Boston has Manny, the Yankees have Rodriguez and the Jays have Manny Rodriguez who went 6-6 for Auburn, but it took a 2 run single from Leance Soto in the eleventh for Auburn to win.  Scott Campbell hit a two run home run in the eighth to power Lansing to the win.  Kevin Ahrens did well too as the bottom four teams each won.

After last night's game the Jays recalled Brandon League.

Jordan De Jong was sent to Syracuse.

Every once in a while,wandering -- okay, "surfing," if you must -- the Web allows you to discover something, quite accidentally that is, as the old Vulcan Spock used to intone, "simply fascinating.'

One place good for such surfing is the wonderful baseball site BaseballAlmanac.com, second perhaps only to the genius of BaseballReference.com on the entirety of the Web for MLB historical nuggets. Just this week, I was, um, researching something very important at work (yeah, that's it) when I stumbled upon the Last Player Standing/Born in Each Year page at the Almanac, which is essentially a monument to long-lasting players, listing ...

As Mike Green stated in yesterday’s minor league thread, “It was a good night on the farm.  Brandon League did his thing (4 batters, 1K, 3 ground outs) again. The Fisher Cats had a cool late rally with Robinson Diaz playing hero, and the A ball squads scored runs in bunches.” It’s as good a summary and introduction as I can give on a 5-1 night for the farm.

Before we get to the pitcher summary, a recap of Thursday night's games is in order. The farm affiliates went 3-3. Nate Starner continued his pace of striking out over a batter an inning, while walking one every four innings. If he keeps that up, we will be seeing his name more prominently featured.

Ordinarily, I'd beat myself into a frenzy in this introduction and bellow vaguely inspirational platitudes like "IT'S ON!" which, really, shouldn't be necessary given the name of the opponent and range of dates in the header immediately above this sentence. But I won't, because the reality is that it isn't on. Not yet, anyway. Ten games out of first place, the Jays have to serve Boston back to some degree in the second half before anyone in Blue Jay land can make any truly credible claims that it's on.

But the Jays are 2-0 at Fenway this year, and the two Sox who started those games also pitch the first two of this series, and it's only the middle of July, so there is hope.

On All-Star game night in double A and triple A, Josh Kreuzer set Dunedin afire with a late blast.  The farm affiliates went 1-2, and the double A All-Star game, with heavy Fisher Cat representation, was cancelled due to fog.

The Jays are 1 game under .500 at the break.  What do you expect to see in the 2nd half?

There was only GCL action on the slate yesterday. Apparently MLB doesn't want any competition for the All Star Game.

John Tolisano had the only notable performance on the day.

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats were one pitch away from being no-hit for the first time in franchise history, Dunedin continues to own Tampa during a certain reporter's minor league updates, and Lansing was a big winner on the road as the affiliates went 2-and-3.

All too often, media sports announcers and commentators make themselves the story, when rarely do they deserve to be so central to the news.

But today, we learn that Dan Patrick, the sole remaining half of Sportscenter's legendary The Big Show (where have you gone, Keith Olbermann?) is leaving ESPN ... the site, the show, the radio bit, the whole deal. That really is a news story for those of us who grew up on Dan & Keith and the rest of the desk pilots at the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

Arguably the best in the business, Patrick -- we can only hope -- is bound to turn up elsewhere quite soon, just as Olbermann did. Thanks, Dan, for years of sportscasting that has been -- dare we say it? -- en fuego.

So, I sifted through the results of the past five Home Run Derbies in order to determine if there were any trends...

We have a simple All-Star break challenge for you today.  You are the general manager of the Blue Jays, and you can make as many roster moves as you like.  You have no viable trading partners, and there are no useful waiver wire acquisitions, so any moves must come from within the organization.  Otherwise, there are no limits.  If you want, you can have a six man or even a five man bullpen.  Here would be my moves:

1. DFA Phillips, call up Thigpen.
2. DFA Clayton, call up Olmedo
3. Option Wolfe and DeJong to Syracuse, call up Lee Gronkiewicz and Brandon League

What would yours be?

With the BBFL coming up on the 2/3 of the regular season pole competition remains tight at the top, except in the Alomar division where the Senators have switched on the turbo charger and opened a quick 11 game lead on the pack and are sporting a nifty BBFL leading 65.5 winning percentage. The Eastern Shore Birds continue to lead the Barfield division but there are four other teams just a good week or two away from the top spot. In the Carter division the Trembling Wilburys have taken over top spot, but the Garth Iorg Gremlins and the Yastrzemskis are making their moves right behind them.

So, that was the first half. Plus a little bit more.