Brett Lawrie Injured As Blue Jays Win 10th Straight

Published: 16^th Mar 12 5:14 pm

Thom Tsang
thomastsang

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Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Not exactly the most timely of injuries now, is it?

In the middle of what turned out to be their 10th spring victory in a row (5-0 over the Rays), the Blue Jays suffered their first real scare during the 2012 Grapefruit season, losing 3rd baseman Brett Lawrie after just 3 innings of play to what the team is currently calling a sprained groin.

It might not turn out to be the most serious of injuries, but the timing for this one isn’t great, regardless of how much – or how little – time Lawrie will miss as a result. The 21-year old has been on a monstrous tear over the first half of spring training; anything that could jeopardize the momentum going into the regular season, where all eyes will be on Lawrie with the expectations of stardom, is not an ideal situation. Lawrie told Mike Wilner of the FAN 590 later on that he doesn’t think the injury is serious, and any time missed is expected to be short.

That’s great and all, but is it the most reassuring thing for a player to say “hey, I’ve dealt with this injury before”? That’s up for you to decide. Maybe I’m still remembering that time last year when Lawrie thought he had a bruise on his hand that turned out to be fractured. Either way, the team has listed him as day-to-day, and probably won’t take any chances in rushing him back, in a season where they have very little to lose other than the health of their players.

In other notes, Ricky Romero was excellent today, striking out 4 and allowing a pair of walks over 4 no-hit innings. Ricky has allowed just 2 hits and 2 walks over 9 innings of work thus far this spring, with a very strong 5.00 GO/AO ratio, so things are looking pretty good for the Blue Jays ace. Travis Snider hit another ball out of the park, which gives us an opportunity to visit the official 2012 Blue Jays Battle Of the Left scoreboard, which currently sits like this:

Travis Snider: 30 AB, .333/.375/.833, 4 HR, 1 SB, 3 OFA
Eric Thames: 25 AB, .320/.370/.520, 1 HR, 1 SB, 0 OFA

Alex Anthopoulos has suggested that Snider will have to significantly outplay the incumbent Thames to earn the outfield job. I don’t know if he’s done it yet, but the one thing we could probably say is that Snider is tearing the cover off the ball right now, and hitting it much harder than Thames (who isn’t doing too shabby with the bat himself). If the season started today, will that be enough?