The parent club could have used the rehabbing catcher's bat in Oakland Tuesday night.  Instead, New Hampshire got to enjoy the benefits as the Fisher Cats highlighted a 4-1 night on the farm.

I was in Auburn for two games last week and here are my impressions of the players I noticed.  Two days is a short time to follow a team, pro scouts follow a team for four or five days, so I could have seen players at their best or their worst.  You have been warned!

Bobby Thomson, who hit major league baseball's most famous home run almost 60 years ago, has passed away at the age of 86. They called it The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff.

It's unlikely there are many Bauxites old enough to remember the moment -- if you're out there, do share! -- but I do have a bit of a family legacy story. My mother, a young Dodgers fan, was listening to the famed radio call and after The Magic happened, ran upstairs crying in disbelief ... passing her younger brother, my Uncle Bill, on the way as he charged downstairs laughing in disbelief. Little Billy? A Giants fan ...

 Late edit: Seriously, click through and read Dewey's comment/story. It's worth your time!

Sean Nolin was a 6th round pick of the Blue Jays in this years draft out of San Jacinto Junior College in Texas.  Here is what Baseball America said about him:

At 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, Sean Nolin looks like a lefthanded version of Jason Jennings. Nolin's fastball will sit at 86-89 mph in some games and 88-92 in others, and he backs it up with a solid changeup and fringy curveball.

Nolin sounds like a more raw player, despite his college experience.  Nolin was born on Boxing Day and he will be 21 this year and entering next season.  Nolin has made three starts for Auburn with mixed results.  As the story notes, and as Vince Horsman and our own sam reported a week ago, Nolin is not in full playing shape yet.

It's no secret that the Jays have hit a lot of home runs this year. They lead the majors with 181, 20 more than the Boston Red Sox, and are "on pace" to hit around 250, which would put them only 14 back of the all-time record.

Another thing we all know is that the home runs have been very evenly distributed - it seems like everyone is producing. But a closer look into this "everyone is producing" statement tells us that this year's team is approaching historical territory.

A pretty boring night on the farm resulted in a couple of wins, a couple of losses, a couple of non-games............ oh, excuse me, I drifted off there for a minute. Boy, am I ever not selling the click-through, eh? But hey, at least that title is pretty good (awful).

The TDIB for tomorrow is something completely different, but there's a lot of Very Important Very Current Blue Jays news, and there needs to be a thread for this news. But you must click through to find out what exactly that news is!

Vince Horsman and Kenny Graham are the pitching and hitting coaches respectively for the Auburn Doubledays in the New York-Penn league.  Kenny Graham is new to the organization and not well known here.  However Vince Horsman is a Canadian, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who played parts of five seasons in the major leagues including a whole four innings with the Blue Jays in 1991.  After bouncing around a little after his playing days Horsman hooked on with the Blue Jays and is now in his second season as the pitching coach with the Doubledays.

I spoke with both coaches last week in Auburn.

This week, the Jays head north to deal with three good lefty starters and a punchless offense. It should be a good series - quick and to the point. Enjoy it, 'cause there are some epic ballgames on the horizon.

Some odds and ends from around the majors....

The official city motto of the great metropolis of Orlando, Florida, is "The City Beautiful." Anyone who's ever seen Orlando Hudson play second base might quickly convert that to "The Glove Beautiful," while older fans might counter with Orlando Cepeda as "The Big Bat Beautiful." Yankee fans of the past 10 or 12 years might insist on "El Duque Bonito." Hey, this might be a pretty good team! Although ...

Great day on the farm as the affiliates went 5-1 thanks to strong pitching as only 9 runs crossed the plate in six games.  The collective bullpens were the true stars allowing just a single run in 20 combined innings.

A casual observer would say that the boys on the farm need to work with their hitting coaches to limber up the lumber and produce some runs.  In 8 games on Saturday their were only 16 runs scored and half of those came in games won by the D-Jays and the Babiest (GCL) Jays.

You may be paying good money for Sportsnet Ontario, or even all four Sportsnets; despite this you may be unable to watch tonight's Jays game... unless you get your cable from Rogers.

Reportedly, the Blue Jays have locked up Ricky Romero to a five-year contract extension that will be worth $30.1 million. It will cover all of Romero’s years of arbitration eligibility and his first year of free agency.