Depth on display

I like the way that rookie manager John Farrell is getting everyone on his roster reps through the first week of exhibition play from the Grapefruit League in Florida.

Everyone is involved and it is allowing the player personnel people to get a good handle on just what they have, both for the major league roster, but also their burgeoning farm system.

While the team hasn't exactly torn the cover off the ball to date -- .205 team average through the first five games -- there have been some performances of note, mostly from a couple of prospects.

If the season started tomorrow, the current plan is to have Travis Snider in left, Rajai Davis in centre and Juan Rivera in right, with non-roster invitees Corey Patterson and/or Scott Podsednik filling the reserve role(s). Jose Bautista will likely be in the mix as well, but is currently earmarked to be the everyday third baseman, barring a trade for another body to play the hot corner. Both Snider and Podsednik have been slowed by injury and yet to get into game action, meaning a couple of future Jays are getting major playing time.

Everybody knows who Anthony Gose is after general manager Alex Anthopoulos dealt one of the prospects he acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies in the Roy Halladay trade -- big bodied 1B/DH Brett Wallace -- to the Houston Astros last summer for the fleet-footed but raw centre fielder. I say 'raw' because there is no doubt that Gose can run down balls in the gaps of the outfield and steal many bases (124 through his first three minor league season). But he does get thrown out a lot as well (53), which shows that he is really a work in progress.

What we have to remember is that Gose enters his first spring training in the Blue Jays system at the tender age of 20 and will likely start the 2011 campaign at New Hampshire (AA). Through the first five spring games, Gose has shown what all the fuss is about, going 3-for-3 in steal attempts, including one off Tampa Bay's ace left-hander David Price. The fact that Anthopoulos had Gose on his trading radar for quite some time before pulling the trigger in the deal tells us that the youngster is not far away from making his major league debut and take over as the everyday centre fielder.

The other outfielder turning heads is Eric Thames with just a year and a half of playing time in the minors. Originally drafted by the New York Yankees in 2007, the Jays picked the left-handed hitting slugger a year later and he has been on the fast-track toward Toronto.

Last season at Double-A, Thames put in an all-star performance by blasting 27 home runs to go with a .288 batting average and 104 RBI. He'll likely start this season with Las Vegas (AAA) and if he continues to develop at this rapid rate, he could see his first major league action later this summer. What is also impressive is his physique: the young man is absolutely chiseled.

Anthopoulos’ modus operandi since taking over as general manager on the final weekend of the 2009 season was to bulk up the scouting department and to rebuild a farm system that had withered on the vine.

Check and check on both counts.

Through trading and drafting, the likes of Gose and Thames are not that far from Toronto. Now it's up to them to continue their development. It kind of reminds of what happened in the early 1980s when three young outfielders by the names of Bell, Barfield and Moseby arrived at the same time and led the franchise to their first playoff appearance in 1985.

Memories of the Duke

Certain sounds can instantly transport you back to a simpler time -- aka, your childhood. I remember a couple of years back, being in the Fort Lauderdale area on an off-day as the Jays were taking on the Florida Marlins in inter-league.

Driving around with a couple of my co-workers, we came upon the Marlins radio broadcast with Dave Van Horne on the call. I closed my eyes and the sound of his easy listening call took me back to the early 1970s when, on television, all we got was two games a week -- the NBC 'Game of the Week' on Saturday afternoons with Curt Gowdy, Tony Kubek and Joe Garagiola and CBC's Wednesday night coverage of the Montreal Expos with Van Horne and Hall of Famer Duke Snider. Both telecasts had their distinct styles, but the sound of Van Horne and Snider's voices, even if you were in another part of the house, told you that the Expos were on.

I bring this up because Snider passed away this week at the age of 84. He will be forever immortalized in Terry Cashman's brilliantly timeless baseball ballad, "Willie, Mickey & The Duke" which perfectly encapsulated the game before money changed everything.

Willie Mays (Giants), Mickey Mantle (Yankees) and Duke Snider (Dodgers) were the biggest stars of the day, all playing on baseball's biggest stage in New York. Of the three, Snider got less acclaim, but was still one of the greats.

A reserved gentleman with an easy-going, southern drawl, Snider made the post-career transition into the broadcast booth and was a pleasure to listen to, especially for a young boy still learning the game. His verbiage wasn't cluttered with catch phrases and technical jargon like a lot of today's talking heads; just simple, down home and combined with the professionalism of Van Horne, a very easy listen on a summer night.

He will be missed.

Stats man Scott Carson is now in his 19th season as "third man in the booth" during Blue Jays telecasts.