We have an afternoon game today, a 3:00 Eastern start.
And we have a new starter: Easton Lucas is making his first MLB start. He pitched in two games for us last year (they didn’t go well), three for the Tigers, and three for the A’s.
Last year, in Triple-A, he pitched in 38 games, 4 starts, with a 2.75 ERA in 68.2 innings. He allowed 49 hits, 28 walks, and 78 strikeouts. He didn’t have a great spring training, with an 8.64 ERA in 8.1 innings.
We don’t seem to have any starting pitching depth.
FanGraphs has their Top-40 Blue Jays Prospect list up. At the top are:
- Jake Bloss
- Arjun Nimmala
- Alan Roden
- Ricky Tiedemann
- Trey Yesavage
We have Jake Bloss in seventh place, with Orelvis Martinez in the number one spot (they have Martinez in eighth place). And they have Cristopher Polance seventh, we have him 21st. It’s harder to place him since he has no professional stats. Another big difference is they have Angel Bastardo 13th, we have him 40th.
I guess the other difference is they have Will Wagner ninth, while we don’t consider players over 25 (figuring at that age a player is no longer a prospect, but more a finished product). It is hard for me to see a guy in his age 26 season a prospect, which is nothing against Wagner, he was blocked out of playing time in Houston by some all-stars.
Shi Davidi has a story about how the Nationals traded Juan Soto to rebuild their minor league system.
The Blue Jays are banking that an off-season spent adding the likes of Anthony Santander, Andres Gimenez and Jeff Hoffman, along with last summer’s deadline haul, will make hanging on to Guerrero and Bichette for their walk years worthwhile.
But if not and they need to pivot to sell before the deadline, Guerrero and Bichette won’t fetch the type of haul the Nats got for Soto, since an acquiring team gets only one run with them, instead of the three that came with Soto, or two that went with Turner.
Keegan Matheson tells us that John Schneider had a bunting competition in spring training, putting up a $1000 prize for the winning team, and crediting that for their successful bunts in the first few games of the season. It sounds like a fun idea, and it does help in getting guys to work on their bunting. It also allows the manager to see who can and who should never bunt.
Today’s lineup. Straw, Heineman and Schneider draw in.
Going for the sWWWeep
It’s our first Work From Dome game of 2025: https://t.co/i37wdTSIqk pic.twitter.com/2IEvUcmldi
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) April 2, 2025
It is great seeing Bo be Bo again:
Bo Bichette owns the space between the first baseman and the line.
This is as fired up as I’ve seen Bo in a long, long time. #BlueJays pic.twitter.com/A34Hnl8uMn
— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) April 2, 2025