A big night for the Las Vegas outfield highlighted a 4-1 night on the farm with the lone loss coming in extra innings.



Maybe it's just me but doesn't Eric Thames remind you of Samuel L. Jackson in "Shaft"?  Can you dig it?

Sportsnet's Shi Davidi reports the Blue Jays have demoted Kyle Drabek to AAA Las Vegas.  Getting the call to the bigs is fellow righty Zach Stewart from AA New Hampshire.  A tip of the cap to Bauxite smcs for the heads up.  The linked story from above also features audio from general manager Alex Anthopoulos about Drabek's demotion.



Zach Stewart and Kyle Drabek.  Photos courtesy of Zimbio.

The battle for fourth begins.

And McGuire Bretts Tampa?

Doug Davis, the Blue Jays minor league field coordinator, answered some questions for me over the weekend.  Davis was on his way to Florida to get the short season teams ready for the season.  In addition to the specific questions below I asked about where the young guys, drafted last year, would be heading.  Davis wouldn't specifically answer but he did say that the Jays added the extra team in Bluefield for the younger players.  Vancouver, like Auburn, is closer in level to Lansing and is a college heavy league.  In my opinion you might see one or two of the young pitchers headed for Vancouver but I would guess hitters like Sweeney and Hawkins will go to Bluefield.

Eddie Michels, who writes for a number of outlets, reports that the injured Jessie Litsch has begun his rehab assignment.

Anybody get the license number on that truck?

Yesterday saw two newly-promoted pitchers give very strong efforts in their first starts at their new levels. It also saw a couple of strong efforts out of the bullpen, which also included one reliever, recently demoted, return to dominating his old level. Las Vegas exploded for 17 hits, including three by the streaking David Cooper, but the bats were nearly absent in New Hampshire and Dunedin.

The June 6-8 amateur draft fallout is already beginning. So far we've heard that about five draft picks have signed with a handful of undrafted free agents also coming to terms - although all moves have yet to be confirmed by the organization. The Vancouver Canadians' season begins on Friday (June 17) so we should be seeing a bunch of player signings (likely lower picks) become official in the coming week. 

Let's keep track of the transactions in this thread:

Twenty-eight runs and 46 hits on the farm led to a 3 and 1 evening for our stars in waiting.  Only Lansing came up short, while Las Vegas, New Hampshire and Dunedin turned in good plate performances to secure their wins.

In pre-honour of Jason Frasor tieing Dave Stieb for 3rd most appearances as a pitcher, an Advance Scout.

Three top pitching prospects delivered top performances on a 2-3 day.

A nine-game losing streak for a last-place team will do that to a guy.

Replacing former catcher Bob Geren, at least in the interim, is former catcher Bob Melvin.

Who's next?

This = Pitching. That = Hitting.

With all the focus on the draft and the status of Brett Lawrie's third metacarpal the big boys continue their winning ways in Kansas City.  It wasn't a pretty victory, the bullpen tried to give it back, but an ugly win is still a win.

Today it's a day game at 3pm Toronto time.  Ricky Romero takes on Luke Hochever, the Jays have to be favourites in that match-up.