Welcome back to the MLU.  Players I am watching carefully this year: obviously the key starters (Stroman, Nolin and Sanchez), Kevin Pillar, Anthony Gose, Andy Burns, Dwight Smith Jr. and Dalton Pompey.  I am especially interested to see if Pompey's late season power surge continues.

Is the Tomo Ohka Knuckleball Project still happening? I haven't heard anything about him since he was cut from the MLB roster in early March.

Okha was cut by the Jays, its not happening.

Bisons up 5-2 in the bottom of the second.

Gose leading the way so far with a doubke and a walk. Though he got picked off first AGAIN.

Stroman has 3ks thru 2, and hasn't yet been hit hard, but got rinky dinked for two runs on a walk and a coupla singles in the 2nd.

Anyone know why Stroman was pulled after 4 innings and 74 pitches?

He wasn't really stretched out in the spring- making 5 appearances and 1 start.  He threw a grand total of 11 innings. 

Stroman was working with an 80 pitch limit today.

Bisons win! Bisons win! Herd take it 6-3. Neil Wagner struck out 3 of 4 batters for the four-out save. John Stilson gave up a run on two hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning in the 8th. It could've been worse but Kevin Pillar made a nice running catch on a wind-blown ball at the warning track in right field to help out Stilson.

Aaron Sanchez is doing what he is supposed to- 5 shutout innings, 1 hit, 2 walks, 5Ks, 67 pitches. 

Sanchez is the one to watch this year. I suspect 5 starts minimum in AA then, if it keeps going like this, 5 in AAA before a call up should a slot be open. Hopefully the Jays show some patience but one never knows. 

Of note... Morrow's contract is just for 2014 ($8 mil) with a 2015 option ($10 mil with a $1 mil buyout). After his last start and last season one wonders what to expect. Do the Jays try to trade him to make room for Sanchez if McGowan/Hutchison are healthy come June?

I am going to follow D Norris. He is a lefty, if he can throw hard, not walk many and not give up many hits then he is on his way too.
He has the pedigree. This year at A+ he can work on stuff like secondary pitches. A Sanchez never had fab numbers but look at him now. He looks close.

I'd want to take it slow & stead with Sanchez. The stuff may be MLB-ready, but that doesn't mean anything if he can't hit the strike zone with it. He may have a few great starts, and then turn into Kyle Drabek.

The other issue is durability.  Sanchez has not yet thrown more than 90 innings in a season in his career (although he did throw 110 last year if you include his AFL time- he did have about a month off before the AFL so it is not exactly the same thing as throwing 110 innings in a year straight). If you want to get some useful major league time from him at the end of the year, it's probably best to give him 15 AA/AAA starts and then send him into a long-relief role, so he's got 110 innings around mid-August and then you can think about whether you want to call him up, depending on how he looks then.  Personally, I'd be happiest if he throws 140 innings in AA/AAA this year and then wins a job out of spring training in 2015. 

The Jays have released Chris Hawkins. Wasn't he a top-30 Jays prospect at one point? The lower end of the top 30, of course, but still a top-30 if my memory is correct. And he was "player of the year" at his level at one point too. More signs of trouble in developing top hitting prospects.