The affiliates went 1-3 on Monday with the lone win coming from the Buffalo Bisons.

The most tempting thing, early in the season, is to over-react to small sample sizes. The Blue Jays are 1-5, panic! Similarly the minor leagues have many players hitting over .500, or zero, and pitchers with good or bad starts. I am going to ignore those for now. Buffalo and Lansing have started with three and four wins respectively. Dunedin are 2-2 and New Hampshire 1-2.

Dunedin was the only affiliate who showed up on the first day of class. The rest of our affiliates skipped out due to "weather." Nonetheless, our revamped MLU is up and running.

It's Toronto versus Tampa Bay on two fronts. The Toronto Maple Leafs can clinch a playoff spot for the first time since 2013 and the first time since a full 82-game schedule in 2004 with a victory over the Lightning at the Air Canada Centre.

Meanwhile, the Toronto Blue Jays can clinch their first victory of 2017 (but four would be nice!) as they begin a four-game series at Tropicana Field this evening. If that doesn't excite you, just look at the handsome picture below of the newest Blue Jay acquisition.

Catcher Luke Maile has hit .214 with three home runs and 17 runs batted in his two-year career with Tampa Bay. The Rays designated the 26 year-old for assignment.

Its opening day in the minor leagues. Buffalo's game has already been rained out with the games in New Hampshire and Michigan in doubt too. Dunedin could be our only hope for a game. But before the games begin it's time to talk about the minor league updates. The first MLU on Da Box was published on April 10, 2004. Alex Rios was in AAA, Aaron Hill in AA and a host of players who we had high hopes for were scattered through the system. Those of you with long memories might remember Vito Chiarravalotti, who we got excited about for a while before we learned that first basemen who mash in short season ball don't always make it to the big leagues.

I wrote my first MLU on April 12th, 2004. The Jays had a minor league team in Charleston and Greg Zaun was playing for the Jays AAA team in Syracuse. 2017 will be the 14th year of minor league coverage on Da Box, the longest continuous coverage of the Blue Jays minor leagues on the internet.

The new season is finally here. Several of the roster have registered their opinions on the 2017 season.

Ours not to reason why, ours is but to do and die...

It will be Marco Estrada facing off against Kevin Gausman today. And on Wednesday, JA Happ goes against Dylan Bundy.

Minor league rosters will be announced this week. The Blue Jays do not release rosters until the home town teams have their chance to announce their teams first. Most of those announcements will come today and tomorrow. Some of the reporters covering the major league team will have some news sooner, and as I type this the Fisher Cats have released their roster.

With the season just 60 hours away the Jays have made their final roster decisions, and there are some surprises.

Phew, spring is almost over. It is sunny and the snow is almost all gone up here in Thunder Bay. The Jays have Pearce in LF and Smoak at 1B it seems.

Sox it to me... (ugh that was bad even by my standards...)

I'm running out of time faster than I'm running out of divisions...

Not last, but possibly least...

Getting to the final days of spring now - time for someone to step up.