A couple of nice pitching performances highlight a relatively routine night in the minors, as Travis Snider continues to hit and Dustin Majewski continues to draw walks. However, the star of the night was a bright prospect in the Red Sox system who may be manning the outfield in Fenway by 2008.

The minor league crew decided to intensify our focus on the organization's top prospects. As part of that effort, we will have less game reporting on Fridays and statistical summaries for the top prospects. We begin this week with the pitchers.

David Purcey seems to be a new pitcher in 2007, and one can only guess at how wide the smiles might be in the Jay front office. He was smooth last night in a Fisher Cat win. The farm affiliates went 2-3.

It was a .500 night on the farm and a .500 night for games played thanks to Old Man Winter/Mother Nature.  The lower level teams split their two games while the upper level squads had an unscheduled night off.

Three rain outs, Lansing wins behind more strong starting pitching from Zach Dials. Lansing's team ERA is just over 1. The Jays affiliates have thirteen rain-outs already this season. Bonus notes from the minors included for no extra charge.

No Jays farm team outhit their opponent but the affiliates won 3 of 5 games.  Lansing had the same number of hits as runs, two.  Chase Lirette made sure those two hits were enough to win the game.

A (hopefully) fully healthy Aaron Wideman demonstrated his prowess on the mound, while Travis Snider shows surprising speed, as the farm goes 2-1.

A little macabre perhaps, but it is Friday the 13th.  Brian Pettway's walk-off blast was a highlight of a 2-2 night for the farm affiliates.

Life is bare/ gloom and mis'ry everywhere/stormy weather. David Purcey and Aaron Tressler helped beat back the despair for minor league watchers with fine pitching performances as the farm affiliates went 2-1. Purcey's fine outing was especially good news for the organization.

Two starts, two strong appearances for Dustin McGowan.

A 1-for-4 night by the minor league affiliates in my debut as a Minor League reporter wasn't what I had in mind.  Things didn't go so well in the upper minors but the good stuff is at the lowest rung. 

Two wins in three contests. The Syracuse bullpen lost the game while Dunedin won in the ninth. New Hampshire flirted with disaster but Lee Gronkiewicz saved the day. Adam Lind, John-Ford Griffin, Wayne Lydon, Chip Cannon and Eric Kratz hit home runs.

Two games and two rainouts, again. But you’ll want to read about these.

The minor league season opened up on a chilly note, with two weather-related postponements.  The farm affiliates split the other two.

Minor league action gets going next Thursday.   Teams were scheduled to be announced today with most teams flying out to their host cities on Monday.  We learned today that Chip Cannon and Sergio Santos will be headed to New Hampshire to start the season.  The Blue Jays also recently signed Wayne Lydon's return and released several players.  Luke Hopkins, Danny Hill and David Hicks retired.