All four farm affiliates were visitors, and two were kind to their hosts.

Hey, no offense, minor league affiliates, but you had no offense last night. Syracuse won one, but nobody else did. I worked top-down on this Minor League Update and it started off well, but by the time I got to Lansing...well, see for yourself:

Rain helped Toronto avoid an organizational sweep Thursday, as only the postponement of the Pawtucket-Syracuse match meant that the SkyChiefs had no chance of joining the Blue Jays, FisherCats, Dunedin Jays and Lugnuts on the losing end of the scoreboard.

That's where you put baked beans on your ice cream, right?

This is my first series report of the year -- it's odd to think the season has been going for a month and I haven't written anything; at least Photo of the Day is batting .714, wih an OBP of .777, four runs scored, three RBIs and one home run in the early going.

The Lugnuts went 17-5 in April, as just about everything went right.  Shall we revel in the details?

Ladies and gentlemen, your Toronto Blue Jays - once more doing stuff that no other team in baseball does. It must be time for a Data Table.

One of the Web's finest baseball bloggers -- that's not quite the right word for him, actually -- is a once-upon-a-time visitor to Da Box, and the man who introduced us all to Spike Lundberg, Dallas-Fort Worth's Jamey Newberg.

In this morning's daily e-mail newsletter The Newberg Report, the die-hard Ranger backer takes the guise of the author of "a Toronto Blue Jays newsletter" -- no, it's not Batter's Box (you'll quickly figure out it's a fake) -- that provides an interesting partisan take on Michael Young, Vernon Wells and more. Read The Nouveau-Bergeron Report (Hey, HE titled it!) and come back here to let us know what you think. And yes, there's a Spike update. Enjoy!

The Fighting Jays win a wild and crazy one at Fenway as B.J Ryan outduels Papelbon in the ninth.

Last night, I was seconds away from going with "At press time, the score of this game was..." but Dunedin finally finished it up after three hours and 13 minutes down in Sarasota. Two wins for the affiliates last night (Lansing had the night off), including a fun ending in Syracuse that inspired the weak pun in the headline.

It is easy to underestimate the Yankee farm system. A few years ago when Robinson Cano and Dioner Navarro were starting to make waves in Tampa, the Yankee system was considered by many to be among the poorest in baseball, but producing a starting second baseman and catcher is not a bad result. For 2006, the players to watch seem to be Phil Hughes and Jose Tabata. Jose Tabata? I hadn't heard of him either.

The Blue Jays can’t deliver the big blow and end up blown out by the Baltimores.

The affiliates went 2-2 on the night with a NH rainout.

Photo of the day has been mostly hiding in the sidebar this year, but today's the big day that I'm unveiling the new technological upgrades to it. That deserves some front page goodness, doesn't it?

Cameras are tools. While a skilled craftsman can transcend the limitations of his tools, his work can only be improved by using the right ones. Up until now, I've been using a screwdriver where I needed to be using a hammer. From now on, I'll be using the hammer.

So, without further ado, here's Lyle Overbay hammering a ball:

Alomar Division overrun by Gorillas, Halos, and a Walrus.
1-Tool Wonders maintain Number 1 ranking in Barfield.

The Orioles bulpen, the gift that keeps on giving.