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 ...

The affiliates put up 3 6’s and a 5 runs scored in the four games, giving them four-fifths of a good Yahtzee turn. Unfortunately, they came up on the short end of three of those contests, as Dunedin won a squeeker for the only victory. Nobody, including Zach Stewart or Chad Jenkins, was particularly impressive on the mound, leaving it up to a promising low-level outfielder and a high-priced shortstop to lead the offence.

Disclaimer: a review copy of this book was provided to me.

Player Development Directors hold that from year to year, one-third of an organization’s Minor League players will improve, one-third will maintain their development and production, and one-third will waver.  So far, the 2011 Toronto Blue Jays Minor League system appears to be an exception.  Blue Jays Minor League players are playing exceptionally well and all the full-season teams are playing above .500-ball. 

This is a two part story, yesterday we looked at the Dunedin and Lansing squads.  Part two today covers Las Vegas and New Hampshire.  Bauxite sam volunteered to write up this half of the story so these ratings are his opinion.  I am sure he will be by to answer your questions and comments.

Thanks sam.

Brett Cecil and Adam Lind had big nights on the farm. Sounds weird, but true.

We are past the one third mark in the minor league season so before we get buried in the draft and the new short season teams I thought we should take a look at the season so far in the minor leagues.  This look is based on the one third, one third, one third rule.  For those of you who are not familiar with the rule, the expectation of a teams prospects is that one third will improve over a season, one third will disappoint, and one third will be unchanged.  Two years ago the Jays had the season from hell where almost 50% of the prospects disappointed.  This year I think we will do better.

This is a two part story, in part one today I will look at the Dunedin and Lansing squads.  Part two will feature prospects in Las Vegas and New Hampshire.

Was there a game last night?  Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, I had to go to a funeral last night and I don't mean at the RC.  By the time I came home the Jays had conceded twelve runs.  I got to see the Jays mount their comeback of a sort.

Kyle Drabek had been dodging bullets all season with his loose command but last night it came back to bite him in a big way.  I have to say the Indians impressed me with their willingness to go the other way with a lot of pitches in this series.  The question du jour, as per the poll on the left, is what to do with Drabek?  Was this just a bad game, or was it a reflection of his season and a sign that something has to get fixed?  It can be hard to fix things in-season but I am sure the big brains in the front office are trying to figure out what to do with Drabek today.

Today's thread is a Giant Data Table.