The Dunedin Blue Jays, I mean. The farm affiliates went 3-1 last night.

Two more HRs for Travis Snider, making it 5 in 5 games.

Intrepid correspondent Robert Romano has provided this excellent Pinch Hit about the care and feeding of the polyester baseball cap. You can't get this kind of information just anywhere.

The Angels of Anaheim have the second-best record in baseball, but they're only 3 games ahead of Seattle. The Jays can do their part to help the Mariners make the playoffs by beating up on the Angels, a team against which they've won 37 of their last 54 home games. Los Angeles will send out their two weakest starting pitchers in the first two games of this series, but those two guys have a combined record of 10-1. Thursday's pitching matchup is a must-see.

Phil Rizzuto, known as "The Scooter," died this morning. Rizzuto was the oldest living Hall of Famer; he played for the Yankees throughout the 1940s and 1950s, won seven World Series rings and played in five All-Star games. He had been in declining health for several years and was living at a nursing home in West Orange, N.J.

He is also believed to be the only member of Baseball's Hall of Fame to perform on a best-selling album, as a voice in "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" on Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell album.

Holy cow, Scooter, you'll be missed in Batter's Boxes all around North America.

High-school hotshot pitcher Rick Porcello has apparently been signed to a 4 year major league contract with the Tigers for 7.3 million.  Does this make sense?  Hmm, let's see.  $1.825 million per year.  2 year development time.  50% chance of flameout/arm problem (the Roger Salkeld/Brien Taylor Experience). 25% chance of inconsistency/arm problems (the Kerry Wood Syndrome), 25% chance of greatness (the Dwight Gooden Goldmine).  $8-$12 million per year for mediocre starting pitching on the free agent market as your alternative.

Economists, start your calculators.

A light night on the Monday minor league scene saw the affiliates go 3-1.  The only blemish was an overtime loss in New York State.

 

The passing of the trading deadline in the BBFL saw a plethora of deals in Alomar, nothing going on in Barfield and an insurance deal by the leading Trembling Wilburys in the Carter division.

Saturday and Sunday updates are included in this MLU.  On Sunday the affiliates went 2-3, and on Saturday 2-5.   Josh Banks slipped back in his bid for a call-up, Brandon Magee also was hit hard.

Just three men in major league baseball history have gone by the initials "J.R." as their "first name." Just one of those, former Houston ace J.R. Richard was truly a star of Ewing Oil magnitude, so it's only appropriate that he played on a Texas-based ballclub. The others were J.R. House, a career .105-hitting catcher with the 2003-04 Pirates and the '06 Astros and J.R. Phillips, a .188 career hitter from 1993-99 with the Giants, Phillies, Rockies, and yes, the Astros.

So all three men named "J.R." played in Houston, where presumably plenty of Astrodome and Minute Maid photographers -- maybe even our own Named For Hank -- photographed them at work, leading to the obvious question ...

Shaun Marcum is off to a nice start in his big league career; so nice, in fact, that he is already the greatest player named "Shaun" in the history of the game. (Albeit true, his only competition, Shaun Fitzmaurice, had two singles in 13 AB in nine games as an OF with the 1966 NYM).

Of course, there have also been a fair number of players named Sean, Shawn and even Shawon, so young Mr. Marcum, with his (so far) 12 career wins and (as yet) 119 career ERA+ still has a ways to go to catch the Caseys, Chacons and Dunstons of the baseball universe.

All of which leads us to ...

I've had a few vague and disconnected thoughts this week about Aaron and Bonds - I'm not sure why - and I started looking over their careers a little...

I went and made a graphic, and ever since I've been deeply, deeply confused.

Marc Rzepczynski was the standout on a 1-5 night in the minors.

With their starting rotation finally completely intact, the Blue Jays march into the oppressive, focus-shattering, jersey-melting Kansas City heat, where the Royals have won six of their last seven. The good news is that all four games are night games. The bad news is that the forecast calls for four straight highs above 100 degrees...

There is a line between a fan's hope that dies only when his club is mathematically eliminated and what we know to be realistic chances of actually winning. After Wednesday's satisfying thrashing of the Yankees, the Jays are straddling that line. Shall we look a little closer?