Despite managing just eight runs combined over four games, the affiliates split Saturday thanks to some strong pitching and timely hitting.

Haven't done a song in a while here, and it's been even longer since we did one for a specific player anthem. Tonight's game makes this too easy ... The original is here if you want to compare these to the (clearly baseball-inferior) original lyrics, the box score is here and the new lyrics are … well, no link necessary, they’re right here, only on Batter’s Box!

B. Morrow
With profuse apologies to the creators of the Broadway musical Annie.

The shutout was thrown by Morrow
He three-hit the Mets and so B. Morrow (and the Jays) won …

Just watched that gem by Morrow
Batista tried but lost to Brandon Morrow … who won …

How about our Jays, who played their hearts out …
Our middle infielders, had four base-knocks
And both RBI

The sun'll come out thanks to Morrow
We'll hang in this race with Brandon Morrow
It’s only May …

Oh Morrow, B. Morrow,
We love Brandon Morrow
His next start’s just days away …

The shutout was thrown by Morrow
Eight K’s and just one walk for Brandon Morrow
How ‘bout them Jays?

Oh Morrow, B. Morrow,
5-and-2 B. Morrow
His next start’s just days away …

Oh Morrow, B. Morrow,
We love Brandon Morrow
We’re so glad that he’s a Jay …

Lansing and Dunedin, with .707 and .659 winning percentages stayed their courses, each bringing home the bacon.  Las Vegas (20-21) and New Hampshire (16-23) continued their struggles, each with sub .500 records on the year.

My second-favorite squadron visits the Dome tonight to kick off interleague play, so I figured I'd elbow my way into the scout's chair for the long weekend. The Mets are 21-17, good for third place in the NL East. On the one hand, we're all accustomed to watching the Jays roll over against NL teams. On the other hand, the Jays will dodge the Mets' two best pitchers plus their starting catcher and shortstop. So, perhaps a miracle is imminent.

In every minor league affair involving a Blue Jays affiliate  on Thursday, the losing team scored a single run and 3 out of 4 times, that worked out in our favor.

Big news in Jay land - Adam Lind has been sent down to AAA

Brett Cecil had his best start of the year in the first game of New Hampshire’s doubleheader. However, the other three games in the system didn’t go nearly so well, as late inning relievers blew leads or surrendered game-winning runs in the late innings.

Dunedin won easily behind Casey Lawrence and Marcus Knecht. Knecht had two home runs and Lawrence pitched eight innings. Lansing won a one run game, Aaron Sanchez pitched well, Justin Nicolino did OK. Las Vegas lost but Travis Snider did hit a home run. New Hampshire had a doubleheader rained out.

A perfect night on the farm for the three affiliates in action.  New Hampshire had the day off.

The Jays return to Toronto after splitting a ten game road trip; despite the .500 record the club must be a little disappointed, after blowing a game against Oakland and dropping two winnable ones against Minnesota. Meanwhile Tampa comes to town for a weird 2 game set after losing 2 of 3 at New York and Baltimore, getting Toronto for two games and Boston for two games before interleague play this weekend (they get the Braves, Toronto gets the Mets). Both teams trail Baltimore in the division, Toronto by 3 and Tampa by 1. Will somebody get closer to the O's, or will they split the series and just tread water? Find out this, and who really shot JFK*, in the Advance Scout.

*Not, you know, actually.

Three hits from both Chris Hawkins and Chris Schaeffer led to the only win on the day for the Blue Jays affiliates.

38 runs scored in four games for the affiliates. Not surprisingly, that led to a few notable performances.

Outscored 22 to 15 and out hit 39 to 27, only one Jays farm team won Friday.  Las Vegas didn’t play and Dunedin scrapped their way to a win with some decent 9 strike out pitching.  New Hampshire started their disaster early giving up 5 runs in the first inning and then got tagged for three home runs in later innings.  They didn’t recover.

Bauxite Sam posted this in Vince Horsman thread, and it seems well timed so we're going to put it up here. Note to all, see the contact us link just under logo at the top of the page for information on how to submit a pinch hit. Thanks Sam.

The Rule Four Draft or Amateur Draft or First-Year-Player Draft is around the corner and many baseball media outlets have started to ramp up their coverage of the event. The draft is for amateur high school and college players from colleges in Canada, the U.S., and Puerto Rico. On June 4, 2012 at 8pm round one will take place. Rounds two to fifteen will take place on June 5, 2012, and rounds sixteen to forty will take place the following day on June 6, 2012. As I'm sure many here are aware, much of the change in the collective bargaining agreement between players and owners focused on changing the rules around the draft. There is now a very strict limit on the bonuses teams are allowed to offer amateur players. Teams work off a "bonus pool" for picks from rounds one to ten. This bonus pool is based on draft order and number of picks. The other change and perhaps most welcome one is the advancement of the signing deadline. The deadline which used to be in August and effectively prevented newly signed players from appearing in competitive games and tormented fans for two months of will he-won't he sign has now been moved up to July 13, 2012. Hurrah for that!

This is the second part of my interview with Lugnuts pitching coach Vince Horsman.  Part one is here.