Taking a cue from the big-league club, the affiliates had a solid night with two wins and two losses (although New Hampshire battled until the 13th before taking the loss). Las Vegas led the way with a 12-run attack - and the pitchers finally showed some signs of life by allowing just three runs.

Some of the minor leaguers decided to emulate their favourite big leaguers yesterday and there were impressions of Roy Halladay and BJ Ryan on the farm. Predictably, that means the couple of Doc-like pitching performances led to a victory and a BJ Ryan scenario ended with a final inning loss. Dunedin had an off day and Lansing played a double-header as the affiliates won one and lost three.

New Hampshire mimicked the Red Sox by sweeping a doubleheader, but they didn’t even have the benefit of playing at their home ballpark. Las Vegas won, while Dunedin avoided the sweep behind some fine relief pitching from the usual suspects and some offence and defence from one of the hottest bats in the entire system. Only Lansing prevented a day of wins, from the parent club on down, as the Lugnuts lost convincingly to South Bend.

At least Mother Nature came through for the other two affiliates.  I think Porky Pig said it best.

It must have been an exciting day in Las Vegas, with several lead changes, extra-inning scoring by both teams, and a walk-off victory for the 51s. Rain plagued two of the other affiliates, and Dunedin played the only 9 inning game on the night.

The affiliates dropped three of four on Sunday.  To be honest, there wasn't a lot to get excited about.

Marc Rzepczynski bounced back from a bad start to deliver a good one yesterday.  Brett Cecil came off a good start and had a bad one.  The Ryan's, Page and Koch, did not put their teams in a position to win.  New Hampshire had the only win and are leading their division.  Brian jeroloman stayed hot while the bats of David Cooper and Brian Dopirak appear to be warming up.

The day started well (New Hampshire) and ended well (Las Vegas) but the middle was kind of ugly - especially in Florida. When the dust settled, the affiliates shared a record of 2-2.

Toronto’s minor league affiliates won two of their three games on Thursday, as all three teams were involved in contests that were decided by two runs. Las Vegas’ offence centred around the home run, Dunedin’s was powered by their 1-2-3 and 9th hitters and New Hampshire saw a very fine pitching performance by their starter and a trio of relievers.

The affiliates had some good pitching tonight.  Fabio Castro pitched six shutout innings, Alsn Farina started and did well.  Tim Collins was outstanding, again, in relief.  Henderson Alvarez and John Anderson also pitched well.

Reidier Gonzalez pitched well enough to win and well enough to finish what he started but he wasn't allowed to as New Hampshire lost a heartbreaker.  Lansing got pasted but Dunedin slugged their way to a win.  Las Vegas was rained out last night in Salt Lake.

On the first Minor League Update of my career, I almost gave you an update about the Syracuse SkyChiefs (if that's what they're still called). No joke. I looked at the box score and realized I had no idea what I had signed up for. Anyway...

Last night, around 7pm, I settled in with my laptop ready to pen my first Minor League recap of the season.  At 7:01, I was finished.

The first three teams to play on Saturday each lost but Dunedin saved the day by winning thanks to fifteen hits and ten runs.  Vegas lost as Brad Mills had a tough start.  New Hampshire lost their first game of the season as the Cats could only register three hits while proving Brad Emaus is human.  Lansing continued to struggle, losing 9-0 as they could only manage two hits.

The title says it all for the most part. Oh, and one ugly collective pitching performance in High-A ball... except for Tim Collins, of course.