Mediate, alleviate, try not to hate!

The three affiliates in action Monday all have records of 3-2. That was only good news for one of them.

Minor leaguers often try and one-up the major leaguers. Dickey gives up five runs in the first? The Bisons gave up five in the first AND five in the second. They lost 14-5. Give them credit for scoring at least.

Roberto Osuna was the story for the Lugnuts, Efrain Nieves was almost as good for Dunedin. The Fisher Cats had a great come from behind win thanks to John Tolisano.

Hash out!

Buffalo and Lansing were the winners on Saturday. Buffalo were led by Andy LaRoche who had 4 hits and a home run. Kevin Pillar also had four hits but in a losing cause for New Hampshire. Deck McGuire was either bad or showed promise depending on your perspective. Alonzo Gonzalez pitched six shutout innings for Lansing whose offense was spread around. Aaron Sanchez pitched mostly well for Dunedin, four three up, three down innings and one three run inning.

Debate!

The bats were hot on Thursday but were a lot cooler on Friday. The Lugnuts won with strong performances by Taylor Cole, Christian Lopes and Emilio Guerrero. Dunedin had to go to extra innings to win. The Bisons got an eighth inning home run from Luis Jimenez to break the tie. Anthony Gose scored two runs thanks to two hits.

Talk!

Converse!

Buehrle vs Myers

  Of note:

  The Jays do not have a hit with a runner in scoring position...but

  The Jays have had few runners in scoring position

Usually the season starts with the pitchers ahead of the hitters. The baby Jays had their hitting shoes on on Thursday with Anthony Gose, Kenny Wilson and Marcus Knecht leading the way.

Discuss!

As we start the new season here in Da Box we need a few fine men or women.  Our writing schedule has us publishing a series thread for the major league Blue Jays, our regular minor league updates, and other thoughts that our writers feel compelled to make public. 

However, several roster members have allowed the real world to interfere with their Box duties and we could use some help.

It's finally Opening Day in Toronto. That means it's time for everyone to make some predictions about how this year's edition of the Jays will fare...

Here are the opening day rosters for the minor league teams.  The big story could be the DL, AJ Jimenez, Sean Nolin, Danny Barnes, Chad Jenkins, John Stilson, Tyler Ybarra and Evan Crawford all start the season on the DL.

My first quick look also notes that:

Marcus walden makes the jump to AA after a half season ion Dunedin.  I liked Walden last year but AA is a big test for his style of pitching.

Alonzo Gonzalez makes the jump to lansing after a brief debut last season.  Gonzalez was a JC selection as was further advanced than the high school pitchers.

Daniel Norris and Roberto Osuna are also starting in Lansing.

Emilio Guerrero beat out a lot of competition to be the shortstop in Lansing.

Chris Hawkins returns to Lansing for a repeat.

 

I have added more comments at the bottom.

As your old pal Named For Hank watches the first night of Realigned Baseball's Non-Stop Battle of Texas, it seems like a good opportunity to update you on the pain and suffering going on in Slaughtergarde, our Fantasy-themed Fantasy League.

Before we get going, did anyone tell Jeff Luhnow that the jersey budget doesn't come out of payroll? No? Well, they're stuck with them now.