Things worth mentioning…

• Right off the hop, I’ll mention this note from Arden Zwelling, which states that Cavan Biggio will start to see some time in centre field. Shortly after I saw that Tweet, the lineup for today’s game against the Phillies came out and Biggio was pencilled in as the starting centre fielder. Biggio was mostly a second baseman last season for the Jays, but we also saw him play a little bit of first, left, and right field. He hasn’t played centre field in the minors, so this will be interesting. The goal has always been for Biggio to become a swiss army knife defensively because it’s difficult to say if his bat will translate to second base. Having players with positional versatility is ideal in the changing world of baseball as teams are getting more and more creative to ensure the best platoon matchups in any given situation. As a random aside, Craig Biggio played second base, the outfield, and came up as a catcher.

• Hyun-Jin Ryu made his Blue Jays debut on Thursday against the Twins, scattering one earned run on two hits while collecting a pair of strikeouts over a couple of innings. Ryu tossed 41 pitches, 26 of which were strikes. He also worked the zone nicely, forcing six swinging strikes through his two innings of work. After the game, Arden Zwelling put out an interesting post over at Sportsnet talking about how the Blue Jays’ $80 million man and his regimented spring training sessions. “That’s six pitches in total — a four-seamer, two-seamer, cutter, curveball, slider, and change-up. It’s a lot to work on, which is why Ryu’s so regimented in his routines. He knows exactly what he wants to throw in his spring side sessions, working purposefully and never rushing through anything. He eases into his throwing program, as well, something Walker admires and hopes the club’s younger pitchers can learn from.” 
• After Ryu, the Jays out of the bullpen scattered just a couple of earned runs over seven innings. Anthony Bass allowed a solo homer in his inning of work, Wilmer Font came in and struck out two, and Elvis Luciano, Sean Reid-Foley, Justin Miller, and Kirby Snead all had scoreless frames before Ryan Dull allowed a run on a couple of hits in the ninth.
• The Jays would end up earning a tie thanks to a ninth-inning rally involving some of their prospects. Alejandro Kirk, the new Large Adult Son, got things started off with a one-out single, then Santiago Espinal walked and Caleb Joseph singled before Kevin Smith tied the game with a two-run double.

• Anthony Kay, who we’ve all just kind of glossed over when it comes to the race for the fifth starter despite the fact he’s most certainly in the mix, made his second start of the spring against the Tigers on Thursday. Kay was very good, scattering a couple of hits and a walk over two scoreless frames while collecting three strikeouts. The key for Kay was his change-up, which was the pitch he used to record two swinging strikeouts, one of which was on Miguel Cabrera.
• After Kay, Ty Tice came in and allowed a couple of runs in his inning of work, though he did end up striking out the side. Rafael Dolis threw a clean frame, then Jacob Waguespack came in and walked four batters over one-and-a-third innings, and Travis Bergen came in to escape the jam. Hector Perez and Bryan Baker each allowed a run in their innings and Jake Petricka closed the door in the ninth.

• The star of the day offensively for the Jays was Teoscar Hernandez, who hit a two-run bomb in the first inning off of Ivan Nova and an RBI triple in the third inning. Santiago Espinal hit an RBI double off of Nova and Vlad Jr. hit an RBI infield single off of former Blue Jay Zack Godley in the fourth inning. Rowdy Tellez also had a double in the win.
• In more negative news, Anthony Alford’s struggles at the plate continued on Friday. Alford came into the game for Billy McKinney and went 0-for-2 with a strikeout, putting him at 1-for-11 with eight strikeouts so far in spring. Yikes!