Spring Threat: Baseball is back! Blue Jays @ Braves

© Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports

Toronto Blue Jays baseball! It’s here! (Sort of! It isn’t on TV and it’s the B lineup) But fuck it! Let’s do this!

The Jays will kick off their 2017 baseball journey this afternoon with a spring training match with the Atlanta Braves. Since the game is being played at the Braves’ park, Champions Field in Orlando, the Jays will be rolling out an incredibly ‘B’ lineup. I’m guessing they didn’t want the players to get sucked into the horrifying, nightmarish land of Disney World, because that’s where the Braves play spring training baseball for some reason. 

There won’t be any major names taking the field for the Jays today, but some interesting prospects worth keeping an eye on will be playing. Top position player prospects Richard Urena, Rowdy Tellez, and Anthony Alford will play, and while none of them are going to break camp barring an obscene amount of injuries in spring, all could be vying for the illustrious “first guy to be called up” spot at their given positions. 

Casey Lawrence, a 29-year-old sort of non-prospect will be getting the start for the Jays this afternoon. He pitched with Double-A New Hampshire and Triple-A Buffalo last season and posted a 4.17 earned run average without exciting peripherals. I can’t for the life of me find who else is going to be pitching today, but I know that tomorrow, in their spring home opener, Joe Biagini will be getting the start, while Mat Latos, Conner Greene, and Ryan Tepera will also make appearances. 

There isn’t much in the way of news this morning that we don’t already know, but Sportsnet dropped this trailer for their upcoming docu-series on more personal aspect of Blue Jays players. It looks pretty interesting, if you’re into that kind of thing (which I imagine you are if you’re the kind of person reading a game day post).

Also, I figured it’s good to share this very handy chart Gideon Turk made with information as to which games will be on TV this spring:

TV: None

Radio: FAN590 and bluejays.com 

Next game: Tomorrow, 1:07 PM ET, vs Philadelphia Phillies (on TV!)