J.A Happ had a miserable start Monday not even getting out of the first inning in his second spring start. Happ allowed four runs in a third of an inning, allowing two hits but walking four. Happ has now allowed six earned runs in one and a third inning this spring.

I know that most fans don’t put a whole lot of stock into Spring Training numbers, but as in the case last year with Ricky Romero who had a miserable Spring and found himself in the minors, it might be worth taking note of Happ’s next outing and if he shows signs of pitching better. One bad outing can happen in Spring Training, but three sub par outings should raise alarm bells with Alex Anthopoulos.

The injury bug is back and we’re not even through a week of games so far, Casey Janssen has been shut down for a week with a sore shoulder, Colby Rasmus is out with a stiff neck and Brett Lawrie missed a game with a hamstring issue. Janssen’s shoulder should be a concern to keep an eye out for, he had it operated on last offseason which forced him to miss most of Spring Training last season. Janssen’s shoulder didn’t flare up during the season last year as Janssen began his first full season as the Blue Jays closer in which he saved 34 games. Janssen has said however that it is muscle soreness and not anything ligament related.

I do however think as Jays fans it’s not completely ridiculous to tend to think that the Jays are not the most open and honest team when it comes to injury reporting. In 2012 when Sergio Santos went down in April with elbow soreness the Jays said it was just a few weeks, which turned out to be the rest of the season. It happened with Jose Bautista as well in 2012 as he suffered the wrist injury and was told would be a few weeks, that as well turned out to be the rest of the season. Last year it was Brandon Morrow when he went out with at the time was forearm tightness and that he would be back at some point last season, which ended up being a pinched radial nerve in his pitching forearm and Morrow missed the end of the season.

So you can see why any time the Blue Jays bring up injuries I take it with a grain of salt when they estimate the length of time a player will be out.

The Jays exhibition game against Minnesota on Monday was the first to include expanded instant replay, both challenges where on close plays at first base and both were upheld. The first challenge took two minutes while the second one took two and a half minutes. I’m still not sure how I feel about the replay challenge set-up. With only two challenges available to a manager you wouldn’t want to burn both challenges early in a game in case there was a call late in the game that was close enough to be challenged. In the end we all want the right call made, and maybe Jim Bowden has the right idea, have a fifth umpire added to each crew and his job would be to look at all the plays in a game and if the wrong call is made on a play buzz down to the home-plate umpire to have the play looked at and the right call being made. The more I think about Bowden’s idea the more I think he just might be right in this case.