Brad Mills is a rarity among professional baseball players, he has a degree in civil engineering.  Many pro baseball players are drafted from high school or after their junior year of college and most don't have a degree.  As Mills notes below many of those players who stay in school to complete their fourth year take a less challenging degree to compensate for the demands and the travel required for playing in a top flight baseball program.  Mills has made a very good start to his pro career and is among the Blue Jays top 30 prospects.  Mills has a 3.79 ERA in seven starts for Lansing, he has allowed fewer hits than innings pitched and has more strikeouts than innings pitched, both positive signs. 

Sorry about the title. Oh well, sue me. Unless your name is Arthur C. Clarke.

The road was a kind place to the parent club and its top affiliate last night.  However, the home cooking didn't help the other affiliates as they looked lost.

Next up are the surprise leaders of the AL Central. Minnesota has a -1 run differential on the year but finds itself 1.5 games ahead of Cleveland, despite the fact that Adam Everett is tied for sixth on the team in homers. The Jays' inability to hit with runners in scoring position will meet a stiff challenge this week from a couple of starters with strand rates in the 50s.

Another strong start from Kyle Ginley following his promotion to Dunedin.

Justin Jackson was a supplemental first round selection of the Blue Jays in the 2007 draft.  Jackson played in the Gulf Coast League in 2007 and is now a member of the Lansing Lugnuts.  Jackson has made a good start to the 2008 season and is playing well for a 19 year old.  Recently Batters Box talked with Jackson in Lansing.

Marcum is off to a hot start. Can he keep it up?

Clayton McCullough is the manager of the Lansing Lugnuts, a move up from managing the GCL Jays last season.  Tom Signore is the pitching coach in Lansing.  I spoke with both of them last week in Lansing.

I've noticed that esteemed Bauxite emeritus Craig Burley, will from time to time discuss field managers in terms of their bloodlines. Like horses. Which makes sense, even if they don't actually shoot managers. But as we seem to have been talking about General Managers a fair bit lately, I thought I'd carry on in a similar vein.

Quiet day on the farm as affiliates split a pair.

In a follow-up to yesterday's post I decided to look at the strength of each AL division from 1994 (the first year of the 3-division setup) to present. Below the cut is the data.

One night after a sweep New Hampshire were the only team with a win.  Brett Cecil pitched well and Travis Snider hit a three run home run.  David Purcey and Randy Boone pitched OK but both lost.  Dunedin Jays took the example of the big club and were blown out.

A common theme around the Box for the last 6 years is the claim that being in the AL East is killing the Jays. If only they were in a weaker division, like the AL Central, where teams do not have to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. Then the Jays would be contenders!

But if you look at the data, it is almost impossible to draw that conclusion...

This is why outfielders are often encouraged not to dive after fly balls.

Vernon Wells will be out for 6-8 weeks with a broken wrist, and Jeremy Accardo joins him on the DL with "a right forearm strain." Joe Inglett is back, again, along with.. Armando Benitez?

You say you got a real solution
Well you know
we'd all love to see the plan
- John Lennon

Well, in this case you be the General Manager.

It's not brain surgery, right? We apply a few sabermetric principles, add in $100 million dollars of Ted's money and PRESTO! A 90 win team! Wham, bam, next case.