A trio of strong five inning starts paved the way to a .500 day on the farm.

Brett Cecil beat Bear Bay and the Tuscon Padres easily last night.  Cecil pitched well by Las Vegas standards, average by major league standards.  Jesse Hernandez of the Lugnuts took a no hitter into the eighth and completed a one hitter but lost the game. New Hampshire lost a close one and Dunedin were badly beaten.  As usual Las Vegas had a number of strong hitting performances including home runs from Travis d'Arnaud, Moises Sierra and Adam Lind.

If you like hearing the crack of the bat, Cashman Field was the place to be to dig that sound and shake it around as Las Vegas launched a 17-hit attack.  It was almost a perfect night on the farm as the affiliates won three out of four on Monday.

The affiliates were 3-2 on the day with New Hampshire's struggles continuing. Adam Lind and Travis Snider both enjoyed big games.

Three wins in four tries for the affiliates as a top prospect returned to action.

Our farm boys came up empty handed Friday night unable to record a single victory.  Two games, a single game and a make-up were canceled due to rain in Dunedin.  That saved us from the bad side of a total sweep.

Yesterday we looked at the extended spring training stats for the hitters, today it is the pitchers.  The stat sheet lists 44 pitchers of whom 26 pitched over 20 innings.  That 20 inning limit is what we will use for analysis today.  Most of the pitchers under 20 innings were hurt, are relievers, or players on rehab assignments.  The most innings pitched is 37 by Deivy Estrada.   Norris, Osuna, Musgrove and the other 2011 draftees were mainly in the upper 20's in innings pitched.

The extended spring training season ended yesterday.  Newly drafted players show up for a mini-camp starting this weekend and by the middle of next week the minor league short-season teams will be selected.  The Vancouver Canadians start their season in eight days time.   The short season rosters will change a lot in the early stages as newly signed players show up, get assessed, get into game shape and are assigned to a team.

I have received a copy of the statistics from extended spring training and here are some highlights.

An off day, two suspended games and a loss do not equal an exciting minor league report.

Scott Richmond just didn't have it last night, he gave up seven hits and five runs in the first two innings.  The 51's were put into a hole they couldn't climb out of.  In AA the Richmond Flying Squirrels had two hits off Joel Carreno.  One of them was a solo home run and it put the sad sack Fisher Cats in a hole they couldn't climb out of.  Dunedin rescued the day by winning easily behind Sean Nolin and Gabe Jacobo.  Lansing were off.  Unusually, neither the Las Vegas or the New Hampshire hitters could register an extra base hit.

Just wanted to draw your attention to the fact there was some minor league baseball Monday night!  Lansing and Dunedin celebrated "Draft Night" with victories to earn a split for the affiliates.

The 2012 first year player draft is tomorrow and Toronto picks 17th and 22nd overall. The Jays have five picks in the first 60.

With two games in extras and a doubleheader in High-A, only Lansing played a standard game on Saturday. The affiliates went 2-3 and a top prospect got rocked.

The Blue Jays system is about to get an infusion of talent with the kickoff of the June amateur draft on Monday at 7 p.m. The draft will take place Monday-Wednesday, concluding with the 40th round. The Blue Jays have two first round selections and three picks in the supplemental round. And now on to the current minor leaguers... with the affiliates going 4-1.

Raining hits for Las Vegas, Rain delays in New Hampshire, Rain out in Dunedin, Rain make up for Lansing.