Second Guesser's Club - O Canada...

[absintheofmalaise]

Game 1: 4/25 7:07pm Peavy RHP vs. Buehrle LHP
Game 2: 4/26 1:07pm Buchholz RHP vs. Morrow RHP
Game 3: 4/27 1:07pm Lester LHP vs. Dickey RHP

 

[Joe Shlabotnick]

Reverse lock tonight.

 

[absintheofmalaise]

Sox line up:
 
Pedroia 2B
VIctorino RF
Ortiz DH
Napoli 1B
Gomes LF
Bogaerts SS
Pierzynski C
Middlebrooks 3B
Bradley Jr. CF
Peavy RHP.

 

[absintheofmalaise]

Jays
 
Reyes SS
Cabrera LF
Bautista RF
Encarnacion 1B
Navarro C
Francisco DH
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Goins 2B
Buehrle LHP

 

[Montana Fan]

JBJ and X have higher OBP's than Pedroia and Ortiz. I'd say that getting on base with regularity is a good way for them to start out their ML careers.

 

[absintheofmalaise]

Sox line up:
 
Pedroia 2B
Sizemore LF
Napoli 1B
Pierzynski DH
Middlebrooks 3B
Gomes RF
Bogaerts SS
Bradley Jr. CF
Ross C
Lester LHP

 

[RedOctober3829]

Surprised to see Papi sitting, good career #s against Dickey. Hope it's not health related. AJP at DH and batting cleanup is pretty awesome.

Not surprising to me. Getting him a rest and keeping him off the turf isn't such a bad thing with him nursing that leg injury.

 

[Rudy's Curve]

Carp has certainly struggled this year, but he still has a 20.8 LD% and Dickey has had a pretty traditional split the last three seasons. If he can't make it into the lineup against a RHP with Ortiz and Victorino out, why is he on the team?

 

[Savin Hillbilly]

Surprised to see Papi sitting, good career #s against Dickey. Hope it's not health related. AJP at DH and batting cleanup is pretty awesome.

 
Not sure I understand AJ over Carp there. Yes, AJ has a gaudy career line vs. Dickey, but that's mostly fueled by a 3-for-4 with a HR in 2003 before Dickey became a knuckleballer (everybody else was pounding him back then too). Since then, AJ has been 2 for 8 with a double--not bad, but I'm not sure it justifies the risk of having to bat the pitcher if Ross gets hurt. I guess the flip side is that this way you have Carp to pinch hit, so unless that hypothetical Ross injury happens early in the game, the risk of getting caught with your P at the plate more than once is pretty low, barring extra innings.

 

[InsideTheParker]

They are making efforts to soften the turf:
http://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2014/04/24/blue_jays_pave_way_for_grass_at_the_rogers_centre.html

Not surprising to me. Getting him a rest and keeping him off the turf isn't such a bad thing with him nursing that leg injury.

 
 
You may notice a slightly more charcoal hue to the artificial turf and a few sharper bounces in the outfield at the Rogers Centre this season.

But what’s darker on the eyes is actually softer on the knees. The darker shade and livelier playing surface are the result of changes made by the Rogers Centre’s grounds crew to extend the turf’s lifespan.

Underneath the polypropylene blades of “grass” — think garbage-bag material — is an infill of black rubber beads, which are about the size of coarse coffee grounds.

Previously, that infill was a combination of sand and rubber, which, in the four years that the current turf has been in place, had grown hard and compact from the compression that occurs whenever the turf is rolled up and not in use. The sand particles had settled at the bottom, while the rubber bits deteriorated to the size of pepper grains.

“It created a very hard field,” said Kelly Keyes, vice-president of building services for the Blue Jays.

By the end of last season, Keyes and her crew knew they needed to make a change.

So this off-season the grounds crew, led by Keyes and head groundskeeper Tom Farrell, painstakingly tamped out all of the turf’s old infill and replaced it with a fresh all-rubber infill, doing away with the sand mixture. Hence the black streaks and puffs of what look like little black clouds when an outfielder dives on the turf or a ball skips hard on the surface.

Infielder Maicer Izturis said he noticed the difference right away.

“Absolutely, it’s a little softer this year,” he said earlier this month, before suffering a knee injury in Baltimore. “But the ball jumps a little bit more, too.”

 

[mfried]

Sox line up:
 
Pedroia 2B
Sizemore LF
Napoli 1B
Pierzynski DH
Middlebrooks 3B
Gomes RF
Bogaerts SS
Bradley Jr. CF
Ross C
Lester LHP

Any sinister reason for Victorino's absence?

 

[absintheofmalaise]

At the Seminar last year Farrell said they used the last 7 days/games for player hot/cold streaks, so I checked the numbers for Ortiz and AJP. 
Ortiz is 6/20 with 8 BB and 2 HRs. AJP is 6/18 with 2 BB, 2 2B and 1 HR. So I think they just might want to give Ortiz 2 days off in a row.

 

[absintheofmalaise]

Any sinister reason for Victorino's absence?

I didn't see anything, but I only checked the Twitter feeds from Edes, Abraham and Speier. Nothing on Ortiz either.

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

Any sinister reason for Victorino's absence?

 
Planned day off.  Still easing him back.

 

[Reverend]

I posted over in the new catcher's rules thread a screen shot, but looking at Lester's decision not to throw home, I wonder how much of it might be the players and coaches not having adjusted to uncertainty of how plays at home are going to go and how much time they need to make the play to tag the runner.