There are nine days to go until the start of the minor league seasons and the roster shuffling has started already with six pitchers released by the Jays.

What do you do for an encore? If you’re Mark Knopfler, you do Telegraph Road. If you’re Velvet Revolver, so I'm told, you do Sweet Child O' Mine. If you’re Thomas Dolby, you only had one hit anyway, so why are you touring?

But if you’re the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, whose inaugural season in 2004 ended by capturing the Eastern League championship title, what do you do? You open a brand-spankin’ new jewel of a ballpark, that’s what.

The Dunedin Blue Jays are the team's high-A affiliate in the Florida State League. The team's top college prospects, from Russ Adams and David Bush to David Purcey and Adam Lind, usually begin their first full season there. With the move of the low-A affiliate from Charleston to Lansing, Dunedin also has the nicest spring climate of any of the team's minor league franchises. This makes it a natural destination for pitchers recovering from arm surgery.

The baseball season is gearing up and Batter’s Box is excited to offer bigger and better coverage of the Blue Jays minor league system than ever before. Welcome to the first installment of our minor league team previews. We begin with the newest member of Toronto’s minor league kin, the Lansing Lugnuts, and will work our way up the ladder to the Syracuse Skychiefs over the next two weeks. Look for our previews of the short-season teams in June once the draft is wrapped up.

John Sickels' top 20 Jay prospects are up. For comparison, here is Jordan's top 30 from September.

Brandon League and David Purcey are the top rated prospects on John Sickels' list. Aaron Hill and Josh Banks rank 1, 2 on Jordan's.

It is time to plan the minor league rosters for 2005. When I asked Dick Scott how he allocated the players to the teams he acknowledged that he first places his top prospects and then fills around them. He also said that 90% of the decisions are made before the players report in the spring; so let's see how we would do it if it was our call.

After the holiday break, the winter leaguers returned to action. Ismael Ramirez got back on track with a solid start (5.2IP, 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 0 W, 3K).

Here's your Jay winter league report:
Puerto Rican League-Caguas
Rob Cosby- .263/.309/.434
Miguel Negron- .228/.365/.329

Venezuelan League
Zulia
Guillermo Quiroz- .245/.359/.491
Lara
Rodney Medina- .309/.377/.400
Oriente
Jorge Sequea- .241/.365/.443
Ismael Ramirez- 35.2 IP, 31 H, 9 W, 28K, 2 HR allowed, 4 HBP, 3.71 ERA, 5-1

Miguel Negron borrows a chapter out of Jayce Tingler's book in Puerto Rico, sporting a .250/.378/.368 line. Guillermo Quiroz hit his 5th homer for Zulia in the Venezuelan League, and is hitting .250 but with power and reasonable plate discipline.

Since we last talked, Ismael Ramirez went to 5-0 for Oriente in the Venezuelan League, after allowing 2 earned runs on 4 hits and 2 walks with 3 strikeouts in 6 innings against Lara. He's now gone 34 innings, allowing 25 hits and 7 walks, while stiking out 27 and surrendering only 2 homers.

We'll get things started for the week with yesterday's Saguaro's boxscore. It turns out that Rosario may not be spent after all; he threw 4 shutout innings, allowing 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4.

Dry wash is a nice oxymoron. In the desert, a wash is a riverbed that is normally dry, but will fill during rainy periods.

Here is your weekly AFL spot. We'll get things rolling with yesterday's Saguaro boxscore. We will have some BBRadio of the game on Wednesday the 10th here.

Javelinas, by the way, look like small designer pigs, and are adept at eating cactus. Don't ask. They are not actually pigs but peccaries. Now you know.

Here is a place for all things AFL. Here's yesterday's Saguaro boxscore to get things rolling. It's a very pleasant sight to see Hill, Hattig and Big Vito in the heart of the batting order and doing so well. Rob tells us that the Saguaros' games on November 2 and 4 will be on internet radio courtesy of mlb.com.

Time for a quick update on the Arizona Fall League and the Peoria Saguaros, managed by AAA Syracuse skipper Marty Pevey and home to six Jays prospects of varying degrees of interest. The Saguaros sit last in the three-team American Divison with a 2-4 record; they beat previously undefeated Phoenix 14-7 yesterday, a memorable game for Jays hitters -- for the pitchers, meeeh, not so much.

The Syracuse Skychiefs are the Blue Jays top farm team, the closest team to the big leagues and the source of many of the call-ups the Blue Jays needed in 2004. Not counting the September call-ups, there are nineteen players who played in both Syracuse and Toronto this season. The injury bug that hit the Jays put a strain on the Chiefs from which they could not recover.