Two excellent pitching performances and some excellent hitting helped Dunedin and Lansing to wins.  New Hampshire won despite a weak start by Bobby Bell while Las Vegas were fogged out.  Henderson Alvarez gave up one run over seven innings while Ryan Tepera did better, shutting down Bowling Green over seven innings with only three hits allowed.  On the hitting side Mark Sobolewski and Tyler Pastornicky were the stars, neither of them made on out on Saturday.  Pitchers have perfect games, hitters don't but these two had perfect Saturday's.  Eric Thames, David Cooper, Tim Collins, Daniel Perales, Travis D'Arnaud and Bradley Glenn also played well.

Ubaldo Jimenez just threw a no-hitter at a pretty good Braves line-up. As a young pitcher with a crazy motion, I'm sure some Rockies fans will be wringing their hands at the 128 pitches he needed to overcome 6 walks, but for the moment I'm sure everyone is just enjoying the moment.

So, did anyone watch the game?

Well, the good folks over at the World-Wide Leader have graced the Internets with the first in-season ranking of all 30 MLB teams.

Let's look at some of the biggest changes after Week 1; your thoughts and opinions are welcome of course.

Let's cut right to the chase ... the AL East has four of the top nine teams ranked, including your Blue Jays at a hale and hearty #8 ...

The rules are simple: 20 Bauxites enter, 1 leaves. Wait, no, that was the BBUFC tournament I hosted that nobody came to.

Monday Night Update: get your entries in by midnight Tuesday! I'm bumping this thread to the top because it's gotten buried.

It's common knowledge that the Yankees do not use Mariano Rivera in the same way that the Athletics used Rollie Fingers back in the day. Just how different are the ways that closers have been used through the years?

Just a quick thread to help everyone enjoy opening day as Wells & Lind hit home runs to start things off in a good way.

Though the main focus of this site is the Toronto Blue Jays and their farm system, I thought I'd take up a different aspect of what was the original “mandate” of Batter's Box. This was meant to be a home for baseball from a Canadian perspective, and it is worthwhile shining a light on the next crop of ballplayers that will join the likes of Martin, Morneau, Votto and Harden in the big leagues.

Baseball season, kids! That was summer in the air this afternoon! Feel the excitement! Catch the taste!

At long last, the 2010 MLB season is here, with the Yankees and Red Sox kicking things off at 8PM tonight. Over the last few weeks, the roster members have been looking ahead at the coming season with various previews and other miscellany. In case you missed some of them, here they are in convenient list format!

In a recent thread here on Da Box, the self-awarely-named Cynicalguy ranted, "I remember [Richard Griffin] writing a column comparing the Jays all-time team vs the Expos all-time team and commenting that the Expos all-time team was better ... which was laughable."

Let's see if that holds up ...

Guy Spurrier of the National Post kindly invited us to take part in a Blue Jays preview roundtable thing for many of the Blue Jays bloggers, and some of us took him up on it. The article is in today's Post, and can also be viewed online at http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/postedsports/default.aspx (spread over several posts). Go check it out!

Yesterday we probed into very specific Blue Jay questions.  Today we look at the big picture, wins, expectations and attendance.

As many of you have doubtless noticed, our old chum and Bauxite Emeritus Craig Burley posted a piece on the Jays over at The Hardball Times that might be described - well, that can only be described - as a venomous screed:

Now that we have covered all the divisions and the other four teams in the AL East it is time to turn our attention to the home team, the Blue Jays.  Our roundtable of prognosticators have opined on many topics.  Feel free to add your two cents.

Help me, help you, help everyone:

http://www.tangotiger.net/survey/