Case of the Mondays Musings

Originally this had intended to be post fueling the fires of the hype machine that were building up the Kyle Drabek/Roy Halladay pitching matchup later today.

However, the Baseball Injury Gods had other plans as Drabek is suffering from a sore neck. He claims it was due to sleeping on it wrong, but I think it’s because he was rubbernecking to see the pictures of the girls from the Tilted Kilt on the outfield wall.

Kyle Drabek’s setback has opened a door for Jo-Jo Reyes now, who will “start” today against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Blue Jays have a very interesting scenario with Reyes because he doesn’t have any options remaining on his contract.

Which means the Blue Jays either have to put him on the Opening Day roster or cut him loose and put him on waivers. Jo-Jo Reyes is a starting pitcher by trade, but several injuries over the past few seasons likely lead to the Braves converting him into a reliever.

This could bode well for the Blue Jays as not only do they need a left-handed companion for David Purcey in the bullpen, but they could benefit from someone like Reyes who could be stretched out to a long relief man.

Depending on how he performs in his outings during Spring Training, you have to think the Blue Jays will at least give Jo-Jo Reyes a shot to be the token LOOGY on the roster.

Now the Blue Jays are coming off back to back shutouts at the hands of the Detroit Tigers, but I don’t think it’s a cause for concern. Ultimately, these games have no bearing whatsoever and are more about player development and the manager’s experimentation than anything else.

It’s only two games into the Grapefruit League schedule, but Anthony Gose has quickly become the speedster on the team. He picked up his second stolen base and was clocked in at 3.24 seconds making the jump from first to second.

A member of the Detroit Tigers coaching staff was even quoted as saying “that’s Rickey Henderson territory”.

Mike Wilner has said he believes Rajai Davis could very well break the team record of 60 stolen bases this year, but I think we might have to wait for Anthony Gose to be the one to supplant Dave Collins as the new single-season stolen base record holder.

One one final musing for the day, I was scouring Twitter for any Jose Bautista news and came across this Twitpic from @JennBirmlee of him doing the iconic crane pose from The Karate Kid.

From this photo it’s very apparent that fear does not exist in Bautista’s dojo.