How, oh how, did everyone get so carried away?

New Hampshire found their bats and scored early and often to reverse their lack of hitting in the previous two games.  Dunedin won behind good pitching by Chuck Huggins and a home run from John Tolisano.  Auburn also won in a group effort.  GCL Jays lost a squeeker but Las Vegas and Lansing were easy losers.

The Yankees called up pitcher Josh Towers from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and optioned reliever Mark Melancon. Towers was 4-6 with a 3.42 ERA.

Never give up on a dream, kids.

UPDATED!

Another lousy Friday night with two wins out of six.

Remember Spike Lundberg? Spike is quietly retiring and moving into another area of his baseball career -- read on for details.

Lundberg, a one-time Syracuse SkyChief (pictured, left) was a good friend to Batter's Box in his brief run through the Jay organization, even joining us here online in 2004-05 for some Q&A, the cleverly-named Ask Spike and Ask Spike II. He left the Jays after one season (2005) and hooked on with the Dodgers, where Spike was named the Southern League's "Most Outstanding Pitcher" for 2006, as he  went 15-2, 2.27 in 23 starts for the  AA Jacksonville Suns.

Spike pitched professionally across a dozen seasons for 14 teams in four big league organizations -- in order, TEX, PHI, TOR and LAD -- as well as the Mexican League and the independent Atlantic League.

He rang up a career mark of 102-79 in that time, including an 81-62 mark at AA/AAA. He reached double digits in season wins four times, including that career high of 15 in '06.

His Blue Jay career ...

It seems like the Cleveland Indians are giving the Pittsburgh Pirates a run for the Biggest Fire Sale of 2009.  They have traded Carl Pavano to Minnesota for a player to be named later.  Pavano joins Victor Martinez ,Cliff Lee, Ben Francisco, Ryan Garko, Rafael Betancourt and Mark DeRosa among those who have been traded away from the Tribe this season.  Their website slogan, "Are You In The Tribe?", should be changed to "The Tribe Has Spoken!".

The affiliates won both games that went into extra innings but lost every game that didn’t. Fabio Castro and Scott Gracey turned in strong starts while Henderson Alvarez did not. Andrew Liebel took another loss despite not pitching too badly. Brian Dopirak had a forgettable night while two fast-rising relievers pitched scoreless innings. However, the biggest story may have been in New Hampshire where the Fisher Cats came within two outs of being no-hit.

I don't know about you but I've been looking forward to this for a long time.  A majority of the players and coaches from the 1992 and 1993 World Series Champion Toronto Blue Jays are in town this weekend to celebrate the glory days.  Oh yeah, the Baltimore Orioles are in town too and let's hope they'll be gracious guests by lying down like dogs for the next three games!

Kenny Rodriguez and Zach Dials combined on a one-hitter as New Hampshire were the only bright spot on this night.  Las Vegas and Auburn each had given up double digit runs by the third inning and Dunedin and Lansing were behind early too but not by as much.  David Purcey had a bad night, Zach Stewart made his Blue Jay debut.  To take our minds off the carnage Farm Director Dick Scott answered a few  quick questions for Batters Box.

Man, that trip to Madison and Milwaukee last week really took it out of me.  Did you know that Milwaukee is pronounced "Meel-wah-kay" which is Algonquin for "the good land?" Oh, we went over that already?  Okay, that was just a diversion for yet another late update.  I'm not worthy!  I'm scum!

However, the affiliates were more than worthy by winning three of out five.  Las Vegas had the night off to go enjoy the slots.

The Dome's pretty quiet at 5:15.

No Texas Ranger has ever won an American League Cy Young Award. Oh, Fergie Jenkins finished a distant second to Catfish Hunter back in 1974, but more usually, even when a guy like Little Ricky Helling won 20 games in 1998, he didn't receive a single vote -- Jay fans may remember that as a Roger Clemens unanimous Cy year.

Well, I am here to tell you that all that is about to change. Not this year (sorry, Kevin Millwood) or even in the next couple of years (calm down, Tommy Hunter), but at some point in the next 5-7 years, and I write this without even a hint of hyperbole intended -- young Neftali Feliz will win 20+ games, strike out 300+ batters, maybe toss a no-hitter or two, and be the first Ranger to haul home a Cy to Arlington, Texas.

Feliz, who is just barely 21 ...

Las Vegas split a double-header with Salt Lake, and the 3-4-5 hitters (Randy Ruiz, Travis Snider, Brian Dopirak) continued to mash.

I wrote a somewhat detailed analysis about this, and then my computer crashed and I lost everything. It made me angry. Hulk smash and all that. Anyway, I don't want to type it all out again, so here are the conclusions I came to.

Sorry for the delay. I'm actually on vacation in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Of all the things I've hoped to do in this small artists town about a three hour drive north of Mexico City, sounding off on another disappointing day for the affiliates isn't one of them. I haven't looked at the boxscores yet so this had better be worth it. EDIT: It was