John Smoltz will undergo season-ending surgery next week.  He's 41 years old, and we may have seen the last of him.

Earlier this week, we took up a Reader Challenge to find "the greatese single Franchise Position in baseball history" ... after a variety of responses, including a Magpie Chart (always a sign of worthiness!) we have found candidates for every position on the diamond (including DH!) except second base.

Let's review and answer the following questions ...

Does it make any sense to choose a high school pitcher in the first round?

A come-from-behind victory for New Hampshire and a fifth consecutive win for your first place Lansing Lugnuts highlight a .500 night on the farm.

Did Yankees fans enjoy last night's game? Let's check in at Bronx Banter and Replacement Yankees Weblog

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.... in this corner.... representing the Toronto Blue Jays... the 2003 American League Cy Young Award winner... a four-time All-Star.... from Denver Colorado... give it up for the Doc... ROY HALLDAY!!!

(frenzied cheering)

A quick primer on the Yankees, in celebration of the first career start of Joba Chamberlain in a series that features a couple of good pitching matchups.

After scoring 11 runs and losing by 6 on Sunday the Fishercats took no chances and scored 17 on Monday as the affiliates were a perfect 4-0 on the night.

After an off day it's a good time to look at the draft.

Here's a challenge ... can you name the greatese single Franchise Position in baseball history? Isn't it Left Field, Boston Red Sox?

Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski you know about. Before them came Duffy Lewis -- who would have made a bushel of All-Star Games had there been such a thing back then -- and after them came Jim Rice, Mike Greenwell and now Manny Ramirez, the latter who is also headed to the HOF.

Um ... wow. I don't think even NYY 1B -- Gehrig, Skowron, Chambliss, Mattingly -- comes close to that. Does anyone else come close?

Hey, maybe that's why teams bring in their closer in the ninth with a three run lead.

The affiliates blanked a couple of opponents and gave up 17 to another.

After what was nearly a two hour rain delay the Portland Beavers and New Hampshire Fisher Cats resumed their game, and Portland may have wished the game was postponed, as the Fisher Cats had twenty-three men reach base. While Brett Cecil was likely understandably frustrated, I don’t think Ryan Patterson will object to any rain delays in the future. Meanwhile, Syracuse lost a close, low-scoring game and Lansing and Dunedin combined to score 14 runs and allow 14 runs, so it was only fair (and mathematically possible) that one of them won and one of them lost.

Boston behemoth Manny Ramirez -- that's "Man-Ram" to mortals like you and me -- hit his 500th home run today, becoming the 24th major leaguer to get to that milestone. You know what?

Yawwwwn.

Okay, that's an exaggeration. But seriously ...

There is a terrific piece on the front of the Globe Sports sections today on the BCPBL by Mathew Sekeres.