Today is opening day for the minor leagues. Starting today, there will be almost daily minor league ball until early September. With the stronger Blue Jays system, interest in the minor leagues should be higher this year so it is an exciting day.
There are three games on today's schedule, Buffalo start their season tomorrow. The Lugnuts are scheduled to kick off the Jays season with a 6pm first pitch.
New Hampshire are in Hartford with Francisco Rios on the mound. Rios only pitched 86 innings last year, it was a step back after an appearance at the futures game in 2016. Of course, the Vlad and Bo AA show kicks off tonight. Max Pentecost should be catching Zeuch. It will be interesting to see how many innings Pentecost catches this season. His backup, Patrick Cantwell got into several of the Blue Jays spring training games. The forecast for game time is partly sunny and 6 degrees.
By contrast it is supposed to be 24 degrees in Clearwater tonight when the Jays visit. TJ Zeuch takes the hill for the Jays, presumably throwing to Riley Adams. It was a little surprising to find Zeuch back in A ball but he will hope its a short stay. Adams and Logan Warmoth will see how it feels to skip Lansing and move straight to the FSL.
Lansing travel to Great Lakes, and Yennsy Diaz will be on the hill. Diaz spent some time in Lansing last season but not in April so the cold weather will be new to him. Game time temperature will be 4 degrees, cooling to plus one by 8pm.
Here's hoping that today is the start of an excellent and productive season for the Blue Jays minor leaguers.
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