Tosca deserves an extension now. I've never really bought into this argument. Even if the second scenario Elliot writes about happens I don't think the 'spread sheet from the Jays central command laptop' will only blindly evaluate Tosca on his won-loss record.
When Tosca originally took over the team there was talk in the Da Box that he was likely a short term manager to develop players and then someone else would come on board to take them over the hump.
It seems that the team really responds and plays hard for Tosca. To me that's the biggest issue a for a manager.
Where I'm not sold on Tosca is his game management. Maybe a bench coach will help, and perhaps a better bullpen will make him look better than how he looks when he makes 4 pitching changes in an inning, but I'm not convinced that he's in the top tier of managers, during a game, at this point. I'd want to see more of Tosca with a better club before I decided on making a long term commitment.
Of course I think Dusty Baker is awful during the games but his teams always seem to win, which is probably more than a coincidence.
* Justin Miller faces the Red Sox today. The Jays get to look at Tim Wakefield's knuckler.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20040320110858999