Brett Cecil had a tough debut in AAA although he did not have much support from the fielders.  Jean Machi, adrian Martin and Luis Perez each pitched well and led their teams to victory.  Auburn lost.

An eventful afternoon in Major League Baseball (although... not really?) as a sort of blockbuster trade gets done. I have to say, it really wasn't that exciting on the whole. Anyway, with the Jays needing a minor miracle at this point, let's turn our attention to those wheelings and dealings in major league baseball.

There is no way around it... It was a bad night for the affiliates. Perhaps the players were all too busy checking their cell phones to see if they were traded?

Lot's going on, none of it Jay related.

Revenge was sweet for the Fisher Cats after an extra-innings loss last night, Travis Snider and JP Arencibia had three hits each.  The most hits by a junior Jay was four by Raul Barron helping Lansing to the win.  On the other hand Syracuse were held to one hit by Chase Wright and two relievers.

Syracuse falls below .500 as their once-promising season heads down in the toilet, Lansing and the Gulf Coast Jays saw their losing streaks extended and New Hampshire lost a heart-breaker in extra innings.  On the positive side, Dunedin was in the winner's circle and Auburn drew closer to first place in their division with a key road victory in a 2-4 night for the affiliates.  Strange days indeed, most peculiar mama!

The Chiefs banged out 21 hits in a 14-1 rout of Indianapolis as the affiliates went 2-4 yesterday.

Jays win 3-1.

The trade deadline is a couple days away and there doesn't seem to be much cooking, not even a reliever's or excess middle reliever's name popping up.

Ricciardi:  "We're trying to keep this thing together, so we can have a good run here and be good the next few years, too."

Does this count as hot jazz or cool jazz?

Who among current active players will end up in the Hall of Fame? Let’s take a quick look-see and dive into the conversation of worthiness. We started with the American League; now let’s move on to the senior circuit …

Well, I give up. It grieves me to say this, but I'm pretty sure the Tampa Bay Rays are not going to lose 90 games this season. I suppose a little respect would not be out of line.

After Roy Halladay's thoroughly satisfying whitewash of the Yankees last week, I got to wondering where that game stood on the All-Time Pantheon of Doc's Masterpieces.

Pretty close to the top, you might well expect.

We've done this before, but with Hall of Fame inductions taking place today (yay Goose!) let's take a look at players today who could someday earn Cooperstown induction.

We'll start with the American League ...

Syracuse was the only club with a victory yesterday, as Jesse Litsch made his minor league debut for 2008. Lansing lost by one run and New Hampshire by two, while Dunedin lost both ends of a doubleheader by a combined four runs. The GCL Blue Jays had the worst showing on the day with a 3-run loss. The Jays affiliates suffered the loss in two walkoff victories for opponents as several reliable bullpen arms had poor outings. At least the usual suspects in Double-A continued to swing a hot bat.

The Blue Jays just announced that Dustin McGowan will have arthroscopic surgery to repair fraying of his labrum, next Thursday in Cincinnati.