Thirty is the mark when a conscutive-games hitting streak really first bears noticing. Oh, 28 is a nice number -- "halfway to DiMaggio" and all that. But Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals is at the big three-oh now.

Zimmerman matched the great George Brett's 30-game streak in 1980 for the longest by a third baseman in the last three decades. In these the aughts, the only other 30-game streaks have been posted by stalwart Moises Alou in 2007, the unlikely Willy Taveras in 2006 and the finest hitter of his generation, Albert Pujols, in 2003. None of them reached 31, though three others did that and more -- Luis Castillo had a 35-game hit streak in 2002; Chase Utley also had a 35-game hit streak, but in 2006; and Jimmy Rollins had a 38-game hit streak spread over two seasons in 2005-06.

Will Zim? And how far does the kid go? Place your bets, make your predictions, presuppose your wild suppositions ... and -- bear with me, Ex-pos fans -- pay attention to those Nats!

And to be honest with you, when the farm goes 0-3, I'm just not all that motivated to be clever.

Remember when I asked you to predict how every team in the bigs would perform this year? Let's see how people are doing.

After 20 games in 20 days, they've earned their day of rest.

The 51s romped while the Fisher Cats were one-hit by a top prospect in a 2-1 day for the affiliates.

Brian Tallet clearly doesn't want to go back to the bullpen!  The big lefty delivered seven superb innings as the Jays held off the Oakland A's 6-4 Saturday afternoon in the Golden State.

I have never been to Las Vegas but I hear people walk the strip to see the sights.  On Saturday there was a lot of walking off the strip, Las Vegas hitters walked ten times.  They walked three times in the first, and scored three runs, and they won the game in the tenth with the always exciting four walk inning.  The other three affiliates took the "L".  Mark Rzepczynski pitched OK but not good enough.  BJ Ryan took the loss in Dunedin and Tim Collins gave up some runs.  Lansing were never in it although Kenny Wilson stayed hot.

Second in a six-part series ...

Last week, we examined the "hometown" AL East in terms of who among active players is headed to enshrinement in the Hall of Fame. Now, while staying in the junior circuit, we switch to the left coast to examine the same likelihoods for players on the four teams in MLB's smallest division.

Once again ...

A circumstance beyond our control
The phone, the TV, the News of the World

A good night for Alex Rodriguez and Kobe Bryant? That's how I spell frustrating.

The top two farm teams combined for 32 runs and two wins. 'Nuff said. Oh, and can you remember a time when three separate Jays farm hands had five hits a piece in one night?

Nah.

But Dom DiMaggio, who died early today at the age of 92, was an awfully good player anyway.

Las Vegas lost despite a good start from Brad Mills but the other three affiliates won.  Al Quintana hit a grand slam for the Fisher Cats, Tim Collins got the win for the D-Jays to outshine Casey Janssen and BJ Ryan, and Henderson Alvarez pitched a complete game to lead the Lugnuts.  Darin Mastroianni got things started and finished for Dunedin.

This game was over two batters in as the Jays crushed the Angels 13-1 Wednesday night in Anaheim to improve to 20-10 on the season.  There was really no need for the rally monkey to show up for this one after being let go from a previous gig.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Manny Ramirez has tested positive for a banned substance and will be suspended for 50 games.

All but five MLB teams have played at least a full one-sixth (27 games) of its schedule. And the casual fan might need a fifth to make sense of what's happening.

Toronto is in first place? Okay, you knew that. But Kansas City and Texas are leading the other two divisions? And Boston is just barely holding off Seattle for the Wild Card lead? Cleveland is in last place? The Yankees, Rays and Angels are all under .500?

The National League is making more sense, with the Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers and Brewers all holding way-too-early-to-celebrate playoff spots right now. There are no stunning "losers" just yet, though the Mets surely expected to be better than 13-13.

What team has surprised you the most to this point?