Robert Gsellman had only one unearned run over 5 1/3 innings yesterday, and now has a 1.56 ERA over five starts this spring.
Steve Pearce will play left field tomorrow for the first time this spring, but we still won’t know if he will be fully healthy by opening day. If your league uses a minimum of 20 games played to qualify at a position, Pearce will not make the cut as he only played 19 games in the outfield last season. He underwent surgery in September to repair the flexor mass tendon in his elbow, and if healthy, would be an affordable option for power and average. That is of course, if you are willing to take the chance that he remains healthy enough to matter. The 33 year-old is the poster boy for what we call a ‘high risk, high reward’ player.
A platoon of Melvin Upton Jr. and Ezequiel Carrera in left field is not really a viable option for the Blue Jays, because they both hit lefties better than righties. Dalton Pompey is is also out of commission due to a concussion.
Well, a platoon is what we’re looking at (Melvin Upton and Ezequiel Carrera), and we have to figure out what we’ll do with (Steve) Pearce. It’s the same thing at first base, we’ll see how much (Pearce) gets there, he’s kind of an X-factor right now. Kendrys is our DH, so we’ll figure out what’s the best spot for Pearce, and go from there. John Gibbons
Farrell: If we opened tomorrow, Sandy Leon is our starting catcher.
Still views it as two man position, though.
— Jason Mastrodonato (@JMastrodonato) March 23, 2017
John Farrell made clear that he doesn’t intend to rely too heavily on any one man at the catching position, suggesting it’ll be a fairly evenly shared platoon situation between Leon and Christian Vasquez — at least to start the season.
Yoan Moncada batted .317 with a team-high 13 RBI this spring. In his last seven games, he went 10-for-22 with four doubles and three home runs. He will start the season at Triple-A
Michael Brantley “cleared another hurdle” playing in back-to-back games and has participated in three-of-four games this week.
It’s all good for Brantley, He remains every bit as good as he was before the game. He won’t play (Friday), but we will get him in the next day. Opening Day is not the finish line for him. I know it’s something everyone shoots for, but as long as he maintains his health and feels good, we’re going to be happy. His goal is to play every day, but we’re not there yet (in terms of talking about Brantley’s schedule) If we could teach everyone to swing like that, we would. He’s taking good swings … Michael was a good hitter before and if he’s healthy, he’ll be a good hitter again.”Terry Francona
JaCoby Jones has been the most consistent in the battle for the center-field job in Detroit, hitting .313 with a .371 on-base percentage, .531 slugging (two home runs) and .903 OPS.
His competition is Mikie Mahtook and Tyler Collins, both are having a horrible spring
Chris Carter struck out 20 times in 37 at-bats heading into yesterday, and then went on ahead and struck out two of the four time he went to the plate. Carter’s strikeout average of .537 (22-for-41) dwarfs a batting average of .122 (5-for-41).
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