It is a pitcher's week. The farm affiliates went 3-2.

So we are well past the time of this season's Midsummer Classic, headed into the heat of the pennant races and still months off from the annual awards-fest that follows the crowning of the World Series champion. But favorites are already emerging to win, for instance, the '07 Rookie of the Year awards (FWIW, Vegas says Ryan Braun in the NL and Daisuke Matsuzaka in the AL).

But that leads to an interesting question ... historically, which league produces the best Rookies of the Year? And to answer that, let's dive into a special edition of Baseball's Hall of Names ...

Jason Frasor turns 30 today.

Nobody born on Aug. 9 has (yet) been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, though one may "percivere" into the shrine one day and another has "neon"-ed his way to consideration for the NFL Hall in Canton.

Actually, no less than 55 men born on this day have played in the major leagues, including a half dozen or so (like Frasor) still active. So presumably we will be able to cobble together a pretty decent 8/9 ballclub in this "Frasor" edition (even though Jason isn't even going to make the team!) of the Hall of Names, which we can only call ...

Three nights watching the Jays battle the Yankees. I have some random observations.

It was a slow train coming for the Chiefs, but Ryan Roberts made it all worthwhile in the end. The farm affiliates went 3-4.

I put a mini-jinx on the Senators last week as they fell 7-4 to the Hammers and allowed the Bashers to close the gap at the top of the Alomar division to 8 games. In Barfield the Lubumbashi Posse beat the Eastern Shore Birds, 7-5, and opened up the division race again, with just 2.5 games separating three teams this one should go down to the wire. In the Carter division the Trembling Wilburys are continuing to slowly but surely distance themselves from the field, only the Gremlins have a chance to catch them now.

Jacob Butler hit his 19th and 20th home runs for the D-Jays last night.

Some of you may wish he hadn't and some of you may not even care.

Some of you may even be waiting for Alex Rodriguez to take this record off his hands.

The Yankees spoiled an otherwise great day for the organization as their comeback mojo also worked on the Gulf Coast.  However, the good news was three solid starting pitching performances and the best one wasn't even turned in by the big club's number 2 starter.  Also, the Peoria Chiefs and the Palm Beach Cardinals will have trouble sitting down today because they got their asses kicked in a 4-1 night for the affiliates.  

Happy Simcoe Day.

Once again, it's an opportunity to take down the Yankees. You know 'em, you love 'em. This time, the Jays will have the dreaded Rogers Centre Mystique and Aura on their side as they look to keep up with the scalding-hot pinstripe offense in three home games.

Four affiliates scored 8 runs or more each and they all won.  Syracuse scored two, and almost won.

I'm not quite sure what it was that got me thinking about the name "Joel" -- maybe it was the acquisition  (and insertion into the rotation) of ex-phenom Joel Pineiro by the Cardinals. Maybe it was the debut with the Nationals of young righty Joel Hanrahan, whose two-game career OPS+ (347!) and ERA+ (130) portend great things. Heck, maybe I just heard a song on the radio by Billy Joel.

Regardless, it was off to BaseballReference.com, where I found that a search for the name "Joel" currently has 25 returns -- and 25 is a magic number in the baseball world. The question is, can we flip that 25 into a passable 25-man roster? Let's see ...

A pitcher's duel, a walk off homer and a pair of 6 run deficits were erased as the affliates posted a 4-2 record on the night.

It wasn’t a good evening for hitters down on the farm, as the affiliates played seven games thanks to a Dunedin doubleheader and managed to score only thirteen runs between them. Syracuse and the GCL Blue Jays, the highest and lowest affiliates, were each shutout, while three other games had the Jays farm teams scoring 1, 2 and 2 runs. When the high point is a pair of four run performances, the result is a forgettable 1-6 record on the evening.

The Rangers fell in April and never got up. Last week, they decided to clean house and devote the remainder of the season to figuring out what kind of talent they have in-house. So, goodbye to Kenny Lofton, Eric Gagne and Mark Teixeira, all of whom fetched a respectable return on the trade market. And hello to the first wave of prospects, led by Jason Botts and the guy from Atlanta with the long name.