The Syracuse win streak continues and now stands at nine games.  When things are going well you find ways to win.  On Saturday the Chiefs scored in the bottom of the ninth when John-Ford Griffin beat out an infield single.  Sunday the Chiefs tied the game in the bottom of the ninth and won it in the tenth on a triple by Griffin.  Dunedin scored twenty runs and led 15-0 in the fourth inning, Lansing also won but the Fisher Cats lost ugly, twice, as Jesse Litsch returned to AA.

John Sickels held his 3rd annual 5 round mock draft on Sunday. I was the mock Blue Jay scouting director.

Chip Cannon was slow to get going last season, and again this year, but yesterday he scored three runs and drove in three.  Syracuse ran their win streak to eight games with a run in the bottom of the ninth.  Lansing won behind a home run from Yuber Rodriguez.  Dunedin suffered the lone loss.

Never accuse a major league ballplayer of "jakin' it." Well, maybe San Diego baseball fans would actually be thrilled if their entire starting rotation started "Jake-ing it" in the manner of young Mr. Peavy. Could we build a representative (read: decent) Hall of Names roster built entirely of choices from the 56 men in big league history who bore the first name "Jake"?

Actually, to clarify, given our usual "no nickname" rule, of those 56 MLB Jakes, only two have actually been named "Jake" (Mooty and Westbrook) and just 27 of the 56 -- that's less than half -- were even named "Jacob," so we will go with the full BaseballReference.com search on the name, including nicknames, to amass our 56 candidates, finding just one Hall of Famer and three All-Stars (two active, both pitchers, both already named here!). But as they say in Cleveland these days, let's get started -- it's a beautiful day for baseball at ...

Greetings from the Rogers Centre, where Vernon Wells and Troy Glaus are sitting this one out and Howie Clark is the leadoff hitter.

It appears Rob Cosby is a June groom. The April showers have come and gone, bringing May flowers, which didn’t suit him either. At long last, June has come along and Cosby’s so enamoured with the change of month that he’s willing to outproduce everything he did in the previous two in one night. So, here’s to putting a calendar containing entirely June 1st inside his locker.

Two hits, two runs.  Game time:  One hour & 50 minutes. 

Gotta love the Buerhle / Halladay matchup.

We look at the hitting prospects this week.  The farm affiliates went 3-2 last night

The .500 White Sox come to town. There will be aces tonight, strikeouts tomorrow, McGowan-Contreras Saturday and kids Sunday. Should be a fun series.

So, let's move on from our all-time rotation to picking the greatest double play combination of all-time. Let's be clear -- we're looking for an actual combo of teammates, so Trammell/Whitaker and Concepcion/Morgan are eligible (heck, so is Biancalana/White!) but Trammell/Morgan is NOT an option, nor is Smith/Sandberg or Rizzuto/Gehringer or anything like that.

So, who's your favourite-slash-choice-for-best-ever 6-4 combination? You may vote for as many as three, but please rank them in order of preference. Consider defense, offense, intangibles, whatever you want ... and feel free to campaign for and/or defend your choice(s).

P.S. ....

Yesterday, we posted a "thought experiment" here on Batter's Box, in which we asked users to name what their all-time starting rotation would be. That's not necessarily "the five best starting pitchers ever" (though some took it that way) but rather a true five-man rotation.

As of this writing, and obviously in the online world results can change rapidly, more than two dozen Bauxites have stepped up to answer the challenge. Actually, 27 folks chose a five-man rotation (okay, one guy named six, so there is a split vote in the results) naming no less than 25 pitchers, a list that could fill FIVE rotations.

Only one man cracked even the two-thirds barrier in vote total (Roger Clemens, 77.8 percent), but seven received double digit support. Fortuitously, two of our top five vote-getters are/were lefties, while interestingly, four of the top five are active. That said, let's meet ...

You know the drill.

It was a productive eve for Syracuse and New Hampshire, with homers figuring prominently.  The farm affiliates went 2-2.

Hi Alex. It's been a while since we talked last. At least, it's been a while since I sat near third base and shouted stuff at you.

Brandon League made his 2007 debut breaking it down for the D-Jays as the affiliates went 3-1 on the night.