Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Opening Day

Real baseball is about to be played - well, it may not actually count but guys in Blue Jays uniforms will be going against guys in Yankee uniforms including a few actual major leaguers today at 1:05 PM. Woohoo!

To see the scoreboard click here for MLB's site then come back here and post your feelings about how the first game of spring is going.

From the sounds of it the lineup will be... (edit: actual batting order in brackets)
SP: Brett Cecil
CA: Rod Barajas (6th)
1B: Kevin Millar (4th)
2B: Aaron Hill (2nd)
3B: Joe Inglett (leadoff)
SS: John McDonald (9th)
LF: Travis Snider (7th)
CF: Buck Coats (8th)
RF: Alex Rios (3rd)
DH: Adam Lind (5th)

ESPN has a live chat as well if you want to get into it with Yankee fans.

Live Box Score: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2009_02_25_nyamlb_tormlb_1

Posted by John Northey on Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 11:05 AM EST.

Opening Day - of Spring | 26 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

92-93 - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 11:31 AM EST (#196811) #

Brett Cecil has a shot today at some national recognition and to reserve a special place in Jays fans' hearts forever - all he needs to do is plunk ARod on the first pitch. Nothing would make me happier, I would probably yell out "HA!" with a huge ****-eating grin on my face.

zeppelinkm - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 12:51 PM EST (#196814) #

There is speculation that Tony LaCava could be heading to Washington to replace Jim Bowden. Baseball Musings has the scoop.

Greg - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 12:52 PM EST (#196815) #

Is that Brett Tomko pitching for the Yankees?

Somehow I missed that acquisition. Really is unfair how NY can just land any star they want.

John Northey - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 01:31 PM EST (#196816) #

So far so good for Cecil. He has thrown 2 innings, giving up 1 walk (A-Rod), 4 strikeouts (Cano, Swisher, Miranda, Linden), and 1 home run (to lead off hitter Brett Gardner to start the game). Not bad.

FYI: batting 9th for the Yankees - catcher Kevin Cash. They sure did chase down the best free agents eh?

timpinder - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 01:57 PM EST (#196817) #

Jeff Blair is blogging live from the game, and he's updating every couple of minutes. You can get to it through www.globesports.com/baseball.

He said that Romero looks very "composed", giving him a 25% chance to make the team, and he added that Jeroloman might start the year in AA to work on his offense, which I assume means Arencibia will likely be in AAA.

Alex Obal - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 02:08 PM EST (#196818) #

Brett Cecil has a shot today at some national recognition and to reserve a special place in Jays fans' hearts forever - all he needs to do is plunk ARod on the first pitch.

HA! That's a good point. I bet he would've slightly increased the expected value of his career baseball earnings by doing that. Too bad.

Pistol - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 02:36 PM EST (#196820) #

There is speculation that Tony LaCava could be heading to Washington to replace Jim Bowden.

That'd be unfortunate. He should be in line to be the Jays GM when they finally pull the plug on Ricciardi after the season (which is obviously just my speculation).

Ryan Day - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 02:42 PM EST (#196821) #

So - and this is an honest question - what makes LaCava more qualified to be GM than Ricciardi?

ComebyDeanChance - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 03:02 PM EST (#196822) #

So - and this is an honest question - what makes LaCava more qualified to be GM than Ricciardi?
Given that this is really a rhetorical non-question, one that is not the basis on which such decisions are made, I'll provide a rhetorical answer:
Because he hasn't shown over a 7 year period that he's a poor GM.

westcoast dude - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 03:41 PM EST (#196823) #

Cecil is going to make the rotation and Snider is a lock . All the other hopefuls, hey, there's always tomorrow. Keep those doubles coming, Johnny Mack.

John Northey - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 04:16 PM EST (#196824) #

A loss to start the spring. Ah well. So, who did what?
Cecil: 2 IP, 1 HR to the leadoff hitter, a walk to A-Rod, and 4 K's
R Romero: one shutout inning, then gave up a 2 run home run to A-Rod and one more run for fun while getting just 2 outs in his 2nd inning of work
BJ Ryan: 3 batters faced, 1 out, 2 hits
Bauer, Burres, Beam, Hayhurt, and Ray got to face the Yankee AAA team with just Bauer giving up any runs.

Jay hitters were...well...not quite ready for prime time. 4 hits, 1 each for Adams, Barajas, Snider, and McDonald. McDonald & Snider getting doubles while Rios drove in a run. Hill, Millar, and Lane walked once each. 7 K's but Snider wasn't one of them.

So the Jays are off to a 0-1 record, losing 6-1 to the Yankees.

Pistol - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 04:28 PM EST (#196825) #

So - and this is an honest question - what makes LaCava more qualified to be GM than Ricciardi?

Obviously, it's hard for us to separate what he's done with the organization and what he felt about certain moves that were made from the outside. But he's generally highly respected in the game. This blog post lays out a lot of things on LaCava from various areas.

You'll also see in the link above that Keith Law makes a Pujols analogy with LaCava. As someone that knows the inside of the Jays really well I think we can make some inferences when he praises LaCava so much despite being critical of a lot of things that Ricciardi does.

I don't know if that would make LaCava the best GM candidate, but I don't think you'd be making a mistake if you hired him to be the GM.

ayjackson - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 05:17 PM EST (#196827) #

It's somewhat odd that the guy who's supposed to be our next President is hiring away the guy who's supposed to be our next GM.

John Northey - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 05:52 PM EST (#196829) #

I hope for the best for LaCava if he gets hired by Washington but... there is the old saying that nice guys finish last. I worried about passing the torch here to an assistant GM who is viewed as a nice guy by all after the results last time (a steroid assisted 88 win peak).

If JP heads out at the end of 2009 or 2010 I'd rather the Jays do another search outside the organization as I tend to go by the theory that if you feel there is something wrong you have to look at doing a full switchover rather than going halfway. I just hope that if LaCava is signed by Washington that we don't lose our best scouts also.

greenfrog - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 09:34 PM EST (#196833) #

Can't blame LaCava if he's thinking about walking. The Jays have been in drift mode for a while...downward drift, arguably. There doesn't seem to be a lot to suggest that being the Jays' GM (w/ limited payroll, Wells' contract, Halladay moving past his prime) would be a great opportunity for him.

John Northey - Wednesday, February 25 2009 @ 11:08 PM EST (#196834) #

Of course, running Washington probably won't be too rewarding either. Washington had just 1 player in the BA top 100 prospects (#41, a RHP), 3 on Kevin Goldsteins list (none in the top 50), 1 (#42) in Keith Law's top 100. Not a good thing to be getting from the sounds of it. $63 million has been the highest they've gone in payroll, so while there are no killer contracts there also is no sign ownership will toss the cash around that will (someday) be needed. Despite having fairly new stadium Washington came in 13th out of 16 in the NL for attendance with a high water mark of 2.7 million their first year in Washington (8th out of 16). This is a team with low fan support, low budgets, and no farm system. Not an easy job, but at least the bar has been set very, very low with their best being a 81-81 season where they were outscored.

TamRa - Thursday, February 26 2009 @ 12:27 AM EST (#196835) #

I'd hate to lose LaCava but I'd be cool with Alex Anthopolos stepping up to the Crown Prince role. He gets a ton of praise.

And hey, maybe then there'd be room to bring back Bart Given, eh?

greenfrog - Thursday, February 26 2009 @ 08:29 AM EST (#196836) #

John: it's true that running the Nationals would be a major challenge for LaCava. In addition to the factors you mentioned, the team has to compete with Philly, NY, Atlanta and Florida. Not an easy task. On the other hand, it's an opportunity to rebuild from the ground up, whereas the Jays seem to be perennially caught in between the rebuilders (Tampa) and the powerhouses (NY, Boston) in the AL East, with the payroll gap apparently widening.

John Northey - Thursday, February 26 2009 @ 08:33 AM EST (#196837) #

Yeah, if I was to become a GM (dang that'd be fun and exhausting) a full rebuild from scratch would be more exciting than taking over a 1/2 done team as long as you received full authority to do what needs doing. That would be a big thing for LaCava I'm sure - the authority to sign up coaches, scouts, managers (ML & Minor League), and players that he picks and chooses. Given Washington has no history to worry about (Montreal's is long forgotten by the ownership I'm sure, plus the last team in Washington left over 35 years ago) it wouldn't be too hard for them to give him that depending on how much the owner wants to 'play with his toy'.

Thomas - Thursday, February 26 2009 @ 11:49 AM EST (#196839) #

I'd be disappointed to see the Jays lose LaCava to Washington, especially when it is very possible the team will fire Ricciardi at the end of the season, as many of us advocated firing Ricciardi at the end of the past season. Given how LaCava has been a top candidate for every GM opening that hasn't been automamatically filled intenally, it seems the Jays at least have one of the top non-GM executives in baseball working in their front office. Losing him to another club would be a step backwards, especially if he takes several other Jays front office staff with him.

I also don't think it would necessarily be a bad thing if LaCava succeeded Ricciardi (if indeed he is fired at the end of the seaon). Everything I've read about LaCava is positive and I don't see any reason to doubt his ability to make constructive changes to the front office. He's familiar with the Jays players and prospects and while it's difficult to seperate his transactions from JP's, he would require less of an adjustment period and would also inherit an environment where he presumably has good working relationships.

jerjapan - Thursday, February 26 2009 @ 01:07 PM EST (#196842) #

Lacava seems like a very solid 'safe' replacement for Riccardi - there seem to be nearly as many JP supporters as detractors out there, and hiring a well-regarded organizational guy as a replacement could offer some middle ground between the two. Although the blog linked too earlier in the thread implied that some view Lacava as 'too safe' - perhaps a radical, aggressive GM is needed to compete in the ultra-competetive AL east?

To my mind, losing Lacava would be disappointing, the buzz around him is generaly quite positive, and this thread has really added some detail as to why he is so well liked. Anyone have any input as why Alex Anthonopoulus (sp?) has a similar positive buzz?

Craig B - Friday, February 27 2009 @ 12:52 PM EST (#196877) #

I don't see a roundup or anything for today so I thought I'd post this here.

Are there any collective Box plans for the WBC? We should at the very least put together a drink-and-eat get-together between the two doubleheader games on Saturday. We'll have about three hours to kill between games (and for those not going back for VEN-ITA, a whole evening). We should put up a separate thread for expressions of interest or just collect them here... if there is in fact some interest, I'm happy to book a big table or a room somewhere. And get a round.

So who's with me?

uglyone - Friday, February 27 2009 @ 12:57 PM EST (#196878) #

I think we should all just accept the simple fact that Ricciardi will stay on until the end of his current contract in 2010.

By any measure, Ricciardi has been thoroughly average as a GM - average drafting, average free agent signings and trades, and a team record almost perfectly corresponding to his payroll.

With the Jays unwilling to spend any money on players, I think we can safely say that there's no way they eat any of J.P.'s contract, especially since a) it's ending soon anyways, and b) there's actually quite a bit of positive to look forward to in 2010, with a good argument to be made that he might deserve to see that season through, at least.

I'd recommend we just accept that he'll be here through 2010, and stop worrying and complaining about it until then.

As a GM with a thoroughly average performance, we could most certainly improve on him......but, at the same time, we could just as easily do worse.

mathesond - Friday, February 27 2009 @ 03:05 PM EST (#196881) #

I haven't seen the WBC schedule, but I'd be up for watching some competitive spring ball with a pint or 3.

I'd also be up for an Opening Night get together, if there's interest

uglyone - Friday, February 27 2009 @ 03:44 PM EST (#196884) #

So what's the deal with Lane? another dinger today.

He looked like he had a decent career going for himself with a solid progression up the minors (even if he was a bit old for each level) and a solid start to his MLB career for a year or two....and then boom, he falls apart.

Injury? big exploitable hole in his swing?

Chuck - Friday, February 27 2009 @ 03:46 PM EST (#196885) #

WBC Schedule

Opening Day - of Spring | 26 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.