Jays line-up today

Bonifacio RF
Cabrera LF
Bautista 3B
Encarnacion DH
Lind 1B
Rasmus CF
Izturis 2B
Blanco C
Kawasaki SS

Is Kawasaki the second Japanese player to play for the Jays, after Okha?

Kawasaki will be the first Japanese position player in Jays history. I read a tweet earlier today that there have been three other Japanese players to play for Toronto — all hurlers. Michael Nakamura was the first, Tomo Ohka was second and Ryota Igarashi (who I want to forget) was the third.

Irony is their defense may be improved. Izturis is better at second, JB is likely better than anyone this year at third and Kawasaki is a solid defender who defensively may be better than Reyes. Offense may be a different story.

Not a big fan of Adam Lind playing the field, ever. He is stiff out there and has missed several foul fly-balls.

Let's see, Shields faces Sw, Sw, R, R, L, L, Sw, R, L.   That's not a comfortable lineup to pitch against, and contains 4 guys he hasn't pitched much against so that helps.   Dickey just needs to get comfortable with his stuff and never-ever throw his fastball again.

Michael Nakamura was the first, Tomo Ohka was second and Ryota Igarashi (who I want to forget) was the third.

But you don't mind remembering Tomo Ohka?

Lawrie skipping tonight's game as its supposed to be wet. He's playing in high A tomorrow.

Rumour has it no surgery for Reyes, so it's wait and see. I'd say that's probably a better case scenerio.

Kawasaki does the job in his first at-bat for the Jays.

I'll take productive outs from this number 9 hitter without question.

Re: Bautista starting at 3B: The media commentary I've heard so far is confused.

They seem to be saying it is because of the Reyes' injury, but that can't really be it, as Reyes has been replaced straight up by Kawasaki.

I think what happened is yesterday's situation "broke the ice" on playing Bautista at 3B, and now the Jays are just quietly moving Bonifacio out of the infield while everyone's looking the other way. :-)

Indeed. I don't think the media has noticed this. Could this be the precursor of seeing Lawrie at SS?

Kawasaki just had a far better at-bat than Bonifacio did.

I don't think the Jays would move to Lawrie for SS in anything resembling a long-term basis. I could only see him play short, if necessary, in a situation like an extra-inning game where substitutions left the team limited.

move Lawrie to SS....

Kawasaki walks, Bautista homers.   That works.

Dickey pulled a little earlier than I think was necessary.

99 pitches for Dickey, and he does throw hard, so a bit of conservatism isn't bad.

And Kawasaki made his presence felt in a good way all around. Not over yet, but it's nice to see all this. If only Bonifacio could field a position somewhere (and yeah, it must be hard being thrown into so many positions), we'd be OK.

On the other hand.. seems a little odd that the Royals are running out Shields for the 9th.

Although that DP ends his night at 115 pitches. Still seems high for April (particularly in a game you're losing).

Is two games a winning streak, because a 1 gamer isn't?

They gave up a lot for Shields and want to see some return. Besides, he only gave up 2 hits and their pen needed the rest.

I think the Jays have enough talent to stay in the race, but the starting pitching is going to have to step up. Incidentally, here are the batting averages 1-9 for tonight's starters:

.225
.273
.194
.119
.120
.222
.222
.143
.000

Crazy. Of course, we're only 11 games into the season, and Kawasaki was just recalled.

Wishing Reyes the best for a full recovery. No idea whether such a severe sprain is likely to inhibit his performance going forward; it can't be a good thing for a shortstop to thrash his ankle like that. If he can come back strong after three months, I'll be impressed.

Does anyone else here think Jose set-up James Shields with his first inning at-bat? He looked bad on those curveballs, and perhaps knew that he would get them again later if he looked poorly? With Shields too you just want to look one pitch and pray to see it your at-bat.

A thought?

But you don't mind remembering Tomo Ohka?

He was downright awesome compared to Igarashi! Plus, he gave Expos fan Jonah Keri the thrill of a lifetime.

In the post-game interview Bautista said he knew Shields loves throwing him curveballs on the inner half of the plate.

It's pretty amazing that Bautista didn't have to do a thing at 3B today; they could have played anyone there. Kawasawki made all the plays he was supposed to, and if he can continue doing that and take some good ABs at the bottom of the order he just might stick around for a bit considering what we've seen defensively from Bonifacio & Izturis thus far.

I understand how Gibby was setting up his bullpen when he yanked Dickey but I too thought it was a bit early, and RA did not look happy about it on the mound. Hopefully in the conversation in the dugout he aired his grievance in a respectful way and Gibby will consider giving him a shot to clean up his own mess next time it happens. If Santos/Loup hadn't sucked up 4 innings yesterday we probably would've seen Dickey left in a little longer, but with 6 available RP it made some sense to go to the fresh arms. This team has the pitching to stick around even without Reyes' offense.

Anyone else notice Janssen was wearing the wrong jersey when he was warming up, but had the right jersey when he came into the game?

Here is the jersey mixup!

That reminds me of the time Yunel Escobar wore the J-bird cap while everyone else wore the Toothpaste ones for an entire game.

Marc suggested in a tweet that one potentially available depth SS would be none other than the ever popular Tyler Pastornicky. Sounds like a solid idea to me.

"....I think what happened is yesterday's situation "broke the ice" on playing Bautista at 3B...."

And when Lawrie is back, how about breaking the ice on Bautista at 1B and Encarnacion at DH at some point this season? Would rather have Gose than Lind in the lineup at this point. (Or: dump Lind and rotate Bonifacio/Bautista/Cabrera/Rasmus through the DH spot, so that Gose has an OF spot on most days.)

I concur, CF.  Two thumbs up (RIP Roger Ebert) for the club's management of the Reyes injury to date.  Bautista to 1B, Encarnacion to DH when Lawrie returns (with a Bonifacio/Wells platoon in RF) as a follow-up makes a lot of sense.  If you do that, you would want Bautista to take the cut-offs from RCF and  RF rather than Izturis (the Cardinals used to do this with Keith Hernandez who had the fine arm). 

As CF suggests, it is hard to find a role for Adam Lind on this club if you go with that alignment.  The only RHH you might want a LH pinch-hitter for is Arencibia, and even that is marginal.  Soon enough, Josh Thole might replace Blanco on the roster and then you don't even have that issue. If the bench battle for the 25th man on the roster was between Casper Wells, Rajai Davis, Adam Lind and Esmil Rogers, Rogers would probably be the odd man out in my world, but realistically it's not likely that the club would go with a 6 man pen.  Does the club have the chutzpah to eat the salary?

Interesting note, Lawrie's playing 2B today in high A. That may give us the answer. Joey Bats to 3B, Brett to 2B.

Count me in for wanting to have Gose come up and play in the OF. That being said, I'd be fine with putting Gose in RF as Colby looks very good in CF so far this year. Plus Gose's arm may be a plus in RF.

JB21, I've actually had the opposite impression of Rasmus (his nice catch in last night's game notwithstanding). His jumps/routes sometimes seem to be lacking and his throwing hasn't been great. He had a chance to throw out a runner at the plate on a hard-hit single to centre the other day, but he double-clutched and threw a three- or four-hopper that arrived late. Earlier in the season (Detroit?), he broke in on a fly ball hit to deep centre before reversing direction and having the ball sail over his head.

I think I would prefer an outfield of Cabrera/Gose/Rasmus, assuming that each player hits enough to warrant holding down his job.

Touche on the throwing, route's wise I wouldn't necessary agree, but regardless I don't see the Jays giving Gose Colby's job, unless he's up to replace Colby.