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.

Brett Lawrie's timetable to reach the bigs has been pushed back again.  After initial reports that he suffered only a bruise when he was hit in the hand by a pitch from Tucson's Anthony Bass last week, The National Post reports the pride of Langley, B.C. is expected to miss at least two to three weeks with a broken bone in his hand.  Hat tip to Bauxite dan gordon for the heads up.



Brett Lawrie was hitting .354/.415/.677 with Triple-A Las Vegas at the time of his injury to go along with 15 home runs, 49 runs batted in and 11 stolen bases.

Update @ 8:40pm - Sportsnet.ca has video of Jays skipper John Farrell talking about Lawrie's injury.

At least the big club won!  Yep, the affiliates were 0-4 with Dunedin having the night off.  Find out who got the unceremonious send-offs in this woeful edition of the MLU.

On a night when all eyes were turned toward an entirely different set of potential future major leaguers, the farm system had a light schedule, and went 1-1. Adam Loewen can't earn wins anymore, no longer being a pitcher, but if hitter wins were a thing he would have earned one. Click through to find out how!

Who did the Toronto Blue Jays use the 21st pick of the 2011 MLB Draft on?  Tyler Beede, a 6-foot-4 righthanded pitcher from Lawrence Academy High School in Massachusetts.  Committed to Vanderbilt, the word is the Jays will have to pay big time for Beede to join the nest and not join the Commodores.  It won't be easy but the Jays may have a good one here according to ESPNBoston.com.



Tyler Beede, the Blue Jays first pick of the 2011 MLB Draft.

• Update 1:  Jays select OF Jacob Anderson, Chino HS, California with the 35th selection.
• Update 2:  Jays select RHP Joe Musgrove, Grossmont HS, California with the 46th selection.
• Update 3:  Jays select OF Dwight Smith Jr., McIntosh HS, Georgia with the 53rd selection.
• Update 4:  Jays select RHP Kevin Comer, Seneca HS, New Jersey with the 57th selection.

More details below...

As expected, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected RHP Gerrit Cole with the first overall pick in the 2011 MLB amateur draft.  Seattle passed on Rice 3B Anthony Rendon and took LHP Danny Hultzen from Virginia with the second pick.  Arizona went with RHP Trevor Bauer at number three.  Baltimore selected the first high schooler in RHP Dylan Bundy from Owassa, Oklahoma.  The first position player was taken by Kansas City, who went with the hometown kid in OF Bubba Starling from Gardner Edgerton High School in Kansas at number five.  Rendon slipped to Washington at number six.



You can follow the draft on MLB.com live by clicking here.

The draft begins tonight and for the first time it is available on TV in Canada, if you get Sportsnet One.  The Jays first pick is a mystery still and we won't know who the lucky guy is until around 8pm tonight.  The Bachelorette is on TV tonight too but that is a different group of guys trying to get lucky.

The mock drafts and predictions are coming hot and heavy' let's see if there is any consistency this week.

Who's this guy that's in KC?  It's Eric Hosmer, see!  Two Batter's Box points for you if you get the reference.  (HINT:  Pie-thon!).

The annual baseball trip this year took the missus and I to the Show Me State where we saw the Kansas City Royals take on their baseball predecessors in the Oakland Athletics.  Kauffman Stadium is an absolute jewel of a ball park and as far as I'm concerned, it has pulled into a tie with PNC Park in Pittsburgh as the best park in the major leagues.   Among the highlights during a great weekend of baseball was getting to see Royals rookie sensation Eric Hosmer in his first weekend in the bigs. The third overall pick in the 2008 draft is the focus of today's edition of the POTD, which also features some thoughts on that weekend that was in Kansas City.



Eric Hosmer takes a rip at a Brandon McCarthy offering at Kauffman Stadium on May 7.  Kurt Suzuki is behind the plate for Oakland.

Darold Knowles played in sixteen major league seasons primarily as a relief pitcher.  He recorded 143 saves in 765 career games.  According to his wikipedia page "Knowles was known as a workhorse relief pitcher, particularly in his years with Oakland, and his pickoff rate of one runner every 24 innings is the highest in major league history. In the 1973 World Series, Knowles appeared in all seven games against the New York Mets. He was the first pitcher to appear in all seven games of a World Series."

Today Knowles is the pitching coach for the Dunedin Blue Jays.  I caught up with him last week to talk about his starting pitchers.

It was a rough day on the farm with just one win in five games.

The arrival of Brett Lawrie....

The evening saw a postponement in Triple-A, an extra-inning loss in Double-A and Toronto’s A-ball affiliates split their games. Drew Hutchison continues to work his way up Toronto’s prospect lists, while Asher Wojciechowski continues to experience some struggles during his first professional season.

We haven't done a new Hall of Names team in quite some time; today, for no particular reason -- I think maybe I hearrd a passing mention of Yankee hurler Ivan Nova -- I wondered, could we actuallly build a Hall of Names team built entirely of playes named, with a nod to the old communist USSR, "Ivan"?

Let's find out ...