Blue Jays 7 - Astros 4

Sunday, March 20 2005 @ 05:15 AM EST

Contributed by: Pepper Moffatt

Today we'll look at the Spring Training stat sheet and decide who should make this year's club.

It's time to pick 25 guys for the roster. Looking at the stat sheet, the following guys will make the club:

Catchers

We need two of these. In the stats as of March 19th, Gregg Zaun is hitting .417. We'll let him be our starter.

Unfortunately, Greg Myers is only hitting .083, so he's off the team. There's a tough choice to be made here: Quiroz is hitting .400, but Ken Huckaby is hitting .333. Huckaby has twice as many RBI (2 to 1) in 3 less at-bats, so Huckaby is our choice.

Infield

We need someone at each position and at least two backups, maybe 3. Frank Menechino is hitting .409 and can play every position but 1st, so we'll find a place for him.

Corey Koskie is hitting .300, so we'll let him play 3rd. Hillenbrand is hitting .280, so we can fit him in at 1st or DH. The only other infielder hitting above .260 is Julius Matos and Raul Tablado, so we'll try to find spots for them in the infield.

Who else is hitting .250 or better? Hinske is at .258 and McDonald is at .250. We'll keep Hinske and keep McDonald if space permits.

Now we have six infielders: Menechino, Koskie, Hillenbrand, Matos, Hinske, and Tablado. We'll figure out where to slot everyone once we know if we'll need to use one of them as a DH.

Outfield

Babe Gross is setting the world on fire. So he'll be in one of the corners. Reed Johnson is hitting .370 and Vernon Wells is hitting .133. It's a no-brainer to see which one of those guys will be our centerfielder.

Negron is hitting .333 and Cat is hitting .296, so we'll want them in somewhere. How about Negron in right and Cat at DH. We could use another outfielder, but nobody else is hitting, so we'll keep McDonald instead.

We'll slot our players in this way:

Position Players

C - Zaun
1B - Hillenbrand
2B - Menechino
SS - Tablado
3B - Koskie
DH - Cat
RF - Negron
CF - Johnson
LF - Gross

Bench: Huckaby, Matos, Hinske, McDonald

Now we need to sort out the pitching staff.

Rotation

Bush, Walker, and Towers all have ERAs at 3 or under, so we'll keep them. After that it's a struggle, since most of our "name" pitchers have ERAs over 6. Ryan Glynn can start and his ERA this spring training is 0!!! He's a keeper. Justin Miller's ERA is 2.25, so we'll take him as well. A rotation with ERAs at 3 or under. How can you lose?

Bullpen

We need 7 guys here. Batista's ERA is 1.50, so we'll keep him on the team. Rosario and Frasor have 0 ERAs over 4 innings, so they're on. Zack Jackson could use a little more time in the minors, so we'll take the other 4 guys who have pitched 2 innings without giving up a run. They are: David Purcey, Israel Ramirez, Jason Arnold, and Spike Lundberg.

Our pitching staff is thus:

Pitching Staff

SP - David Bush
SP - Pete Walker
SP - Josh Towers
SP - Ryan Glynn
SP - Justin Miller
RP - Miguel Batista
RP - Jason Frasor
RP - Francisco Rosario
RP - David Purcey
RP - Israel Ramirez
RP - Jason Arnold
RP - Spike Lundberg

Combining the pitchers and the position players gives you this year's team.

Your 2005 Toronto Blue Jays

C  - Gregg Zaun
1B - Shea Hillenbrand
2B - Frank Menechino
SS - Raul Tablado
3B - Corey Koskie
DH - Frank Catalanotto
RF - Miguel Negron
CF - Reed Johnson
LF - Gabe Gross
C  - Ken Huckaby
UT - Julius Matos
UT - Eric Hinske
UT - John McDonald
SP - David Bush
SP - Pete Walker
SP - Josh Towers
SP - Ryan Glynn
SP - Justin Miller
RP - Miguel Batista
RP - Jason Frasor
RP - Francisco Rosario
RP - David Purcey
RP - Israel Ramirez
RP - Jason Arnold
RP - Spike Lundberg

That's a pretty good team.

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