This is one of those reports which provides details of a bunch of relatively lackluster events.

One game of the four was canceled, the teams went 1-2 in the other three and no one really distinguished themselves.

A trio of strong five inning starts paved the way to a .500 day on the farm.

Brett Cecil beat Bear Bay and the Tuscon Padres easily last night.  Cecil pitched well by Las Vegas standards, average by major league standards.  Jesse Hernandez of the Lugnuts took a no hitter into the eighth and completed a one hitter but lost the game. New Hampshire lost a close one and Dunedin were badly beaten.  As usual Las Vegas had a number of strong hitting performances including home runs from Travis d'Arnaud, Moises Sierra and Adam Lind.

I reached out to Dane Johnson last week, the Blue Jays minor league pitching coordinator.  I wanted to get updates on some of the Jays pitching prospects.  He was busy when I called and when he called me back I was not convenient to a speaker phone or my voice recorder.  So here is a summary of our conversation based on my scribbled notes. We talked Deck McGuire, Chad Jenkins, Asher Wojciechowski, John Stilson, Sam Dyson and a few others.

If you like hearing the crack of the bat, Cashman Field was the place to be to dig that sound and shake it around as Las Vegas launched a 17-hit attack.  It was almost a perfect night on the farm as the affiliates won three out of four on Monday.

From the second place team in the NL East to the leader, the Jays tough interleague schedule continues. Most of the team's misfortune has occurred in NL parks; nevertheless they have the third worst interleague record of any AL team, behind only the lowly Royals and Orioles. It won't be an easy task to right the ship, as Toronto faces a Nationals team led by the most exciting young pitcher and hitter in baseball, both of whom are en fuego. Will the (not so cold anymore) north be enough to cool that heat? That's what the Advance Scout is here to tell you (plus next week's winning lotto numbers).

The affiliates were 3-2 on the day with New Hampshire's struggles continuing. Adam Lind and Travis Snider both enjoyed big games.

Three wins in four tries for the affiliates as a top prospect returned to action.

Our farm boys came up empty handed Friday night unable to record a single victory.  Two games, a single game and a make-up were canceled due to rain in Dunedin.  That saved us from the bad side of a total sweep.

The Seattle Mariners, led by Kevin Millwood, blanked the Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0 and shut them out in the hit column at Safeco Field Friday night.




Kevin Millwood (6IP, 1BB, 6K), Charlie Furbush (0.2IP, 1K), Stephen Pryor (0.1IP, 2BB, 1K, W), Lucas Luetge (0.1IP), Brandon League (0.2IP, 1K) and Tom Wilhelmsen (1IP, SV) teamed up for the first combined no-hitter in the majors since 2003.

The Jays travel to Hotlanta to take on a pretty good Braves team. Making matters more difficult, Toronto arguably gets the Braves three best starters, while the bluebirds will run out arguably their three worst (by ERA at least). It's a rematch of the 1992 World Series - let's hope that the winners are once again from the true north strong and free. Advance Scout, activate!

Yesterday we looked at the extended spring training stats for the hitters, today it is the pitchers.  The stat sheet lists 44 pitchers of whom 26 pitched over 20 innings.  That 20 inning limit is what we will use for analysis today.  Most of the pitchers under 20 innings were hurt, are relievers, or players on rehab assignments.  The most innings pitched is 37 by Deivy Estrada.   Norris, Osuna, Musgrove and the other 2011 draftees were mainly in the upper 20's in innings pitched.

Sam and Kelekin gave us great coverage of the draft this week. Today Kelekin wraps it up with his summary and his opinions on the best of the draft. We will also use this thread as the signings thread. Over to Kelekin.........

With the 2012 draft in the rear-view mirror, it’s time we examine some of the players drafted by the Blue Jays and grade the draft. There is no question that this was a top-tier draft by Toronto, taking many high ceiling players in the first three rounds.

Okay, no, they didn't ACTUALLY have six complete games on the farm on Thursday, but six official results went in the books, four of those wins.

The extended spring training season ended yesterday.  Newly drafted players show up for a mini-camp starting this weekend and by the middle of next week the minor league short-season teams will be selected.  The Vancouver Canadians start their season in eight days time.   The short season rosters will change a lot in the early stages as newly signed players show up, get assessed, get into game shape and are assigned to a team.

I have received a copy of the statistics from extended spring training and here are some highlights.