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.

Only Auburn and the GCL Jays won, the GCL Jays won both ends of a doubleheader.  The baby Jays won the first end 2-1, Shannon Stewart was 2-2, scoring the first run and driving in the second.  Robert Sobolewski, the Jays fourth rouns pick in this years draft, had been scuffling at Auburn but a 5-5 night does wonders for the batting average.

My friends tell me to leave you, that you're bad news, bad news, bad news. That you're bad news, baby, you're bad news, and you're bad news, baby, you're bad news. And you're bad news. I don't care. I like you, and you're bad news. I don't care. I like you.

To nobody's surprise, the Yankees fired the first real salvo in the deadline-driven dealings, acquiring Xavier Nady AND Damaso Marte from the Pirates for four minor leaguers, none of whom is named Hughes or Kennedy.

Whatchathink, Bauxites? And are you hearing anything else? (As always, provide verified links with your reports, please!)

The Jays won both games of an unusual double header - it was the first time the Jays had completed an postponed game since 1996. The two wins, combined with a Rays loss, brought the Jays 1.5 games closer to the playoff race, though they are still 8.5 out.

Mother nature forced the early end to one game and canceled another one altogether... The full-season affiliates went 2-for-2, while the Gulf Coast League scores (a double-header) were unavailable for the original posting of the nightly wrap.

Two wins as the hitting was in short supply.  Lansing led the affiliates in hits with eight, and that took eleven innings.  The six teams combined to get 33 hits.  The poor hitting disguised good starting pitching from Davis Romero (2 hits in six innings), Ricky Romero (five hits in eight innings), and Castillo Perez (two hits in six innings).  Three of the four losses were recorded by the bullpen.

Hey, double digit run production! Only the sixth time all year, and first since June 24.

Syracuse drops to .500 again but a big hitting streak remains alive while New Hampshire "inches" closer to first place Trenton in the Eastern League's Northern Division in a game that saw a Fisher Cat record a "memorable" first.  In other action, Dunedin won its tenth game in a row in convincing fashion, Auburn won a nail-biter and the GCL Jays?  Well, the less said, the better.

There was something very special about the 2007 season, and as far as I can tell, it went almost completely unnoticed. So let me tell you about it.

The Texas Rangers, Florida Marlins, and Washington Nationals got no complete games from their starting pitchers. Not a one. Zero. Bugger-all. And until last year, no major league team had ever gone a season without someone going the distance. It just seems weird that three teams should suddenly break through this previously unbroken barrier together.

The totally peerless and awesome  baseball-reference.com has almost everything, but one thing it doesn't have is a list of league leaders in Relief Appearances for each season.

Today, Dave Steib is 51. And Cliff Johnson is exactly a decade older at 61. The two, who were teammates from 1983-85, each had individual reputations (deserved or not is incidental to this point) for, well, surliness might be a strong word, but let's go with that.

So here's a challenge for you -- with the second-greatest SP in Blue Jay history on the mound and the massiveness of Cliff J. either catching or (preferably) at designated hitter, who else fills out the lineup card for the All-Time, All-Jays, All-Surly squad?

 

After another poor game the Jays see the return of Shaun Marcum tonight.