Marcum continues to solidify himself as the Ace

Hi All,
Today was unfortunately the first Blue Jays game of the spring that was not broadcast in any form. If you have mlb.tv, you have been able to listen to all Blue Jays games up until this point, and you were actually able to watch last Saturday's game against the Yankees. I would highly recommend for the hardcore baseball fan.


But from the reports, today's game was another excellent outing for Marcum. 3 IP, 1 hit, no walks, 39 pitches, and 30 were thrown for strikes. That's pretty impressive who hasn't pitched in the major leagues in about 18 months! Odds are now that Marcum becomes the opening day starter.

Jose Bautista continues to keep making things interesting. He currently has the second highest batting average on the team, the highest slugging percentage, and is kicking everyone else's butts in terms of total bases with 22 so far. With both Bautista and Ruiz swinging the stick as well as they are, and Travis Snider lacking a little bit in that department, going 3 for 16 so far at the plate, don't be so sure that Snider is the Blue Jays' starting right or left fielder. I don't want to make a full prediction of the Jays' starting lineup just yet, because it's still quite early, but right now, I have difficulty penciling in Snider in either corner outfield position.

The one new Jay that is quietly impressing is Mike McCoy. The shortstop is competing for playing time at a position where there is a bit of a void. The Jays' stop-gap at SS, Alex Gonzalez, has a career batting average that is less than 1% higher of that of John McDonald. Jonny Mac has always been criticized of being just miserable at the plate, but he's not much worse than Gonzalez who has never hit for average, and has posted only one 20+ HR season in his career back in 2004. McCoy only got his first taste of 'the show' just last year, and it was quite brief at that, getting just 6 plate appearances, but he has been kicking around the minor leagues for 8 seasons now. He earned his promotion to the big leagues after hitting .307/.405/.400 in AAA in 2009. He isn't going to hit for power, but he will steal some bases for you. (He stole 40 for Colorado Springs of the Pacific Coast League last year). And did I mention that he is leading the Jays' in batting average so far this spring going 6 for 9 at the plate?

As I said, McCoy has earned the top spot in terms of batting average on the club quietly given that he has only had 9 ABs - so don't get too excited. But I would expect McCoy to be making the trip north with the big club at the start of the season rather than heading out to Vegas. Don't expect the soon-to-be 29-year old to garner too much playing time, especially at the beginning of the season, but keep your eye on him - he could be fun to watch this season.


Rational and reasonable comments are always welcome.