A big night on the farm as the affiliates went 4-2.  More importantly, some impressive prospects put up some impressive performances.

About once a year, the Toronto Blue Jays take a kid out of the minor leagues and put him right into the starting rotation.

Warning: there is trivia involved!

Ho hum. The Jays beat up on the Athletics with good starting pitching and relieving, great defense and timely hitting. So that's what it's like!
Lets, however, turn our attention to more esoteric pursuits: baseball nicknames.

First round selection David Cooper continued his assault on minor league pitchers with a 2-for-5 night with two RBI in his first game in Dunedin on Thursday night. Dunedin represents Cooper's third minor league stop already this year despite having just signed his first pro contract in June. Travis Snider, playing left field, also had a successful AAA debut, going 2-for-3 with two RBI. The Baby Jays managed to go 3-3 despite being outscored, in total, 38-19. The MLU is a joint effort today.

Opportunity, opportunity
This is your big opportunity
- Elvis Costello

Recent developments in the AL East have got me thinking. Which is probably something I should be worried about, but it's too late to stop now.

There was good pitching in the lower levels of the minors yesterday. Auburn played a doubleheader where the teams combined to score four runs. Lansing won an extra inning game 3-1, while the Gulf Coast Blue Jays lost an extra inning game 2-1. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s 36 innings of baseball with 11 runs scored. Brett Cecil got his first victory for Syracuse while Dunedin won a nail-biter by continuously chipping away at the Sarasota Reds. Meanwhile, New Hampshire lost as four add-on runs came back to haunt them. Oh yes, and Travis Snider continued his meteoric rise through the Jays system with JP announcing on WWJP that he'd been promoted to Triple-A, with Brian Dopirak getting a much-deserved promotion to New Hampshire and David Cooper making the jump to High-A.

I came home from Monday's game thinking I should have another son, just so I can name him after Roy Halladay. It was quickly clear to me that that wasn't gonna happen. So I turned my attention to the Internets, that mighty system of tubes, looking for diversion or entertainment or enlightenment.

And fortune smiled upon me. Over at the Southpaw, WillRain has assembled some interesting numbers, given them an intense scrute, and made some very pertinent observations. Let me urge everyone to check it out.

The affiliates split things right down the middle last night.  Syracuse got an encouraging performance from a recently demoted starter and came away with a walk-off win, New Hampshire battled back from an early deficit only to suffer a walk-off loss, Dunedin held on in a nail-biter, Lansing's offence didn't show up against the first place team in their division and the Gulf Coast Jays split a doubleheader against the team they're chasing for first.   Auburn had the night off.

Here are the links - tell us what you find notable from last night or in general in the minors.  You can even toss in the three stars of the night if you'd like.

Doc was in control again.  Jays win 6-1.

In other news Scott Rolen is going to be on a regular rest schedule to help his shoulder.

Just four regular season weeks left and the battle hots up.

Four of the five affiliates in action won yesterday, with Syracuse losing a 2-1 affair in Buffalo. It was a day of great pitching and good hitting with two of the victories coming behind shutouts and Ricky Romero and Randy Boone also throwing quality starts. While Syracuse struggled at the plate the same didn’t hold true for New Hampshire or Lansing, which combined for 19 runs. Dunedin only scored six, but they had 21 baserunners. Picking between all those batters was difficult, so the third star (the first two were obvious) went to a pitcher.

Come on! The Blue Jays are undefeated when Buck Coats is in the starting lineup.

Well, youneverknow....

Excellent starting pitching by Brad Mills, Marc Rzepczynski and Joel Carreno picked up three wins for their teams.  Brian Wolfe started for Syracuse but it was Davis Romero who was the better pitcher on this night., five perfect innings with eleven K's.  Both Lansing and Dunedin scored five runs in their first innings.  Lansing went on to win by eleven but Dunedin lost by seven.  Your first star is eighteen year old Tyler Pastornicky.

So let's venture into an Alternative Universe!