Has the draft always been in the evening? I seem to remember if being an afternoon affair... I suppose they want to capitalize on TV audiences. Anyway, it goes down at 6PM tonight.

In the wake of Roy Halladay's recent 133 pitch effort, the most ever in his career, I took a quick look at how Halladay had fared in his subsequent outings (very, very well indeed as it turned out.)

Seeing as how I have all this data available, I thought I'd also have a look as to where that game stood on the all-time list of pitches thrown by a Blue Jays starter, as well as any other bright and shiny objects that caught my attention.

The bats and brooms were out Monday night, as both Dunedin and Las Vegas had big offensive days, with Dunedin sweeping their two game tilt against St. Lucie.

Just when you thought you were done with all the 20th anniversary stories about the home ballpark of your Toronto Blue Jays!

Ten days ago, In Lansing I spent some time with Kenny Wilson, Mark Sobolewski and Markus Brisker and had them answer a few questions.  Wilson was on the DL and is still on the DL but as you will see from his answer he hopes to be back this week.  A couple of days after our chat Markus Brisker was reassigned to extended spring training, hopefully he will have a chance to play in Auburn this summer.

So I'm watching the game and I hear Campbell and Tabler are talking about next month's All Star Game.

Clayton McCullough is back for his second year as manager of the Lansing Lugnuts.  Recently in Lansing he answered some questions about the 2009 Lugnuts.

A strong day on the farm featured three wins and a dominating pitching performance in Las Vegas.

Move along people nothing to see here, except for four losses. Picking the three stars was tough, Brian Van kirk was an obvious choice for #1, he reached base all five times he came to the plate.  Andrew Liebel had another good start, Reidier Gonzlaez was good for 5.2 innings before giving up five runs in the fifth, channelling Scott Richmond perhaps.  The four affiliates combined for 8 runs.

Ricky Romero vs Zack Greinke. Obviously no contest.

If you start from the top, things don't look so good with both Las Vegas and New Hampshire losing. But the A-ball affiliates saved the day - especially after Lansing came from behind to score eight runs in the final two innings to defeat Fort Wayne.

Chad Mottola played parts of five season in the major leagues with two of those for Toronto.  He also played parts of five season playing in Syracuse for the Blue Jays.  Now Mottola is the Blue Jays minor league hitting coordinator.  I caught up with him in Lansing last week.

There were four games on the farm yesterday and the affiliates won three of them. There was a pitcher’s duel in Double-A between one of Toronto’s better pitching prospects and a Double-A veteran better known for being a minor part of the biggest trades of the past few years. Lansing won with a timely homer, demonstrating that when a team gets runners on with two out there’s no rule you have to strand them on base. Production from the bottom of Dunedin’s lineup and some good middle relief propelled them to a comfortable win and Las Vegas won behind Brett Cecil.

Every organization has at least one player who has all the talent in the world, but they just continue to drive management (and more importantly fans) crazy with their inconsistencies. In Toronto, we have David Purcey... or, Mr. One-Good-Game, then Mr. One-Bad-Game. Unfortunately for Las Vegas, last night was his bad game.

Dane Johnson is the Blue Jays minor league pitching coordinator and an old friend of Da Box.  He usually gives us his perspective on the minor league pitchers at least once per season.  Dane and his team have been sending a steady parade of pitchers to the big leagues recently and today he gives us some interesting insight into Danny Faquhar, Tim Collins and Marc Rzepczynski among others.