  Toronto Blue Jays' Casey Janssen throws in the bullpen during practice. (REUTERS/Mike Cassese)
|
DUNEDIN — And now for something completely different: baseball.
OK, it’s not the real stuff but it’ll have to do until the end of the week. For starters, Blue Jay pitchers will pitch and hitters will hit. That’s progress after two weeks of playing catch.
“This is a progression,” said Jays manager John Farrell. “We’ll start swinging the bats against the pitchers (Monday) and get in line for intersquad games on Thursday and Friday. “We’ve got two six-inning games scheduled. We’ll be looking at 24 pitchers with an inning apiece. That’s not everyone, but everyone we want to get to the mound will do just that.”
That all leads to the Grapefruit League opener on Saturday at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium against the Detroit Tigers.
Farrell and his staff have a lot of pitchers to look at and limited innings for all those auditions.
“While we’re dealing with large numbers of pitchers in camp, we’ve got available innings for everyone,” Farrell said.
“Once we get past that eighth or ninth day of games, with starters who we have projected to begin the season and those who are in competition for the final couple of spots, innings are going to be less available. At that time, that’s when some decisions are going to be made.”
